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Crime and public-safety news across the Lehigh Valley — arrests, charges, court cases and police reports from Allentown, Bethlehem, Easton and surrounding towns.
Katrina Godbey says a federal jury sided with three Bethlehem police officers in her excessive-force lawsuit over how they entered her home in March 2024, when she says officers pushed through her door and knocked her into a staircase.
By Jai Smith
Bethlehem police said Thursday that thieves have been stealing radar sensors from behind the Honda emblem on newer Honda vehicles, most often in Center City.
Alyssa R. McDowell, 34, a pharmacy technician at Sheffield Pharmacy, took 80,926 oxycodone pills and 8,744 hydrocodone pills between January 2022 and May 2026, investigators allege, according to the attorney general's office. The 89,670 pills work out to about 1,700 a month over that span, based on the office's figures.
A judge's ruling at a preliminary hearing Tuesday sends the homicide case against Daniel Latorre Jr. to Lehigh County Court. Court records show he is due there Dec. 10 at 1:30 p.m. for formal arraignment before Judge Douglas G. Reichley.
Davis was pronounced dead at 5:20 p.m. Saturday at St. Luke's University Hospital, nine days after the shooting, Coroner Daniel A. Buglio said in a release Monday. Davis died of gunshot injuries, the coroner said, and an autopsy was scheduled for Monday.
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Sheila McDonald, 46, of Pittsburgh, was responsible for securing the Electronic Benefit Transfer cards created and mailed by the office, with access to recipients’ dates of birth and Social Security numbers, according to a joint news release. The release said 48 cards she activated were used more than 270 times for $20,558.61 in benefits, or about $428 a card.
Axel Suarez Vidal, 25, was also convicted of three counts of aggravated assault causing serious bodily injury and seven counts of recklessly endangering another person, District Attorney Gavin P. Holihan's office said in a release Friday. He faces a possible sentence of 44 to 88 years in state prison.
Martinez, 27, of Allentown, was also found guilty of carrying a firearm without a license. First-degree murder carries a mandatory sentence of life without parole, and Lehigh County Judge Robert L. Steinberg is scheduled to sentence Martinez at 1:30 p.m. Nov. 18, the DA's office said.
"This is not only a dangerous and potentially life-threatening activity, but individuals can be arrested and charged for this activity," Baratta said in a media release.
Jose Andres Torres, 32, was found guilty of statutory sexual assault, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, indecent assault, endangering the welfare of a child and corruption of minors, District Attorney Stephen G. Baratta's office announced Thursday.