Criminal Justice

The patrols — on Broadway or on side streets just off Broadway — came during the opening weekend of Musikfest in Bethlehem.

Lehigh County Coroner Dan Buglio said toxicology testing showed a significant level of illicit controlled substances in Timothy Vanbilliard’s system, including methamphetamine, when he died May 11, 2025.

Attorney Ronnie Louis Creazzo has been charged in connection to threats made against the Office of Disciplinary Counsel following their attempts to serve him at his Bushkill Township home in 2024.

Two men, including one at-large, have been charged with attempted homicide and other offenses in the shooting of six individuals in Easton this month.

Phillip Rishel alleges an Allentown cop drove his SUV at him after a confrontation over Rishel's filming of officers at their substation at Tenth and Hamilton Streets. He was later charged with loitering.

Police tried to stop Thomas Kravitz's vehicle as it arrived at the woman’s home, but he drove away, hitting an Allentown police car, police said.

The United Way of the Greater Lehigh Valley will absorb the Lehigh Valley Justice Institute's research staff and operations, the nonprofits announced Thursday.

Judge Steven Hippler ordered Bryan Kohberger to serve life in prison without parole for killing four University of Idaho students. Friends and relatives delivered powerful statements of love, anguish and condemnation at the sentencing hearing Wednesday.

Allentown police allege Adam Makowka, 27, used a fire escape to enter Jerkera Battle's apartment and shot her to death with an AR-15. Makowka also is charged with trying to kill another man in the apartment.

Tamir Johnson, 35, got out of his car and swung a bat, hitting the other driver’s door. That driver fired one shot that struck Johnson, authorities said.

Flames trapped a woman in the basement of her home, according to charges filed against Santos Mota-Ramirez. Police say he set the fire after trying to fatally stab another woman. The blaze affected seven row homes Thursday night and displaced 30 people.

Neighbors and community leaders responded to a row home fire that spread to other homes on West Cedar Street in Allentown on Thursday night.

Fountain Hill police and the Lehigh County District Attorney's Office charged two men with breaking into the Fountain Hill Pharmacy and opening fire on police, which led to a standoff and lockdown on Christmas Eve.

Two people were wounded in the 300 block of Ridge Avenue. Allentown police were called there as they investigated a separate shooting blocks away in which a 1-year-old and his grandmother were shot to death in their home.

Liz Pacheco, 37, of Allentown, is charged with homicide, conspiracy to commit homicide, aggravated assault-attempting to cause serious bodily injury and conspiracy to commit aggravated assault — all first-degree felonies.

Northampton County District Attorney Stephen Baratta said he acted appropriately when he allowed Northampton County Republican Committee Chair Glenn Geissinger to file a private criminal complaint against four members of his party.

Rasheed Quayle Tisdale was arrested Tuesday by Easton police with the Philadelphia Police Department Homicide Fugitive Task Force and SWAT Team, Northampton County District Attorney Stephen Baratta said in a release.

The Lehigh County District Attorney’s Office announced charges Tuesday against an Allentown man in a 2023 fatal crash that resulted in the deaths of two people.

Christian Martinez-Ramos, 35, was charged with homicide and aggravated assault-knowingly or recklessly extreme indifference, in the death of Hector Manuel Garcia Gomez, 46 of Palmerton, Carbon County.

Northampton County residents might find themselves receiving a phone call from someone claiming to be a Sergeant from the Sheriff's Department. Police are advising this is a scam.

Patricia Fuentes Mulqueen, a longtime prosecutor, will run for Lehigh County judge, she announced Tuesday.

Officer Zane Struss, who was cleared of wrongdoing in a fatal shooting last February, drove through an intersection without his emergency lights or sirens on and hit another vehicle, according to a since-settled lawsuit.