ALLENTOWN, Pa. – Pre-trial motions continue for a former Allentown Police officer accused of breaking the law while wearing the badge.
Jason Krasley faces three charges he allegedly raped prostitutes while he was a member of the Vice Squad.
Krasley has denied the charges.
The case has been taken over by the state Attorney General due to a conflict of interest at the Lehigh County District Attorney’s office.
The focus of current hearings are mostly about discovery and pre-trial motions.
One of those motions takes aim at that conflict of interest that brought in the AG.
Jason Krasley’s attorney is now asking for a dismissal of all charges based on the conflict and what he claims is prosecutorial misconduct.
In a 50 page motion Jason Krasley’s attorney says all charges against Krasley should be dropped because of prosecutorial misconduct.
The filing says Former Assistant Lehigh County District Attorney Eric Dowdle had a series of conflicts of interest from the beginning of the DA’s investigation.
First, that he counseled two APD officers with alleged claims connected to Krasley and then referred the officers to an attorney to file a whistle blower lawsuit.
Attorney Jim Burke says that while in private practice, Dowdle also represented the boyfriend of one of the alleged victims.
Burke says he called attention to the conflicts early on, but it took two years for the DA to ask the Attorney General’s office to take over, dragging out the court process.
Burke claims Dowdle aggressively and heavy handedly prosecuted Krasley.
“Was I overzealous? No, I wasn’t. I was doing what I was hired to do, and at every step of the process there was oversight,” said Dowdle.
Dowdle is no longer with the DA but spoke to 69 News about the filing and the process leading up to the referral to the AG.
We watched him go through a thick stack of emails documenting decisions made and the timeline in the Krasley case.
Dowdle says he told DA Gavin Holihan about of the conflict in March of 2024 and that the decision was made to inquire whether Montgomery County or the US Attorney’s office could take over the case.
Dowdle says the DA’s office also reached out to the Attorney General’s office and was told that it didn’t think the evidence was strong enough at that point for the AG to take over.
“So now the decision was made, and this was made, you know, by all of us, by Gavin and all of us that we would have detective Dietz do an investigation and, you know, revisit the issue of sending it over to the Attorney General’s office, said Dowdle.
The Pennsylvania Attorney General took over cases involving Krasley and another defendant Evan Weaver in August of 2025.
We asked DA Holihan about the motion, he referred us to the AG.
But in court on Friday he did say he told Dowdle there might be an issue with statute of limitations in one case.
Krasley was originally charged with 7 cases of rape. 4 have been dismissed, along with a theft case for various reasons.
In the case involving Weaver, charges were dismissed after the alleged victim in the case stopped cooperating.
The judge is expected to rule on this motion in the coming weeks.