A federal judge presiding over a lawsuit in Allentown has ordered the city government to provide some documents related to an outside investigation into alleged discrimination in city hall.
Attorneys for Tawanna Whitehead, Allentown’s deputy city clerk, sought documents provided to the city by former FBI agent Scott Curtis, owner of FLEO Investigations, and the Duane Morris law firm, both of which were hired by City Council to investigate alleged discrimination among City Hall employees.
Whitehead sued the city in late 2024, alleging a hostile and racist work environment, and specifically alleges racist comments made by City Council member Candida Affa.
Whitehead’s lawyer Marc Weinstein issued subpoenas to the city for documents related to the two investigations because they could be relevant to building Whitehead’s case that the city failed to address her discrimination complaints, he wrote in legal filings.
In an order, Eastern Pennsylvania District Court Judge Gail Weilhemer sided with the city in their argument that the Duane Morris findings are protected by attorney-client privilege. However, Weilheimer found that the FLEO Investigations findings are not protected by legislative or attorney-client privilege, and therefore the city must release them in discovery.
“As an initial matter, this Court finds the information sought by the subpoena satisfies the very low bar of relevancy as applies to what information is discoverable,” Weilheimer wrote. “If Defendant knew it harbored a hostile work environment and did not take sufficient steps to correct it, that information might well be relevant to liability.”
The city has denied Whitehead’s claims.
Allentown City Council in January hired Duane Morris to prepare a report on the city’s handling of alleged discrimination complaints and prepare suggestions on how the city could improve its handling of such cases.
The law firm completed the report in September. It declined to make its finding public, citing legal confidentiality, but in a news release City Council said the firm found “instances of isolated discriminatory conduct” and a deeply dysfunctional Human Resources Department, but no “systemic issue of racial or unlawful discrimination” in city government.
Before hiring Duane Morris, City Council in June 2024 hired Curtis, who as an FBI agent led a probe into former Mayor Ed Pawlowski’s pay-to-play schemes, to conduct the independent investigation. However, Mayor Matt Tuerk declared Curtis’ contract “void” because he said council did not follow proper legal procedures to hire him.
The hiring of Duane Morris was an out-of-court compromise between City Council and the administration. Lawyers for Duane Morris said they would incorporate Curtis’ findings into their own report.
The investigation was launched after a July 2023 letter from the Allentown NAACP accused Allentown mayor Matt Tuerk and other city leaders of failing to address racism and discrimination among employees, claims that Tuerk has denied.
Weinstein expects to receive the FLEO Investigations documents from the city within two to three weeks, he told The Morning Call. Such documents are generally considered non-confidential when exchanged in lawsuits and thus can be released publicly, he said.
Reporter Lindsay Weber can be reached at Liweber@mcall.com.