Nazareth Cop Faces Civil Rights Lawsuit Over Suicide

Timothy Nixon was a troubled soul. He had a lengthy history of mental illness, and was well known to residents and police officers. Two years ago, he ended it all with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. He left two children without a father. What makes this story all the more tragic is that it never should have occurred. Nixon was more or less goaded into killing himself by Nazareth Police Officer Danny Troxell. Nixon is dead because Troxell just had to be a cowboy. When I made Nazareth Borough Council aware of what had happened, I was ignored. It will be harder to avoid the civil rights lawsuit filed on Tuesday.

According to a complaint filed in federal court by Attorneys Phil Lauer and Joe Welsh, Nixon was an African American. Troxell and Trachta have been accused of using derogatory terms to refer to minorities in radio chatter as UNBs (unauthorized n----- in borough) or UNITs (unauthorized n------ in town).

In May of 2013, Timothy Nixon, age 32, broke into a friend's home and stole his handgun. Then Nixon called his friend admitted his crime, and said he was going to kill himself and his baby's mother as well. He also called his girlfriend and said he would kill himself.

Nixon's friend and girlfriend both reported the matter to Nazareth police. Troxell, who was assigned the matter, got an arrest warrant for Nixon, who was sitting in an apartment alone. .

Nobody with supervisory authority over Troxell was on duty. Troxell decided to arrest Nixon. He called Upper Nazareth and Stockertown, which sent four officers for assistance.

So far, so good.

That changed when more seasoned officers arrived at the scene, and noticed that Nixon was on the second floor of an apartment building.

"I don't like this," said an Upper Nazareth officer. "This is dangerous. Somebody is gonna' get hurt."

The officers suggested that a perimeter be set up for reasons of public safety. They encouraged Trachta to contact the state police, which has a swat team and negotiators. They suggested that Troxell just call Nixon, noting it would be far safer to spend a few hours talking to this guy than getting in a shootout and risking the lives of innocent bystanders.He also ignored their suggestion that the girlfriend be asked to call him.

Instead of heeding reasonable advice from veteran officers, Troxell called them "fucking pussies" and eventually kicked open the door to the apartment building.

Nixon saw Troxell coming and shot himself. It was a senseless death, made more so by the actions of a hot dog who couldn't even be bothered to try to talk to this guy.

The next day, Chief Trachta attempted to cover for Troxell's ineptitude. "[W]e needed to move on this," he told The Express Times. "The police went to execute an arrest warrant, found the person deceased," Trachta misled the press.No attempt was made to discipline Troxell. Quite the contrary. Chief Trachta has tried repeatedly to have Troxell named as a full-time officer.

He allowed an inexperienced officer to help a mentally disturbed man kill himself. And the person did not kill himself until Troxell kicked in a door.

I am told that police reports prepared by Upper Nazareth officers, and the one prepared by Troxell, are inconsistent.

The Complaint details a pattern of civil rights abuses and cover-ups.:

• a private investigation into the police department was highly critical of its management, but Borough Council has refused to accept this report. It has refused to make its contents public and has even denied it exists.
• Troxell participated in the use of excessive force, which included tasing a man who was handcuffed and inside a police cruiser.
• Troxell was the arresting officer in the botched Stickergate prosecution, in which all charges were dismissed after a staged perp walk. 
• Nazareth amazingly fired a school crossing guard whose only sin was to be married to the man who ran against Mayor Carl Strye.
• Nazareth retaliated against and ultimately fired Officer Fred Lahovski for casting a spotlight on mismanagement within the police department.in what appears to be a "custom and culture of disregard" for the constitutional rights of residents and even some police officers.
• Officer Lahovski had prepared policies and procedures for dealing with mentally ill persons and those in emotional crisis, but they were never acted on by Borough Council or the Mayor. 

Here's what some those who knew Timothy recently had to say on the second anniversary of his death:

Latita Hill: Rip Tim you will b truly missed u were always there making someone smile u were a good person + fun to b around my condolences to his family + friends : (

Simone Attel Rip thoughtss n prayers to his family may he b at peace what beautiful man so sad

Angela Rose Thank you Julie Brennan. Timmy, we miss you so much already. My heart hurts.

My understanding that additional suits arising out of Stickergate and the firing of a crossing guard are imminent.