{"id":278620,"date":"2026-09-04T02:46:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T02:46:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/278620\/"},"modified":"2026-09-04T02:46:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T02:46:13","slug":"court-hearing-held-for-father-son-charged-in-election-day-explosive-incident-allentown-area","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/278620\/","title":{"rendered":"Court hearing held for father, son charged in Election Day explosive incident | Allentown Area"},"content":{"rendered":"

ALLENTOWN, Pa. – A father and son are facing multiple felony and misdemeanor charges stemming from an alleged explosive device incident near a Lehigh County polling place in May.<\/p>\n

Matthew Pletz and his son, Jack Pletz, were scheduled for formal arraignment hearings Thursday at the Lehigh County Courthouse.<\/p>\n

Jack Pletz appeared in court and entered a not-guilty plea. Matthew Pletz, who is in custody, waived his appearance and did not attend the hearing.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

DA: Jack Pletz placed on house arrest following Primary Day explosive incident<\/a><\/p>\n

The charges date to May 19, when Pennsylvania State Police said the father and son allegedly threw an explosive device that detonated near a primary election polling place at Salem United Church of Christ.<\/p>\n

No one was injured, according to state police. Authorities have not indicated that the explosive devices were connected to the election.<\/p>\n

Jack Pletz has also been charged separately in connection with allegations that he harassed a neighbor who testified against him during a recent court hearing.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Catasauqua man charged in Election Day explosive device incident now accused of harassing person who testified in case<\/a><\/p>\n

Jack Pletz is scheduled to return to court Oct. 21 for a status conference.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

DA: Catasauqua father, son face all charges in Election Day explosive device incident<\/a><\/p>\n

There was no immediate information available Thursday on when Matthew Pletz is expected to return to court.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ALLENTOWN, Pa. – A father and son are facing multiple felony and misdemeanor charges stemming from an alleged…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":278621,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[214,119,121,120,232,31],"class_list":["post-278620","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-allentown","tag-_homepage_top_stories","tag-allentown","tag-allentown-headlines","tag-allentown-news","tag-allentown-area","tag-crime"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278620","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=278620"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278620\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/278621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=278620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=278620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=278620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}