Lehigh County Judge Maria Dantos is no stranger to controversy. She has been referred to by friend and foe alike as the area’s “hanging judge,” a reference to her tough sentences and tell-it-as-it-is bluntness to defendants who appear before her for sentencing.

Dantos was back in the spotlight again in February for her comments in two high-profile cases. In an unusual departure, even for Dantos, she was highly critical of the Allentown police officers who subdued and brought charges against a defendant who questioned them during a disturbance in an Allentown neighborhood; the other involved the sentencing of a Pottsville priest for the indecent assault of a young girl.

State and national media which picked up the story of the acquittal of John Perez, 36, of Allentown, used words such as “scathing,” “harsh” and “lambasted” to describe Dantos’ dressing down of not only the police officers involved but also the Lehigh County District Attorney’s office for allowing the case to go forward in the first place.

A prosecutor herself in the county for 17 years before former Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell appointed her to the bench in 2007, she also worked for three years before that in the public defender’s office.

Although she is a registered Republican, Dantos was appointed to fill a vacancy because she won both parties’ nominations in the 2007 primaries. Judges are allowed to cross-file in Pennsylvania. She won a full 10-year term that year and is in the midst of a second 10-year term after having been retained by voters in 2017. Many expect Dantos will retire before her term ends in 2027, possibly as early as this year.

The 2018 case that wound up with a not-guilty verdict in February involved Perez, who she said was justified in protecting himself after a police officer shoved him, and three other officers joined in punching and kicking him. The incident was graphically captured by audio and video on officers’ bodycams and by videos taken by bystanders. The videos went viral and were viewed nearly 100,000 times, leading to community outrage and protests of the police’s beating of Perez.

For their part, the four officers said Perez was combative in a situation where they faced an unruly crowd.

After the verdict was read, Dantos told the officers that they came on the scene like “angry, hostile bullies.”

As for the officers’ reference to residents in the area where the disturbance occurred as “those people,” Dantos reminded them that “those people” are members of the community which they have sworn to serve and protect.

Allentown has paid $1.75 million in lawsuits involving excessive force cases in the past five years, and it is expected that Perez will bring a civil suit against the city, too. He suffered a broken nose and other injuries.

Dantos also lashed out at the officers for smirking, laughing and high-fiving each other in the hallway after testimony.

In the other case, during the sentencing of the Rev. Kevin Lonergan, 31, Dantos slapped him with the maximum sentence of one to two years in state prison and required him to register as a sex offender under the provisions of Megan’s Law. The priest and his attorney were hoping for probation.

Dantos was livid that Lonergan, who had been accused of a previous offense, had been reassigned to another parish rather than being removed from his ministry.

He was accused of rubbing his body against a 17-year-old girl in a church hallway and of sending her 20 sexually explicit photos and a video. The priest and the girl met at St. Francis of Assisi Church in Allentown where she and her family were parishioners.

Dantos said that if Lonergan had been dealt with at the time of the previous incident involving a 15-year-old girl while he was assigned to a Palmer Township church in Northampton County and action taken, the teenager in the more recent case would not have been victimized. An Allentown Diocese spokesman said the previous incident was thoroughly investigated, but none of the allegations could be verified.

Although Lonergan had a large group of supporters attending the sentencing, Dantos was having none of it. She told parishioners who have turned against the girl and her family for doing the right thing and blowing the whistle on Lonergan that they should be ashamed of themselves. She told Lonergan that no churchgoing person should support his actions. “Period,” she said.

By Bruce Frassinelli | tneditor@tnonline.com