ALLENTOWN, Pa. – A major win for the Allentown Police Department in the case of three APD officers who claim they were retaliated against for blowing the whistle on alleged corruption among the ranks.
The Fraternal Order of Police took the matter to arbitration. The decision was not about the misconduct the officers claimed was happening, many of those accusations did result in criminal charges.
The arbitration was in reference to whether the officers faced retaliation for bringing those allegations to light.
The 31-page arbitration decision details a long list of allegations made by Allentown police officers David Howells III, Sergeant Randy Fey, and Detective Damien Lobach.
The officers claiming they saw fellow officers breaking the law while wearing a badge, allegedly stealing drug money, having sex with prostitutes and tipping off drug dealers to raids.
The result of some of those claims was the arrest of two APD officers now facing charges.
1 current, 1 former Allentown police officer accused of committing sex crimes while on duty headed to trial
The three officers say a culture of secrecy kept the alleged offenders from getting in trouble, and after they brought the allegations to light, they were transferred out of the Vice Unit and onto patrol, saying it was retaliation.
But during arbitration on the grievance, Chief Charles Roca testified the three men were transferred because their experience was needed on patrol and to mentor younger officers.
Roca testified that transfers are a routine part of the job and that they were necessary to meet the needs of the city and were not retaliatory.
In his decision, the arbiter says “Vice assignments confer prestige…” and “Losing such an assignment can seem adverse…” and that the arbitrator accepts the officers “experienced a real, if non-pecuniary, detriment.”
But that based on the evidence, the transfers were “non disciplinary assignment decisions,” and denied the grievances.
The city didn’t want to comment on the ruling, saying it speaks for itself.
The arbitration ruling has no impact on the criminal charges that have been filed against those two other officers as the result of the whistleblower allegations.