Eighteen months after charges were filed, the sexual misconduct case against former Allentown police officer Jason Krasley has yet to go to trial, as the presiding judge in the case continues a review of numerous pretrial motions from Krasley’s defense lawyer seeking to get the case dismissed.
According to Krasley’s attorney, James Burke, the case is “unprecedented” because of the complex nature of the evidence and allegations, and what Burke sees as major problems with the prosecution.
Krasley, 48, of Upper Milford Township, is charged with kidnapping, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, intimidation of a witness and criminal coercion.
Allegations against Krasley first came to light in a 2024 whistleblower lawsuit filed against the Allentown Police Department. That suit was withdrawn, but in January 2025, Krasley and Allentown police Sgt. Evan Weaver were arrested on sex crime allegations. Those charges were dropped in February after the accuser against the two was no longer willing to cooperate with the investigation.
Krasley still faces a series of charges in other cases, including kidnapping and involuntary deviate sexual intercourse. Alleged victims of Krasley testified at a hearing last year that he coerced sex workers into performing sexual acts in order to avoid arrest. Krasley, through his lawyer, has denied the allegations.
Theft charges that were also filed against Krasley have since been dropped.
According to court dockets, a trial in the case was scheduled to begin in March, but was canceled because of Burke’s motions.
Those include motions to dismiss the case due to prosecutorial misconduct; suppress evidence that Burke has argued is not permissible due to its mishandling; and to sever the three remaining charges against Krasley into separate trials.
“This is an unprecedented case, there are a lot of allegations and that is why it’s taking a long time. This isn’t typical for a case,” Burke said. “And remember, there was a series of other cases that have been … withdrawn, and winnowing down to these three cases, and I believe there is an argument these cases should go, and that is what we are litigating right now.”
Burke argues that Eric Dowdle, a former Lehigh County assistant district attorney who handled Krasley’s prosecution before the case was transferred to the attorney general’s office, promised the women who testified against Krasley “special consideration” in their own legal cases.
During his testimony at a hearing this year, Dowdle denied giving special consideration to any of Krasley’s alleged victims.
The case was transferred to the AG’s office in August 2025 because Dowdle had, while working as a criminal defense attorney, represented one of the victim’s boyfriends in criminal cases between 2011 and 2015.
Burke contends the conflict of interest has not ended under the attorney general’s office, because Lehigh County Detectives Gregg Dietz and James Bruchak continue to be involved, which he argues is improper since the case was reassigned from the county.
Burke has also argued that one piece of the prosecution’s evidence — that one of Krasley’s alleged victims picked the officer out of a photo lineup — should be dismissed because Dietz improperly influenced the witness to choose Krasley. A separate image of Krasley was visible among a stack of papers for several seconds, possibly in the witness’s field of vision, before he asked the victim to identify him from a lineup, Burke argues.
Dietz denied that he intentionally tried to influence the lineup identification at a hearing last month.
Judge Thomas M. Caffrey has yet to rule on the prosecutorial misconduct or motion to suppress.
A hearing on the prosecutorial misconduct allegations has not yet been scheduled. Caffrey heard arguments on the motion to suppress evidence at a hearing in June, and has not yet issued an opinion on the matter.
Reporter Lindsay Weber can be reached at Liweber@mcall.com.