ALLENTOWN, Pa. — The state Attorney General’s Office has taken over four criminal cases against a former Allentown police officer because of a potential conflict of interest.
And the officer's defense attorney, James Burke, argued Wednesday in Lehigh County Court that local prosecutors should have relinquished a fifth case for the same concern.
Jason Krasley, 48, of Upper Milford Township, faces more than 30 charges stemming from alleged sexual assaults in 2011, 2015 and 2018.
Lehigh County District Attorney Gavin Holihan said those cases were transferred to state prosecutors after he made a formal request for them to review the potential conflict, which stems from an assistant DA’s work as a defense attorney.
First Assistant District Attorney Eric Dowdle represented the boyfriend of a woman who alleges Krasley sexually abused her, Holihan said Wednesday.
Dowdle’s then-client was not linked to the theft charges Krasley is facing, the district attorney said.
State prosecutors "had no concerns about a conflict of interest."Gavin Holihan, Lehigh County district attorney
Krasley is accused of stealing $5,500 in 2019 while he and other officers in the Vice and Intelligence Unit searched a barbershop.
He also faces a misdemeanor charge of tampering with or fabricating physical evidence.
The state attorney general’s office “informally” reviewed that case, Holihan said, but he did not ask them to take it.
“They had no concerns about a conflict of interest,” Holihan said.
Motions brewing
Burke said he plans to file a motion seeking the attorney general’s involvement in the theft case against Krasley, which he said he’s asked local prosecutors to do since October.
Holihan signaled he’d likely not contest what he called “a fair motion.”
A third party, not lawyers involved in the case, should determine whether Dowdle’s involvement is a conflict of interest, Holihan said.
“Why weren’t these charges brought earlier?”James Burke, defense attorney
Krasley’s defense attorney said he will ask Judge Thomas Caffrey to order the district attorney’s office to turn over more information through discovery; in court Wednesday, Holihan gave Burke a thumb drive loaded with discovery documents.
And Burke will seek to have Krasley’s charges dismissed because of “pretrial delays.”
“Why weren’t these charges brought earlier?” Burke said, noting the theft is alleged to have occurred more than six years ago.
Krasley left the Allentown Police Department in 2021. He was fired in November from his job as an investigator for the U.S. Center for SafeSport.
"He lost his job over this. For what?" Burke said.
Krasley is due back in court Oct. 10 for a series of hearings related to all five cases against him.
A status conference is scheduled the same day for suspended Allentown Sgt. Evan Weaver, who faces eight charges related to a sexual assault alleged to have occurred in 2011.
