ALLENTOWN, Pa. — Allentown Police Department and some of its top officials are facing a torrent of claims they fostered a culture of corruption and covered up numerous crimes by officers.
Officers Randy Fey and David Howells III late last month filed a 47-page whistleblower lawsuit that alleges widespread criminal activity within the department’s Vice and Intelligence Unit over the past decade and a half.
Allegations include detectives having relationships with prostitutes, stealing money during searches and interfering with local and federal investigations.
The lawsuit identifies 17 Allentown police officials, including Chief Charles Roca and former Chiefs Glenn Granitz, Glen Dorney and Keith Morris; five assistant chiefs and six captains.
Fey first learned of coverups within the police department’s vice unit in 2010 after he was contacted by a defense attorney whose client claimed to have a relationship with a detective in the unit, he alleges in the lawsuit.
That detective was transferred out of the unit and soon after retired “with no adverse consequences,” the lawsuit states.
Suit: Officials wrongdoing reported
Fey alleges his then-supervisor “confirmed the existence of a de facto policy … to conceal and shield [officers] from criminal prosecution.”
That policy again was evident when Fey reported another supervisor after walking into the vice unit and “find[ing] him with his pants down while on the telephone and engaging in ‘questionable behavior,’” the lawsuit alleges.
Fey’s supervisor “warned Fey that what goes on in (APD’s Vice unit) stays in the (Vice unit)."Lawsuit against Allentown Police Department
Fey’s supervisor “warned Fey that what goes on in [APD’s Vice unit] stays in the" vice unit, according to the lawsuit.
Fey alleges he later learned of several vice detectives who had relationships with women known to the department as prostitutes, but investigations into those relationships were abandoned because of the unit’s “de facto policy.”
The lawsuit says Fey reported numerous allegations of wrongdoing by city police and officials — “including, without limitation, [then-]Mayor Ed Pawlowski" — to FBI agents with whom he worked on a task force, sparking federal probes.
Pawlowski was federally indicted in July 2017 and convicted the next spring of 47 criminal charges, including bribery and conspiracy. He was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison.
'Missing' money
Howells, an Allentown police officer since 2006, joined the department’s Vice unit in 2018 and “immediately after his transfer” learned of colleagues having relationships with prostitutes, according to the suit.
Howells also alleges a pattern of money going “missing” during searches by the vice unit.
Two officers in the unit stole about $20,000 while searching a suspect’s home in September 2018, according to the suit.
They reported finding $20,000, but while talking on a recorded phone line at the Lehigh County Jail, the suspect said there should have been $40,000, the lawsuit states.
The same officers stole thousands more in an April 2019 search, while one was suspected — but not reprimanded — after $5,500 went missing from a search the next month.
Howells alleges a sergeant in the vice unit lied about how much money he found during a May 2019 search for drugs and was never punished.
The lawsuit also claims leaders within Allentown Police Department and its vice unit, including then-Chief Glenn Granitz Jr., met with detectives in February 2020 “in an apparent attempt to intimidate” them from cooperating with FBI agents investigating allegations reported to them by Fey.
Whistleblower suit
Fey and Howells filed their whistleblower suit because their reports of corruption and crimes within the vice and intelligence unit were ignored or covered up, the lawsuit states.
The two officers allege they faced retaliation after making those reports to superiors.
“The city believes the lawsuit is without merit and intends to vigorously defend this matter,” Ortega said.Allentown Communications Director Genesis Ortega
The lawsuit claims Fey was kicked out of the vice unit in 2020 and again in 2023 for reporting his colleagues; Howells was “unjustifiably transferred” out of the vice unit in October 2023 and demoted to patrolman, the lowest rank in Allentown Police Department, according to the suit.
Dave Benner, president of Allentown's police union, supported Fey and Howells in their lawsuit. He said the transfers of Fey and Howells out of the vice unit “were a result of [their] actions to ‘speak up about corruption and crimes’ in the APD.”
Allentown’s Communications Director Genesis Ortega said city officials “look forward to full vindication in court” and will ask a Lehigh County judge to dismiss the suit.
“The city believes the lawsuit is without merit and intends to vigorously defend this matter,” Ortega said.
