ALLENTOWN, Pa. — A suspended Allentown police sergeant and former Vice officer were ordered Tuesday to face trial on rape, prostitution and other felony charges.
Evan Weaver, 46, of Weisenberg Township, and Jason Krasley, 48, of Upper Milford Township, appeared Tuesday in Lehigh County Court, for a preliminary hearing.
Senior County Judge Jacqueline Taschner ruled there was sufficient evidence to uphold numerous charges stemming from alleged sexual assaults in 2011 and 2015.
A 33-year-old woman testified for several hours about her interactions with Weaver and Krasley, who worked together on the Allentown Police Department’s Vice and Intelligence Unit during that period.
She said she met Weaver in 2011 after she was pulled over by police while driving with her boyfriend. Allentown police found two guns in her purse during the traffic stop, the woman testified.
“Our whole encounter with each other was always: ‘You do this or you’ll get arrested.' Honestly, I wish I could’ve just got arrested at this point.”Victim testimony
She said Weaver and another cop drove her from the area before she performed oral sex on Weaver to avoid arrest and help her boyfriend.
Weaver “gave me kind of an ultimatum: I could’ve either [perform oral sex] or gone to jail,” she testified.
The woman said Weaver and the other cop — not Krasley — took her to the Allentown Police Department, where she provided a written statement about the traffic stop, and then home.
'Did everything he asked'
She testified she had sexual encounters with Weaver “more than three times” over the next four years, during which she was “never arrested,” despite working as a prostitute and selling drugs.
“Our whole encounter with each other was always: ‘You do this or you’ll get arrested,’” she testified Tuesday.
“Honestly, I wish I could’ve just got arrested at this point.”
The woman also during the preliminary hearing detailed her allegations against Krasley.
She said the former officer, who left the department in 2021, responded in 2015 to an online prostitution ad for another woman in her home.
She testified Krasley raped her before Weaver entered the room and ended it. She said she then performed oral sex on Weaver.
The woman said she moved away from Allentown “within a month” of that alleged assault in 2015.
She said she “did everything [Weaver] asked,” including “sexual acts” and “setting people up.” She later said she knew of only one conviction based on what she told Weaver.
'We'll have our day in court'
Defense attorneys James Burke and Joshua Karoly raised numerous objections to her testimony, during which she swore at both.
Karoly called her testimony “absolutely preposterous.”
“If you believed what she said from that stand for those three hours today, you can stop by my office — I’ve got a couple bridges in town to sell you."Joshua Karoly, defense attorney
“If you believed what she said from that stand for those three hours today, you can stop by my office — I’ve got a couple bridges in town to sell you,” Karoly said.
He said he is “confident that Evan Weaver committed none of the offenses that he was charged with, and I believe him wholeheartedly when he says that none of this is true.”
“We'll have our day in court to show that,” Karoly said.
Weaver is “champing at the bit to tell his side of the story and protest his innocence,” Karoly said.
Weaver faces six felony charges and five misdemeanors related to alleged assaults against the woman who testified Tuesday after Taschner dismissed two: kidnapping and involuntary servitude.
Taschner also dismissed an involuntary servitude charge against Krasley, who now faces eight charges related to the allegations made in court Tuesday.
Weaver and Krasley are scheduled to be formally arraigned June 23 on those charges, court records show. Both remain free on bail.
Krasley was due back in court Tuesday afternoon for Taschner to determine whether he should face trial on other charges against him, including oppression and indecent assault.
He also faces felony charges of theft and receiving stolen property after authorities accused him of stealing $5,500 during a May 2019 search at a Hamilton Street barbershop by Vice officers.
