Criminal Justice

Lehigh County Board of Commissioners voted Wednesday to seek state funding to study whether several municipal police departments in the county should be combined.

Bethlehem Police Chief Michelle Kott said methamphetamine is “a real issue” around the city and beyond.

Ongoing investigations are happening, according to the Northampton Co. D.A., into smoke shops selling THC products with misleading or untrue labels.

Lehigh County Clerk of Elections Tim Benyo said his office contacted law enforcement after determining an organization turned in hundreds of faulty voter registration applications.

That hearing is set to be the first scene in what could be an ugly legal saga between Allentown officials.

Two Allentown officers alleged they faced retaliation after trying to report their colleagues to superiors.

Frank Anonia, 43, who resigned as the Parkland School District's visual and performing arts director, is charged with secretly recording a student getting changed in a high school auditorium dressing room in 2021.

IRS Criminal Investigation special agents visited Moravian University during a full-day criminal investigation simulation known as the citizen academy.

Kameron Barnes Nuble, 34, had enough evidence against him presented at a preliminary hearing Friday to support charges of homicide and conspiracy to commit homicide in the death of Legious Minder, 46, District Justice Robert Hawke ruled.

Francis 'Frank' Anonia, 43, was charged by Lehigh County detectives with multiple counts of invasion of privacy, criminal use of a communication facility and other offenses, according to court records.

The Northampton County district attorney recently asked if the Bethlehem Police Department would dedicate an officer to a part-time role in a human trafficking task force.

An Allentown hookah lounge where a 29-year-old man was fatally stabbed over the weekend is facing eviction, according to court documents.

Isiah Yeager, 23, of Allentown, is facing a criminal homicide charge after police said he twice stabbed 29-year-old Kevin Tarafa, of Bethlehem, at Synergy Hookah Lounge on Allentown's East Side.

Pennsylvania State Police on Monday night said the driver, a 47-year-old man from Allentown, was not struck by gunfire, as state police initially reported. A trooper fired two rounds after a traffic stop Friday night at South Third and West Union streets. The driver was ordered to Lehigh County Jail.

Sunday’s fatal stabbing at Synergy Hookah Lounge on Union Boulevard in Allentown was “the last straw,” the building's owner said, adding he wants the business “gone like cancer.”

A trooper and a suspect both were shot and killed in a shootout in central Pennsylvania, just hours after a 2nd trooper was seriously injured after being shot by the gunman, according to Pennsylvania State Police.

It happened about 5:40 p.m. Friday near South Third and West Union streets in Allentown as city police and state troopers were conducting "high visibility proactive traffic enforcement," state police said. The motorist was taken to a hospital along with another motorist injured when struck by the offending vehicle.

Autopsy reveals cause and manner of death on Tuesday's incident in West Catasauqua Park.

Christopher Ferrante's case became key to the primary race for Northampton County District Attorney. A Common Pleas judge will soon decide whether the case can move forward, and weigh in on one dispute from the primary in the process.

Easton Police Chief Carl Scalzo and South Side Civic Association President Melody Davis-Rogers alerted the community to several car break-ins on South Side at a city council meeting Wednesday.

A 35-year-old woman was shot and killed at a playground in the township on Tuesday, authorities said. Rami Abouloh, 41, has been charged in the incident, according to court documents.

Supporters detailed the merits of the program Tuesday ahead of the council’s imminent deadline to vote on the proposal.