{"id":3576,"date":"2025-10-16T07:30:22","date_gmt":"2025-10-16T07:30:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/3576\/"},"modified":"2025-10-16T07:30:22","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T07:30:22","slug":"friend-of-allentown-city-hall-employee-accused-of-planting-noose-on-her-desk-speaks-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/3576\/","title":{"rendered":"Friend of Allentown City Hall employee accused of planting noose on her desk speaks out"},"content":{"rendered":"

ALLENTOWN, Pa. (WFMZ)<\/a> – A friend of the Allentown worker accused of staging a noose on her own desk at City Hall is speaking out.<\/p>\n

READ MORE | Allentown employee facing charges after planting noose on her own desk, police say<\/a><\/p>\n

Josie Lopez was a vocal supporter of the woman when the noose was found. Now her friend, Latarsha Brown, faces charges of false reporting and evidence tampering.<\/p>\n

Lopez declined an interview but spoke with 69 News via text.<\/p>\n

We live in a system that historically has criminalized any person brave enough to stand boldly on the side of justice, diversity, equity, and inclusion. We must acknowledge this.<\/p>\n

Officials say Brown still works in the city’s community and economic development department. Brown is also an Allentown school board member.<\/p>\n

The community rallied around Brown earlier when a noose was discovered on her desk in January.<\/p>\n

Now, police say she’s the only one who touched it.<\/p>\n

“The Pennsylvania State Police issued a written report indicating that Ms. Brown’s DNA matched a DNA profile obtained from the swaSbs of both the outer surface and in the knot portion of the noose after it was taken apart, no other person’s DNA profiles found on the evidentiary items,” said Captain Steve Milkovits of the Allentown Police Department.<\/p>\n

“I was horrified. It’s just, unbelievable outcome. And, yet it’s indicative of somebody who’s just not well,” commented Mayor Matt Tuerk. “I pray for her. I would like to to I’d like to see her find peace, but I can’t even begin to comment on what might have motivated her.”<\/p>\n

The charges against Brown come amid an ongoing investigation into allegations of discrimination in the workplace at Allentown City Hall.<\/p>\n

Police Chief Charles Roca would not speculate on a motive.<\/p>\n

After the noose was found, police say they called Brown to come down for questioning.<\/p>\n

During questioning, she told them she had picked up the noose and flipped it in her hand.<\/p>\n

At first, Brown declined to be swabbed for her DNA; she agreed when a search warrant was issued.<\/p>\n

Council President Daryl Hendricks commented on what it means for other workers.<\/p>\n

“I think this cloud of suspicion is now lifted, and they can get back to being productive employees and not have to be looking over their shoulders,” said Hendricks.<\/p>\n

Lopez, meantime, says supporters will have much more to say in a news release she says is coming down the pike.<\/p>\n

Brown’s due in court for her preliminary hearing April 22.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ALLENTOWN, Pa. (WFMZ) – A friend of the Allentown worker accused of staging a noose on her own…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3577,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,121,120,3229,524,2112,3230,3231,3228,3232],"class_list":{"0":"post-3576","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-allentown","8":"tag-allentown","9":"tag-allentown-headlines","10":"tag-allentown-news","11":"tag-charges","12":"tag-community","13":"tag-discrimination","14":"tag-dna","15":"tag-evidence","16":"tag-noose","17":"tag-workplace"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3576","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=3576"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3576\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}