BETHLEHEM TWP., Pa. – Authorities say a Bethlehem Township, Northampton County commissioner has been harassing his neighbors \u2014 but the commissioner is now pushing back, firmly denying the accusations.<\/p>\n
Michael Hudak, 67, of Bethlehem Township, is charged with stalking and harassment, according to an affidavit of probable cause filed in court.<\/p>\n
Hudak and the neighbors live on Wilson Avenue and share a property line, court paperwork says.<\/p>\n
We spoke with the neighbor who alleges a Bethlehem Township commissioner targeted him and his family for years. An orange fence now stands between Steven Snyder’s property and his neighbor, Bethlehem Township Commissioner Michael Hudak.<\/p>\n
“I had my surveyor come back and for, I think it was 17 hundred dollars, put stakes every 10 feet so the township police and nobody could say oh, he didn’t know where it was. We couldn’t see it,” said Snyder when we spoke with him on the phone.<\/p>\n
Snyder said the fence is for evidence, trying to document Hudak’s alleged harassment. He said it all started when he first out-bid Hudak for the house back in 2019.<\/p>\n
“I bid on it and I won, but he had already told everyone in the neighborhood this was his house. He bought it for his daughter, because he wanted her to live right next door. So ever since then he’s kind of just been making my life a nightmare,” said Snyder.<\/p>\n
Snyder said that nightmare included harassing his wife and child. Township police say Hudak seemingly had no purpose to do this other than to harass the neighbors.<\/p>\n
“Every time we went outside, he follows us up and down the yard with no real purpose,” said Snyder.<\/p>\n
Snyder told police but was told he needed to get proof for them to believe him.<\/p>\n
“I had to get enough cameras and take enough photos to where anything I brought to the police couldn’t be denied. They had to do something about it,” said Snyder.<\/p>\n
Snyder told police Hudak knew where his security cameras were and gave the finger to the cameras when he walked by them.<\/p>\n
According to township police, Hudak also made a motion with his pointer and middle fingers directing them to his own eyes and then directing those same fingers at the neighbor\u2019s camera insinuating \u201cI\u2019m watching you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Township police say Hudak drove his riding lawnmower directly toward the neighbor while staring at him. When Hudak would reach the property line, he would turn away and drive on it, all in an attempt to antagonize the neighbor, according to court paperwork.<\/p>\n
The neighbor\u2019s wife told police she was fearful of going outside when her husband was not home due to not knowing what Hudak would do, court documents said.<\/p>\n
But Hudak said the whole story is ridiculous.<\/p>\n
“This just blew me away when I heard. It’s like, what are you talking about? How do you stalk somebody in your backyard?” said Hudak.<\/p>\n
Township police looked into incidents between Hudak and the victim and found there were 11 incidents reported to the police department since September 2022, according to court documents.<\/p>\n
Township police said the incidents include Hudak harassing the neighbors by coming onto their property and yelling at them; calling in noise complaints on the neighbors where there had been no loud noises at their home; trespassing on their property after multiple trespass warnings were given; and purposefully damaging land survey stakes that were placed on the property line.<\/p>\n
On March 21, 2026, the neighbor said that while walking outside of his house, Hudak went out of his house and began following him along the property line, court paperwork says.<\/p>\n
Hudak is now facing one charge of harassment and one charge of stalking Snyder and his family.<\/p>\n
“Do you think you’re guilty of harassment and stalking?” asked 69 News reporter Rob Manch.<\/p>\n
“Absolutely not,” Hudak responded.<\/p>\n
And what’s more, Hudak had a different story for how the dispute began. He said Snyder got a visit from Township code enforcement because of illegal dirt bike riding, storing old cars outside, and not cutting his grass. Hudak said he thinks Snyder blames him.<\/p>\n
“It’s just payback for him to get back at me because he can’t do all these things he thought he could, because they never checked our ordinances,” said Hudak.<\/p>\n
Hudak, who walks with a cane, said Snyder’s stalking story doesn’t hold up to common sense.<\/p>\n
“Do I need to hobble in pain and follow him down the fence? Why would I want to do that?” said Hudak.<\/p>\n
The Township Board of Commissioners released a statement, saying in part:<\/p>\n
“These allegations are serious and understandably concerning to members of our community… At the same time, it is important to recognize that the matter is now part of an active legal process… Under Pennsylvania law, the Board of Commissioners does not have the authority to remove an elected commissioner from office based solely on criminal charges.”<\/p>\n
Hudak said this is all just a misunderstanding.<\/p>\n
“So, your prediction here is that these charges are going to get thrown out,” said Manch.<\/p>\n
“Absolutely,” Hudak said.<\/p>\n
But Snyder is hoping his neighbor gets found guilty.<\/p>\n
“I would just like for some charges to stick. For him to see some kind of consequence for his actions,” said Snyder.<\/p>\n
Hudak is now out on bail, and his preliminary hearing is scheduled for June 1st.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BETHLEHEM TWP., Pa. – Authorities say a Bethlehem Township, Northampton County commissioner has been harassing his neighbors \u2014…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":190892,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154,1994,63761,15918,84815,434],"class_list":["post-190891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news","tag-bethlehem-township","tag-harassment-charges","tag-michael-hudak","tag-neighbor-dispute","tag-northampton-county"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190891","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=190891"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190891\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/190892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=190891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=190891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=190891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}