Nazareth Faces Another Civil Rights Suit By a Police Officer

Police officers are often named as Defendants in civil rights suits, but not in Nazareth.  It has paid out $500,000 to settle claims brought by two police officers over violations of their own civil rights. Officer Fred Lahovski, who had already been awarded and paid backpay as a result of an illegal termination, got an extra $440,000 out of the Borough. This might be the highest sum ever paid to a police officer in the Lehigh Valley for a violation of civil rights. But there are two more police officer claims that need to be resolved, including a suit that was just filed on December 11.

The Shimer Suit

This suit was filed by Adam Shimer, a Nazareth resident and veteran who always wanted to be a cop.Chief Thomas Trachta wanted his lackey, Danny Troxell hired. But unlike Shimer, Troxell was no veteran and Trachta knew that Shimer would rank higher with the Civil Service Commission. So Trachta set out to sabotage Shimer's chances.

When he was still a high school teen, Shimer had experienced a number of deaths in his family. When his father passed away unexpectedly, he had trouble accepted what had happened and decided to seek help. He voluntarily committed himself to a mental health facility for a brief period. But Trachta misrepresented that as an involuntary commitment, which would disqualify Shimer.

Shimer was forced to retain Allentown civil rights attorney Pat Reilly to fight for him, and Shimer was ultimately hired by Nazareth on August 14, 2014.

After being hired and during his one-year probationary period, Trachta continued to sabotage Shimer with chickenshit claims of mishandling evidence. That's ironic because a state study of the police department came down very hard on Trachta over the way he handles evidence  I'd peronally love to see a firearmsaudit to determine if everything is where it should be.

Shimer was also given a rough time over his service in the Coast Guard as a reservist.

Exactly one year after her was hired, Shimer was fired by Nazareth Borough Council. Those are the same rocket scientists who publicly denied the existence of Investigator Dan Moneck's study of the police department and are so terrified of Trachta that they refuse to fire him and instead are going to name Randy Miller a "Commissioner" to be boss over Chief Trachta and two full-time cops.

In a suit filed by Attorney Reilly, Shimer claims that Nazareth was penalizing him for serving in the Coast Guard. In addition, he alleges that Trachta intended to fire him all along, and just strung things out.
Shimer is seeking reinstatement, back pay, punitive damages and attorney fees.

The Schleig Suit

Nazareth also faces a civil rights suit by Officer Stephen Schleig, who claims the Borough retaliated against him for union activity. Among the things they did was require him to seek mental counseling, at his own expense. He was publicly berated and even threatened by Trachta lackey Danny Troxell, wjo was hoping to get a job as a full-time officer. The humiliation included forcing this officer to wear the same worn bicycle uniform for several months. That suit is still in the pleading stage.

Other Civil Rights Suits

In addition to the civil rights suits filed by police officers, there's a civil rights suit against Nazareth by the heirs of Timothy Nixon, who was re or less goaded into killing himself by Nazareth Police Officer Danny Troxell. Nixon is dead because Troxell just had to be a cowboy. That case, filed by Attorneys Phil Lauer and Joe Welsh, is still in the pleading stages.

Still to come are the Sticker Gang suits.