A woman who accused two Allentown police officers of sex crimes testified in court Tuesday that the choice being presented to her by Sgt. Evan Weaver was clear:
“He gave me kind of an ultimatum,” she said: Perform a sexual act, or go to jail.
The woman was the first of several witnesses called to testify Tuesday during a preliminary hearing for Weaver and former Allentown officer Jason Krasley, who are charged with rape and related offenses.
After the hearing Tuesday, most charges against Krasley and Weaver in that case were sent to the Lehigh County Court of Common Pleas. Charges of involuntary sexual servitude against both men, and one count of kidnapping against Weaver were dismissed.
Weaver was placed on administrative leave by the police department after the first charges were announced in January.
Krasley, a former vice officer who retired in 2021, also is charged in other cases with raping multiple women while investigating prostitution. He is also accused of stealing more than $5,000 during a drug investigation in 2019. Preliminary hearings in those cases continue at a later date.
The alleged victim in both Krasley and Weaver’s cases testified that she was 19 in 2011 when she was pulled over with her boyfriend, who had other criminal cases. She said she had two illegal handguns in her purse.
She testified that the vehicle was searched, and she was handcuffed and placed into the back of an unmarked vehicle driven by an unidentified plainclothes officer. She was driven to what she described as something like a parking garage, where the driver got out.
Weaver, she said, sat in the front passenger seat, and insinuated that she would be “throwing her life away” with the charges. The woman testified that she performed a sexual act on him.
The driver got back into the vehicle, and the woman said she was taken to her apartment, which was searched by officers. She was then taken to the police department, where she said Weaver told her she was going to be a confidential informant. She filled out a statement and then was taken home.
The woman testified that over the next four years she maintained contact with Weaver, and performed sexual acts on him on occasion. She testified that this was initially done to prevent her boyfriend from getting in trouble and to prevent her from getting charged as well.
In addition to prostitution, she was involved with drug dealing, she testified.
“I was never arrested by Evan Weaver, ever,” she said.
She noted that Weaver was aware of what she was doing, and had gone to parties where illegal activity happened, and nothing was done.
She said that in 2015, Krasley, while responding to an ad for prostitution, went to her home in Allentown and insisted on seeing her instead of the woman he initially planned to meet. The two of them went into a room, she said, and she noticed that Krasley, whom she had seen before, was an officer.
Krasley then raped her, she testified. Weaver entered the room and pulled him off her, she said. After he consoled her for a few minutes, she performed another sexual act on Weaver, according to her testimony.
That was the last time she dealt with him. Not long after, she moved out of the area.
“I just wanted to start over,” she testified.
Weaver’s attorney, John Waldron, said the woman showed “total disdain” for the court during her testimony, in which she swore and was combative with the defense under questioning.
“She constantly used vulgarity toward lawyers and in general,” he said. “I have never seen that behavior in 43 years. She should have been held in contempt.”
Josh Karoly, Weaver’s attorney who handled the preliminary hearing, said the case appears to be based solely on the testimony of the victim in the case.
“We still have yet to see any sort of corroboration from any other sources,” he said, adding that testimony from investigator Detective Gregg Dietz showed that as well. Dietz testified there investigators did not corroborate the claim with other sources.
Multiple other charges against Krasley were held for trial after hearings Tuesday. The alleged victims, who said they were involved in prostitution at the time, testified he assaulted them.
One woman, who police allege was indecently assaulted in 2011 in a parking lot at 17th and Turner streets, testified that Krasley picked her up that night. She said she thought Krasley was going to pay her for sexual services, and she could use the money to buy drugs.
She testified that he showed her his police badge and asked, “How can we work this out?” She testified she performed a sexual act on him in the car, then left.
“I will never forget his face,” she said. “It doesn’t matter if I’m sick or if I’m high.”
Another woman testified that Krasley asked her multiple times to become a confidential informant, but she declined. In June 2015, she was working at an Allentown motel as a prostitute while seven months pregnant, she said. Krasley came to her room and raped her, she testified.
Another woman testified she met Krasley after an arrest in 2018. He later came to her rooms, where she was advertising prostitution, and assaulted her, she testified. This happened multiple times until January 2020, she said.
The final person to testify said Krasley coordinated a “date” with her at a motel she was staying at. When he arrived, he did not initially identify himself as an officer, and she said he was aggressive with her.
“It was such a lack of respect,” she said.
She testified he reached his hands down her pants and touched her. She forced him off of her, and then went into the bathroom, according to testimony. When she got out, Allentown officers came into the home and placed her into a car.
She said she told officers, as well as a Homeland Security agent she spoke to on the phone, what Krasley had done, but nothing happened. She was taken by a car to a rehabilitation facility by officers. She left not long after.
All the women testified that they were never charged with prostitution or drugs.
Krasley’s attorney, James Burke, noted that during a preliminary hearing, credibility cannot be determined by the presiding district judge, which he said benefits the prosecution.
“Clearly, the collective group were not credible and [are] impaired witnesses who can’t even give the month or a year to most of these allegations,” he said. “I see this case as coming down entirely on what we receive in discovery, which we believe will substantiate the fabrication and motivations of the witnesses today against Jason Krasley.”
Krasley is also charged with raping a woman in Allentown in 2012. The hearing in that case was continued because she was unable to attend Tuesday’s hearing.
Krasley is still awaiting his preliminary hearing in the theft case as well.
