Lehigh County DA Investigating Ce-Ce Gerlach Allegations

Ce-Ce Gerlach

Last week, this blog published an investigative report concerning Ce-Ce Gerlach, aka Cecelia E. Gerlach. She is a member of Allentown City Council and a Mayoral candidate. She is also employed by Valley Youth House.  Gerlach met up with a 16 yo boy who had run away from home. Instead of taking this child to Valley Youth's own shelter or even the police department, Gerlach dumped him off at a tent city. The boy was allegedly abused for two nights straight until he was rescued by a community activist. When confronted, Gerlach admitted she dropped this boy off at a homeless enclave, although she denied she knew the boy was a minor. "[S]o if people want to beat me up over that, they can,” she told blogger James Whitney. She refused to say more, and Valley Youth House actually hung up on Whitney when he called them for their side of the story. Perhaps the Lehigh County District Attorney's office will have more success. Prosecutors are looking into this matter. I know this because a county detective contacted me about it on Friday. 

Gerlach is running for public office under a cloud of suspicion, very much like former Mayor Edwin "Fed Ed" Pawlowski. That cloud keeps getting darker, thanks to Allentown bullhorn blower Justan Parker Fields. He attempted to blow his bullhorn for her last week, but it blew up in his face. 

Gerlach Defender Justan (not Justin) Parker Fields 

Justan Parker Fields

Remember Justan Parker Fields? Last summer, he was the bullhorn-toting demagogue who jumped to the wrong conclusion when Allentown police were forced to deal with a puking and staggering drug addict and drunk outside Sacred Heart St. Luke's in July. A video shot by a passerby was blown out of proportion by Parker and other loudmouths. Parker Fields organized a mob that began banging on the doors and windows of Allentown City Council, interrupting their meetings.  They were local insurrectionists. He is at the front of the "Defund the Police" movement, and has participated in, if not led, chants of "Fuck the Police" and "Get Down or Lay Down."

Justan Parker Fields is also a criminal Defendant. In March 2020, he was driving with his son in the car with him as a passenger. Parker was stopped by police and gave a false name in a lame effort to fool them about his license being suspended. He failed, and was cited for both driving under suspension and false reports. 

Of course, Parker has an explanation  "Yes, I drove with a suspended license to pick up my son for our first weekend visit, post covid, in months. Yes, I provided another name to the officer who pulled me over (you guessed it, because I was afraid) I wouldn't expect you to understand or relate to that last part."

I understand completely. Parker was never scared. He lied about his identity to avoid being charged with driving under suspension. Now he is lying to all of us about being scared. He wants to lie his way into public office. He's been placed on ARD and now is running for City Council. He's been endorsed by all the woke groups because he tosses out words like "colorism" and "BIPOC."

No newspaper or radio station has dared mention the criminal case against him for lying to police. If they told you the truth, they might be called racists, too.  

Parker's Gerlach Defense Backfires

Victor Martinez

Last week, he invited Victor Martinez, a recently appointed Valley Youth House board member, for a Facebook Live interview. Victor is also the President and CEO of the popular LaMega radio station. 

Fields took umbrage at the Gerlach blog article, not for inaccuracy, but because "it targeted the only BIPOC female candidate running for mayor of Allentown." He went on to accuse me of running a "racist blog." I guess he expected Martinez to back him up. 

The opposite happened. 

They did agree on one thing - I really am a racist. Thanks a lot, Victor, lol.  But "the story is still the story," said Martinez.  

"Everything changed for me when the people from the blog reached out to Ce-Ce and asked her if she dropped off the child - a minor - on tent city and she said, 'Yes.' That's when everything changed and that's why this becomes important because now we have an admission of something she did."

Martinez stated that, in addition to being a "talking head on the radio," he is also an experienced journalist who understands what makes a story a story. What makes this a story is Gerlach's own admission. 

"I don't care if you're 16 or 30, where is it OK to drop any human being that needs help at tent city? We all know what's going on out there. The drugs, the alcohol, the people with mental issues. ... I've been to tent city."

Martinez adds that Gerlach did this as a paid worker of Valley Youth House. "She's still employed by Youth House."

Parker then went on to suggest Allentown is a City of second, third and fourth chances and people should be entitled to "redemption."  Martinez agreed but added there must also be consequences, and there have been none for Gerlach. 

Parker asked why Valley Youth House is not being held accountable.  Martinez said he has reached out, and by email. "As a board member, I expect them to investigate and I expect them to put out a statement and do their due diligence because this damage affects the image of Youth House."

He said if you take politics out of the equation, any employee who did what Ce-Ce did "needed to be fired on the spot, right away." He wonders how Gerlach has retained her job. "Everybody knew about this, and nobody did a damn thing."

Parker then tried playing the race card and the fact that Gerlach is a female. "This has nothing to do with her being a woman. This has nothing to do with her being bi-racial. This has to do with a minor that was left for two days ..."

Parker then claimed that Gerlach, the only "bi-POC" woman in the race, is "being silenced."

"How is she being silenced?" asked Martinez, and then Parker began interrupting him repeatedly, trying to silence him. Once allowed to speak, Martinez pointed out that Gerlach "lit up the fire" herself when she admitted what she had done. 

Parker pointed out this incident occurred last summer but only broke two weeks before the election, suggesting a political motive. This  story was broken as soon as the facts were known. Had I known about it sooner, I can assure you it would have broken sooner. Parker knew about it last summer, and said nothing about it. He covered for Ce-Ce at the expense of an abused child. 

Nice guy. 

But very woke. 

He fails to explain his own silence.

Parker ultimately switched the subject. 

What bullhorn-blowers like Parker needs to do is care a little less about using woke expressions or the Ce-Ce Gerlach campaign. He needs to care a little more about children (many of them are "BIPOC") being cast aside by an uncaring system. 

Not all that long ago, a little girl named Grace Packer was raped, murdered and dismembered by the very people charged with protecting her. I covered that story, and still have nightmares about it. 

This should never happen again. This has EVERYTHING to do with child abuse and NOTHING to do with a frickin' election.

Updated 5/10/21, 12:01 am: Justan Parker Fields Claims Bringing Up His Past is Racist - On his Facebook page Justan Parker Fields has responded to this post. "I am an open book and ... bringing up anything in my past is just a means to discredit me and criminalize my skin color," he states. I agree that his recent use of a false name certainly does discredit him. I disagree that there's been any attempt to criminalize his skin color. His dishonesty has nothing to do with the color of his skin and everything to do with basic character. Being black entitles neither Ce-Ce Gerlach nor Justan with immunity from criticism. You can't claim out of one side of your mouth that you're an open book while simultaneously maintaining that all criticism is racist. 

I'll respond to Justan Parker Fields more specific complaints below.