{"id":148404,"date":"2026-03-25T20:58:52","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T20:58:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/148404\/"},"modified":"2026-03-25T20:58:52","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T20:58:52","slug":"lehigh-county-commissioners-react-to-new-zachary-cole-borghi-charges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/148404\/","title":{"rendered":"Lehigh County commissioners react to new Zachary Cole-Borghi charges"},"content":{"rendered":"

With a Lehigh County commissioner facing new charges related to alleged drug deals<\/a>, at least one of his colleagues is calling for Zachary Cole-Borghi to resign.<\/p>\n

Cole-Borghi, 35, now faces more than 100 new charges related to alleged drug transactions between November 2023 and August 2025, when he was charged as part of an investigating grand jury, Lehigh County District Attorney Gavin Holihan announced.\u00a0The new charges are separate from Cole-Borghi\u2019s August arrest and earlier investigation, the specifics of which remain sealed.<\/p>\n

Among the new allegations: Cole-Borghi conducted drug transactions from various locations including his house, Bethlehem City Hall, where he worked as the city\u2019s Right to Know officer, Northampton Community College during the Peace and Justice Symposium in March 2025, Holihan said. In one instance, Cole-Borghi facilitated a transaction during a Lehigh County Board of Commissioners meeting.<\/p>\n

Fellow Commissioner Ron Beitler said on social media that after Cole-Borghi was initially charged, he did not call for him to step\u00a0 down, saying that he was to be given due process and the presumption of innocence.<\/p>\n

His position changed because he thinks Cole-Borghi can no longer perform the duties of the job, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not because of additional charges, but because in recent weeks he has used the dais to make statements in his defense, abstained from multiple votes related to the courts, and used our public forum to criticize county officials involved in the prosecution of the case. This has created inherent conflicts of interest,\u201d Beitler wrote.<\/p>\n

He said it is not about politics, but whether the board can do its job.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor these reasons I would encourage him to resign. This is not something I take lightly, but I believe it is what is best for Lehigh County, and also importantly for him and his family. We must continue the work of the county with a full complement of Commissioners and without distraction,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Commissioners Chair Geoff Brace said in a statement that he has referred the matter to the county\u2019s Department of Law for guidance based on the allegations of activity occurring at a commissioners meeting.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe allegations against Commissioner Cole-Borghi are very serious,\u201d he said. \u201cI will respect the legal process that will transpire.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said there is no mechanism for commissioners to remove a member \u201con the sole basis of criminal charges.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis body will move forward with its legislative duties for the residents of Lehigh County,\u201d he said. \u201cI am not going to pretend this will be easy, but I am confident in the ability of my colleagues to navigate our duties and responsibilities. I leave the decision on whether Commissioner Cole-Borghi should resign to Commissioner Cole-Borghi.\u202fIt is his decision to make.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lehigh County Commissioner Jon Irons said he had no comment on the new charges. \u201cI\u2019m just communicating with his family and making sure everyone in his community is doing OK,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Other commissioners could not be reached. Their next meeting was scheduled for Wednesday night.<\/p>\n

In a statement, Lehigh County Executive Josh Siegel said, \u201cMr. Cole-Borghi has a right to avail himself of the justice system and confront these charges before a jury of his peers. As to his future on the board, that is his decision to make. My thoughts are with his wife and children.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With a Lehigh County commissioner facing new charges related to alleged drug deals, at least one of his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12449,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,121,120,153,433,182,139,434,28,50,432],"class_list":["post-148404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-allentown","tag-allentown","tag-allentown-headlines","tag-allentown-news","tag-bethlehem","tag-lehigh-county","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-northampton-county","tag-pennsylvania","tag-politics","tag-top-stories-tmc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148404"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148404\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}