Former Allentown police officer Jason Krasley, who is accused of theft and sex crimes while employed by the department, is seeking to have the theft charges dismissed, citing a lack of evidence.
Krasley’s attorney, James Burke, filed a motion seeking to “quash,” or legally invalidate, the testimony of several officers at a June preliminary hearing on the theft charges. Krasley is charged with felonies of theft and receiving stolen property, as well as a misdemeanor of tampering with evidence.
The motion seeks dismissal of those charges and a writ of habeas corpus, which would declare Krasley’s detention unlawful, though he is out on bail.
In the motion, Burke argues that the evidence presented at the June hearing failed to establish probable cause, “therefore holding the defendant on these charges violates his right to be free from unreasonable seizure of his person.”
During the roughly three-hour preliminary hearing last June, multiple Allentown police officers testified that Jason Krasley, 48, insisted he help count money during a raid, and left the vice office after it was discovered money was missing. When confronted, Krasley said he could not remember how much he had counted, and said he messed up the count, according to their testimony.
However, in the motion, Burke made the case that there was not enough evidence to charge Krasley. For example, “Krasley was never observed … accessing the bin or container with the money in it,” he wrote.
Burke also argued that officers executed the first search warrant at a barbershop, from which the money allegedly was taken, for about an hour and a half, and spent the same amount of time on a search warrant at another location. Therefore, “there were substantial periods that the evidence money in an unsealed bag could have been accessed by any number of individuals present.”
According to the motion, officers Stephen James, Chrisopher Diehl and Damien Lobach, who testified at the June hearing, were disciplined internally as a result of the handling of the recovered money from the search warrant.
Burke criticized the police department’s handling of the case, noting the theft charges were filed six years after the alleged incident.
“After thirty four years of criminal defense practice, said undersigned attorney has never seen such slipshod recording, preservation and memorializing of moneys recovered at a scene and then six years later charging an individual with theft of unsubstantiated assets,” Burke wrote. “No new evidence has augmented the evidence that didn’t exist six years ago.”
In a statement, Lehigh County District Attorney Gavin Holihan said his office would file a response by the due date, which is Dec. 10, at which point he will address the motion’s specific arguments.
Krasley, 48, of Upper Milford Township and Evan Weaver, 45, of Weisenberg Township also face charges of rape, involuntary servitude and indecent assault while on the job as police officers. Weaver has been on administrative leave from the department since January when the charges were announced, and Krasley retired in 2021.
Krasley is also charged in other cases with raping multiple women while investigating prostitution.
Attorneys for Krasley and Weaver are still awaiting discovery materials from prosecutors to build their defense against the assault-related charges.
Prosecutors with the state attorney general’s office are handling the rape and prostitution cases, and the Lehigh County DA’s office is continuing to handle the theft case.
Julianne Danchak, a prosecutor for the state attorney general’s office, said she would hand over “more than half” of the discovery material to the defense attorneys by Friday, and would provide the rest in November.
A ransomware attack on the state attorney general’s office in August caused disruptions, but is not directly affecting the integrity of the case, lawyers said.
Krasley and Weaver, as well as a dozen friends and supporters, were present for a hearing Friday morning at the Lehigh County Courthouse in front of Judge Thomas M. Caffrey.
Reporter Lindsay Weber can be reached at Liweber@mcall.com.