A former Carbon County Drug Task Force coordinator credited with more than 150 convictions is suing the state Office of the Attorney General and agents in its Allentown office for violating his civil rights and the federal Whistleblower Law.

Former state Bureau of Narcotics Investigation agent Charles W. Horvath, 45, of Easton, filed the 40-page suit Wednesday in U.S. District Court, Allentown.Horvath's suit contends his rights to free speech and due process were violated, and that he was harassed, antagonized and ultimately forced out of his job after blowing the whistle on destruction of evidence in a drug bust.The suit also contends agents in the Attorney General's office violated the federal Whistleblower Law, aimed at protecting those who disclose wrongdoing, and that being Caucasian factored into Horvath's firing.Horvath wants a jury trial, his job back and an unspecified amount of money including back pay, punitive damages and expenses.Named in the suit are the Attorney General's Office, supervisory narcotics agent David Carolina and regional agent in charge Jodi Canaday, both of the state Attorney General's Bureau of Narcotics Investigation regional office, Allentown; and special agent in charge of the Bureau of Narcotics Investigation Jonathan Duecker of the state office in Harrisburg.Chuck Ardo, communications director at the Attorney General's office, declined to comment on the matter early Thursday.According to the suit, Horvath's career began to unravel on May 14, 2013, after he objected to the destruction of evidence after another agent was ordered to flush down the toilet, a hypodermic needle found on an informant after an Allentown drug bust, and to keep the action a secret.The incident unfolded when a packet of heroin went missing after a controlled buy, and the confidential informant was found to have a hypodermic needle hidden in his boot. The needle had not been found when agents searched the informant before the buy was made.According to the suit, Carolina ordered another agent, Aaron Laurito, to flush the needle down the toilet so the buy would not be compromised. That agent objected, but eventually complied.Carolina also ordered Laurito to omit the missing packet and the needle from an affidavit of probable cause.Laurito on May 24, 2013, told Horvath what happened. Horvath reported the incident to the Fraternal Order of Police and to Canaday.Laurito included the information about the missing heroin and the flushed needle in an investigative report on June 7, 2013.Canaday, according to the suit, stated more than once there was "no cover-up."Subsequently, Horvath's suit states, among other incidents, he was harassed on a day off with his family, given an unwarranted letter of reprimand, didn't get backup while struggling with a defendant at a drug bust and was the target of a "secret investigation" by Carolina.He was fired on Aug. 28, 2015.It wasn't his first altercation with Carolina. Horvath had in 2010 reported an incident involving Carolina shoving a loaded shotgun onto the chest of a man being arrested, injuring him.Hired by the Attorney General's Office in February 2008, Horvath, a Marine Corps veteran and former Secret Service agent, coordinated undercover drug cases.He served with the Carbon County Drug Task Force from August 2010 through December 2014.He oversaw numerous cases, including the arrest of Christopher Peter Fischi Jr., 47, of Kingston last November for selling Oxycodone in Nesquehoning; Joseph Giles, 28, of Slatington last December for operating a methamphetamine lab in his Palmerton apartment; and Misty Nicole Hyneman, 30, of Lansford, who was operating a meth lab in her home, endangering her young children.