An employment retaliation and discrimination lawsuit lodged by a former Allentown employee is expected to go to trial after a judge dismissed the city’s motion to toss the complaint.
Karen Ocasio, a former human resources generalist for Allentown, filed a federal lawsuit in December alleging she was fired from her job for filing formal complaints and speaking out publicly about alleged discrimination she faced while employed there.
In that lawsuit, Ocasio claims she exhausted her avenues to report and remedy the alleged discrimination she faced, which included being denied proper training and assistance in a new position and facing racist remarks from her coworkers.
She is represented by attorney Marc Weinstein. U.S. District Judge Joseph Leeson Jr. of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania is presiding over the case.
According to the lawsuit, Ocasio filed a complaint with the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission in the fall of 2022, after submitting her complaints to the mayor and the city’s legal department and finding no recourse.
In September 2023, Ocasio spoke publicly at an Allentown City Council meeting about the alleged discrimination. She was fired Nov. 20, 2023.
Ocasio’s lawsuit states that Allentown Mayor Matt Tuerk “abruptly” fired her, “with no explanation given” and no prior warning or corrective action. It alleges that her firing was retaliation for her complaints and public statements.
Tuerk, at the time Ocasio was fired, denied that the action was retaliatory.
Former city spokesperson Genesis Ortega said Ocasio was fired based on the recommendation of outside lawyers who investigated complaints involving human resources employees. Ocasio was one of three human resources employees fired per the outside lawyers’ recommendations, Ortega said.
Deposition documents reveal that the other two former employees fired by the city were the alleged perpetrators of the discrimination Ocasio faced.
In response to Ocasio’s complaints and allegations from other former and current city employees, Allentown City Council in early 2025 hired law firm Duane Morris to look into the complaints. Duane Morris lawyers found “instances of isolated discriminatory conduct” but no “systemic issue of racial or unlawful discrimination.” The city declined to release the lawyers’ report, citing confidentiality concerns.
The city in July filed a motion for summary judgment in Ocasio’s lawsuit, claiming she lacks evidence that her firing was retaliatory and asking the judge to rule in the city’s favor.
David MacMain and Tricia Ambrose, lawyers hired by the city to handle the case, wrote that Ocasio is “unable to establish a causal link between her protected conduct and the employer’s adverse action.”
“The city would have been derelict and doing a grave disservice to the City to not terminate Plaintiff” due to the outside investigation into Human Resources that recommended Ocasio be fired, according to the city’s lawyers.
That investigation found issues with Ocasio and the other fired employees’ job performance, including creating a toxic work environment, making errors in the city’s benefits management system and spending excessive time outside of the office.
The report, compiled by attorney Melissa Krishock of the Bingaman Hess Law Firm, is sealed from public release at the request of the city’s lawyers.
Leeson denied the city’s motion for summary judgment Aug. 10, finding that there are “Genuine disputes of material fact” regarding the case.
Some of the factual disputes include whether the investigation conducted by Krishock recommended that Ocasio be fired for “legitimate” nondiscriminatory reasons unrelated to her protected activity; whether Tuerk or other city officials “expressed a desire to ‘get rid of’ Plaintiff because she complained of discrimination,” and whether the city’s reliance on Krishock’s report in terminating Ocasio was “pretextual.”
A spokesperson for the city declined to comment on the case, citing a policy not to comment on pending litigation.
Ocasio is one of three former and current Allentown employees suing the city for alleged discrimination and retaliation issues. Tawanna Whitehead, deputy city clerk, has also filed a lawsuit alleging she faced racism at her job; Nadeem Shahzad, former human resources director, claims he was illegally fired for discriminatory reasons.
Whitehead’s lawsuit is ongoing and has yet to proceed to trial. Shahzad’s lawsuit was dismissed by the judge, though he has filed a motion for reconsideration. All three current and former employees are represented by Weinstein.
Reporter Lindsay Weber can be reached at Liweber@mcall.com.