{"id":249621,"date":"2026-07-22T19:12:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T19:12:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/249621\/"},"modified":"2026-07-22T19:12:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T19:12:10","slug":"father-and-son-charged-with-throwing-explosive-near-catasauqua-election-polls-face-trial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/249621\/","title":{"rendered":"Father and son charged with throwing explosive near Catasauqua election polls face trial"},"content":{"rendered":"

The father and son accused of tossing an explosive near a polling location in Catasauqua during the primary election in May face trial in county court.<\/a><\/p>\n

After a roughly two-hour preliminary hearing with multiple witnesses Wednesday in Lehigh County Court, District Judge Todd Heffelfinger determined there was enough evidence against Jack Pletz, 24,<\/a> and Matthew Pletz, 57<\/a>, for them to face trial. The two men are charged with a number of offenses, including felonies of possessing a weapon of mass destruction and risking catastrophe.<\/p>\n

Neighbors testified during the hearing that they heard an explosion and saw smoke coming from outside the Salem United Church of Christ at 615 Third Street that morning. Video surveillance showed a green truck driving in the direction of the church, followed by a loud bang and a big cloud of smoke. The truck then turns around the other direction and parks near what investigators said was the Pletz residence nearby. Neighbors testified that Jack Pletz was driving, and his father was in the passenger seat.<\/p>\n

Surveillance footage showed neighbors immediately identify them after the explosion which set off several nearby car alarms.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis guy right here!\u201d one is heard identifying them as the truck drove by.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is ridiculous!\u201d another neighbor said.<\/p>\n

A man seen outside the Pletz home, identified by authorities as Matthew Pletz, is heard telling his neighbors he had nothing to do with the explosion, and denied it again once police arrived, claiming it was \u201cfalse accusations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Responding authorities found remnants of what appeared to be an explosive device not far from the scene. Investigators searched the Pletzes\u2019 truck that and found what is believed to be 18 \u201cM-type\u201d explosives.<\/p>\n

Jason Santos, an investigator with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, testified that those type of explosives are homemade using commercially available items. The 18 explosives found in the car had several hundred times the amount of flash powder that is legally allowed in a firework that is transported by vehicle, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose are large enough to cause a massive detonation inside a vehicle,\u201d he said of the explosives.<\/p>\n

But that type of explosion never happened, attorneys for both men said. One woman testified that the explosive went off near her vehicle, but her vehicle was not damaged. Additionally, no one was injured, and the explosive never caused any damage elsewhere. Investigators also said there was no evidence that the incident was related to the election. It did not have a major impact on the polling location.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think this is dramatically overcharged for what was essentially a cherry bomb or M-80,\u201d\u00a0 Matthew Pletz\u2019s public defender Kate Smith said, arguing that the charge of possessing a weapon of mass destruction should be dismissed.<\/p>\n

She also noted that the video did not show the men dropping an explosive near the polling location.<\/p>\n

Chief Deputy District Attorney Sara Moyer argued that the charge also applied to the 18 devices in the vehicle which did not explode but had the potential to cause harm. Heffelfinger held all charges for county court.<\/p>\n

At the end of the hearing,\u00a0Jack Pletz was arrested on new charges, after the DA\u2019s office said investigators found a 12-gauge shotgun with no serial number inside his home, as well as his fingerprint on the shotgun. He will be charged with prohibited possession of a firearm.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The father and son accused of tossing an explosive near a polling location in Catasauqua during the primary…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":249622,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,121,120,8469,46,433,182,139,28,432],"class_list":["post-249621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-allentown","tag-allentown","tag-allentown-headlines","tag-allentown-news","tag-catasauqua","tag-courts","tag-lehigh-county","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-top-stories-tmc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249621","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=249621"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249621\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/249622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=249621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=249621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}