ALLENTOWN — A Lehigh County district judge approved a search warrant for the DNA of an Allentown employee who allegedly was the victim of a hate crime.
The warrant application said the employee was not willing to provide a sample for the investigation.
According to an affidavit by Allentown Police Detective Harold Bonser, the employee “made vague statements and deceptive answers that raised concern in the investigation” to an FBI agent, and requested that the FBI discontinue its investigation.
Allentown police announced Jan. 10 they are investigating an incident in which a Black woman who works for the Community and Economic Development Department discovered an item resembling a noose on her desk when she reported for work that morning. The search warrant identified that woman as Latarsha Brown, who is also a member of the Allentown School Board.
Several days after the incident, officials at a City Council meeting announced the FBI was assisting Allentown police with the investigation.
According to the affidavit by Bonser, he took an initial statement from Brown the morning of the incident, in which she testified that she arrived at work shortly after 7 a.m. and located a “small item on her desk that she did not recognize.” She picked up the item, took a photo of it and sent it to a co-worker, who also did not recognize it. After a Google search, which she told officers she conducted because she could not remember the name of the item, she identified it as a noose.
Brown also told Bonser that several incidents had occurred at City Hall that “she interpreted as being racist or derogatory to her or other members in the office.”
She also wrote an email to co-workers the morning that she found the noose, in which she outlined ongoing issues of alleged discrimination in City Hall, and wrote, “In addition to these ongoing challenges, I walked into my office this morning to find what appears to be a noose a symbol historically associated with the horrific practice of hanging slaves in slavery.”
According to the affidavit, Allentown police requested the FBI conduct an investigation Jan. 13, and on Jan. 14, asked Brown to meet with detectives.
Officers told Brown that the investigation would require a sample of her DNA “for exclusionary purposes since she touched the evidence, and her DNA would most likely be found on the evidence.” Brown declined to voluntarily provide a DNA sample to police, according to the affidavit.
Allentown police turned over evidence to the state police Bureau of Forensic Services Bethlehem Regional Laboratory for a DNA analysis.
Since Jan. 15, when the FBI agent met with Brown for an interview, she has declined to answer phone calls and voicemails from Allentown police requesting follow-ups, according to the affidavit.
Allentown police and the FBI, through the course of their investigation, have conducted interviews with city employees, who have agreed to provide a DNA sample if necessary.
According to the affidavit, as of Thursday, Brown had refused all requests to provide a sample of her DNA for the investigation.
According to court documents, District Judge Karen Devine signed off on the application Friday, and requested the warrant be served as soon as possible and no later than Sunday.