{"id":266120,"date":"2026-08-15T23:00:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-15T23:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/266120\/"},"modified":"2026-08-15T23:00:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-15T23:00:09","slug":"jim-martin-longtime-lehigh-county-da-dies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/266120\/","title":{"rendered":"Jim Martin, longtime Lehigh County DA, dies"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Jim Martin, the longest-serving district attorney in Lehigh County history, has died. He was 81.<\/p>\n<p>His death was confirmed by the Lehigh County Coroner\u2019s Office. Martin was pronounced dead at 3:41 p.m. Saturday at his Upper Saucon Township home, Coroner Daniel A. Buglio said in a news release.<\/p>\n<p>Martin died of natural causes, Buglio said.<\/p>\n<p>A Republican, Martin was first appointed to the post in 1998 by the Lehigh County Board of Commissioners to replace Robert Steinberg, who had become a Lehigh County judge. He was later elected to his first term in 1999 at the age of 52.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI really enjoyed the work,\u201d Martin said in an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mcall.com\/2023\/12\/21\/a-minister-of-justice-retiring-lehigh-county-da-jim-martin-looks-back-on-his-career-and-on-the-life-ahead\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">interview with The Morning Call<\/a>, just weeks before his final term as DA ended at the end of 2023. \u201cI\u2019d been an assistant DA for about a year-and-a-half, I\u2019d been first assistant DA for five-and-a-half years in the early \u201980s. When the opportunity arose, it was the right time for me. I think I could\u2019ve been DA earlier if I wanted to be.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In that interview,\u00a0Martin said his goal was to always be fair.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe district attorney, and I feel strongly about this, has to be a minister of justice,\u201d he said. \u201cYou\u2019ve got to look at cases objectively in order to obtain justice.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In its tribute to Martin on its Facebook page, the South Whitehall Township Police Department praised him as an ally of local police departments.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThroughout his decades guiding county prosecution, Jim Martin served as an indispensable ally to municipal police officers,\u201d the post read in part. \u201cHe recognized early on that protecting our neighborhoods required strong unity among local departments, and he consistently provided our officers and detectives with the strategic backing, resources, and legal guidance necessary to resolve complex criminal investigations. His focus on modernizing regional intelligence sharing, elevating investigative standards, and holding dangerous offenders accountable fundamentally transformed how we safeguard South Whitehall Township.<\/p>\n<p>Gavin Holihan, who succeeded Martin as DA, credited him for mentoring him and leaving him with a well-run office.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m confident that he\u2019s left me in an excellent position to carry forward what he\u2019s put together,\u201d Holihan told The Morning Call in 2023.<\/p>\n<p>Martin was preceded in death by his wife, Patricia, who died in October 2023, months before his tenure as DA ended. He said he had looked forward to spending his retirement with her.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s difficult to talk about,\u201d he told The Morning Call, calling her the rock who supported him during his career.<\/p>\n<p>Martin was a graduate of what is now known as the Temple University Beasley School of Law.<\/p>\n<p>This is a developing story. Check back for updates.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mcall.com\/2023\/12\/21\/a-minister-of-justice-retiring-lehigh-county-da-jim-martin-looks-back-on-his-career-and-on-the-life-ahead\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">\u2018A minister of justice\u2019: Retiring Lehigh County DA Jim Martin looks back on his career and on the life ahead<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jim Martin, the longest-serving district attorney in Lehigh County history, has died. He was 81. His death was&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":266121,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[119,153,155,154,46,433,182,139,11100,28,432],"class_list":["post-266120","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-allentown","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news","tag-courts","tag-lehigh-county","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-news-obituaries","tag-pennsylvania","tag-top-stories-tmc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266120","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=266120"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266120\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/266121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=266120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=266120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=266120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}