Lehigh County Judge Maria L. Dantos had scathing words for Allentown police and the Lehigh County district attorney’s office after a man whose violent 2018 arrest was captured on a video that went viral was acquitted of all charges Friday morning.

Dantos told the man, John Perez, that he was justified in protecting himself after an officer forcefully shoved him, and said she was “disgusted” by what she heard on officers’ body cam videos.


“For not the first time in recent history I became ashamed. I was embarrassed. I was ashamed of the officers and their conduct and their words and actions, and I was ashamed of the office I spent 17 years in that they would bring this prosecution.

“You chose to, instead, put on display police officers calling people p------, b------, threatening to shoot a dog, forming your disgusting blue line of four officers who turned their backs and said they saw nothing.

The judge called out the police officers’ conduct during the arrest and subsequent trial.

“You perjured yourselves. You escalated a situation without cause. Cops smirking on the stand at this jury, laughing at the defense attorney, high-fiving in the hallway after testimony as if there were something, anything, to be proud of here.

Lehigh County Judge Maria L. Dantos (Morning Call file photo)

“You, officer Lebron, shoved Mr. Perez because you were mad, period. And then you got up on the stand and told that jury that you were just trying to make some space. That is not what happened.

“Nine officers, most of the night shift, pulling cars from other areas of the city because you lost it. That’s what happened. You lost it. Over nothing. Because someone was talking to you in a manner you didn’t like? No crime. You serve them.”

Dantos, who served 17 years as a prosecutor in the Lehigh County district attorney’s office, rising to the rank of first assistant DA before becoming a judge in 2007, wondered why Perez’s case was brought to trial.


“I warned the commonwealth and yet you displayed this conduct for the world to see. It’s shameful.

“I would really like to unite this community between law enforcement and the citizens. But the blame for this lays with you and it is for you to fix.”