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Jessica Edwards of Center Valley filed a suit against Lehigh Township and its top cop, Chief Scott Fogel, in the US District Court for Eastern Pennsylvania on June 26, legal filings show.
According to the complaint, Edwards joined as "the department’s first and only (...) female police officer" in February 2018, and during her first year "was seemingly taken under the wing of Chief Fogel."
As time went on, the filing alleges, "Fogel began to display an inappropriate, unprofessional, and intense interest in (her) personal life."
Among the alleged incidents in the legal complaint:
Edwards said that in 2019, Fogel "began scrutinizing" her social media posts, "commenting that certain pictures" she posted wearing bicycling gear "were too revealing or scandalous." The suit claims that Fogel instructed a subordinate to "warn" her.
The alleged act caused Edwards "to feel objectified as a woman" and "began to transform the (LTPD) into a hostile work environment," per the complaint.
Months later, Edwards said she was called into Fogel's office, where he allegedly "proceeded to interrogate her regarding her personal, off-duty life, and demanded to know whether she was having an intimate, sexual relationship with another police officer," referred to in the complaint as "Officer D."
No township or department policy prohibited relationships between coworkers, according to the complaint.
Edwards said that in May 2020, she was called to Fogel's office, where he allegedly "lifted his shirt above his chest, and deliberately exposed his stomach, navel, nipples, and chest to her."
Around that time, the complaint claims Fogel made a crude remark in front of Edwards and other officers "that Officer D was likely to contract venereal disease through sexual intimacy" with her.
On two occasions in 2020, the documents allege that Fogel pulled Edwards backward by her hair.
One of those alleged incidents was witnessed by a colleague who reported it to the Township, but municipal officials "took no meaningful action" to investigate the matter or "discipline Fogel," the documents claim.
In November 2021, during the department's "No Shave November," Fogel allegedly approached Edwards and told her: "If you don’t want to shave whatever, you don’t have to.”
In a sexual harassment PowerPoint presentation "largely narrated and presented, in audio, by Fogel, himself," the chief allegedly included a "vulgar and inappropriate message" with a "crudely drawn graphic illustration."
When a medical emergency involving Edwards' daughter caused her to be late to a work training event, the complaint claims Fogel demanded a doctor's note "to verify her explanation."
The suit alleges he later personally called Edwards' doctor and sent a uniformed police officer to the office "to demand verification of her family medical issue."
The complaint goes on to claim that Fogel denied Edwards "career-enhancing" training and opportunities.
When Edwards filed complaints against the department, the township, and Fogel, the chief allegedly instructed her supervisor to withhold relevant documents "to limit her ability to gather evidence in support of her case."
Due to stress and anxiety attributed to the alleged harassment, Edwards' doctor "ordered her to stay out of work," and she was off the job in April and May 2023, documents say.
While she was away, Fogel allegedly began investigating spurious accusations that Edwards "had carried on an intimate sexual affair with a community member’s same-sex ex-partner" while on duty.
Learning of that investigation while she was already taking time off for mental health "finally broke her spirit completely," her attorneys said. She resigned from her post effective June 1, according to the documents.
Daily Voice reached out to Lehigh Township officials for comment who sent the following statement:
"Lehigh Township when advised of the allegations raised in former Lehigh Township Officer Edwards’ Federal lawsuit had outside labor counsel from Campbell Durrant, P.C. fully investigate these allegations. The investigation did not find any hostile work environment, discriminatory conduct, sexual harassment or retaliation. The Township stands behind Chief Fogel and will not litigate Ms. Edwards’ lawsuit in the press. The Township will defend this lawsuit instead in Court by presenting all relevant testimony including labor counsel’s independent findings that the allegations in MS. Edwards’ lawsuit are without merit."
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