Trachta Targets Deaf Mother of Sticker Gang Member

The Sticker Gang with the Legal Dream Team - Gary Asteak
Phil Lauer and Mark Minotti

Just when I think he's finally run out of stupid pills, he proves me wrong. I'm speaking, of course, of Nazareth Police chief Thomas "Cupcake" Trachta. He's sunk to a new low. Unable to get a conviction in Stickergate, he's decided to go after the deaf mother of one of the Defendants. What's more, he reportedly enlisted the help of a Borough Council member to act as a mini-Detective for him. Let me tell you the story.

Most of you are familiar with my Tales of Trachta. He's the thin-skinned cop who earlier this year was the subject of tiny, postage stamp-sized stickers that said, "FT Fire Trachta." Most people never noticed them, but Trachta did. He actually tried to involve the feds in a major investigation. They're still laughing.

Danny Troxell

So he used Danny Troxell, a part-time cop who's bounced around from town to town over the years. Troxell is also a bull-rider who's been bounced on his head one too many times. Get this. Troxell sees stickers in a parking lot, and illogically deduces that the Sticker Gang must be responsible. He also testified, illogically again, that residents were "terrorized" when they saw stickers on parking meters. His list of charges went well beyond the littering charges authorized by the DA. He was unable to even fill out the criminal charges correctly, listing the wring statutes.

In short, he's an idiot, but will do anything Trachta tells him because he's desperate for a full-time job.

 We all know what happened to the Stickergate prosecution, in which Troxell was so inept he was unable to even introduce a photograph into evidence.

But the lowest point was when he called a deaf woman to the stand. She had absolutely nothing to add to the case, but was subpoenaed and was even instructed to stay away from her own son. Troxell never bothered to inform the court he had a deaf witness, so arrangements could be made for a sign language interpreter. She was being called solely to establish that this fellow lives with his mom from time to time, which is apparently a violation of her lease.

Needless to say, the witness was excused.

This case was so bad it was laughed right out of court. Council member Frank Maurek would later say he was "embarrassed." But Maurek and other Council members refused to do the right thing and get rid of Trachta and Troxell. Instead, they kicked the can down the road, asking for a state study, even though they already had one done, telling them they have a problem.

In the meantime, Nazareth and Trachta have been sued for civil rights violations in a devastating complaint filed by Officer Fred Lahovski. They've received notice that all three members of the Sticker Gang are suing. Other civil rights suits are in the pipeline.

How do Trachta and Troxell react?

By picking on a defenseless and deaf woman.

Sticker Gang leader Trevor Gehret has been telling me that Troxell will drive along side him and just start staring at him. I'd tell Gehret it's no stare. Troxell has just been knocked off a bull so many times that he has a rough time figuring out where he is.

But when they actually started keeping tabs on this poor deaf woman, whose only real sin is loving her son, they really went too far.

Under the terms of her subsidized lease, she must live alone. But she has allowed her son to stay with her. To prove this, Trachta has actually had the Belvidere Street apartments staked out. He and Troxell kept tabs. So did a Borough Council member, who bragged about his detective work to the wrong person.

This woman has been given a notice of eviction, but I suspect housing officials will relent once they learn that this was a vindictive move.

It is pure retaliation by a petty police chief who was publicly embarrassed. It's done to chill free speech, too, and I am sure it will be part of the civil rights action filed.

Far from condemning the civil rights violations, Nazareth Borough Council has just demonstrated it is complicit with him.

In the mean time, Trachta is getting half the police departments of the County to search for a child that never was missing, based on information that he had to know was bogus. He's also been importing crime, using out-of-town informants to arrange drug buys in Nazareth with out-of-town dealers.  

I'm sure Trachta and Troxell would be much happier as rodeo clowns. We don't need police clowns.