PHILADELPHIA, Pa. – A federal judge has dismissed all claims against the Washington Township Police Department and one of its officers in a civil rights lawsuit stemming from a violent July 2023 confrontation in Bangor, Pennsylvania, where a man and his pregnant partner allege they were assaulted by police during an arrest.
In a January 30 memorandum opinion, U.S. District Judge John M. Gallagher of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania granted a motion to dismiss filed by Officer Daniel Dieter and the Washington Township Police Department (WTPD), finding that the plaintiffs’ complaint failed to state a viable claim against those defendants. The ruling does not affect claims still pending against other defendants, including Chief Kevin Jones, Officer Robert DeLeon, and the Borough of Bangor Police Department.
The lawsuit was filed by Jeffery Fehnel and Afrdita Krasniqi, who say Bangor and Washington Township police officers used excessive force during Fehnel’s arrest on July 29, 2023, and then assaulted Krasniqi, who was nine months pregnant at the time, as she tried to record the incident on her phone.
Allegations of excessive force and civil rights violations
According to the complaint, Fehnel and Krasniqi were walking with their infant child in downtown Bangor when police arrived following a verbal altercation between Fehnel and another individual. The couple alleges that Chief Jones directed officers to follow them for about a block before ordering their apprehension.
Fehnel claims that despite alerting officers to a serious pre-existing back condition, Officer DeLeon used a taser on him and slammed him to the ground, allegedly worsening spinal injuries and causing neurological complications. The complaint further alleges that Officer Dieter, acting on Jones’s instruction, forcibly struck Krasniqi to stop her from filming the encounter.
Fehnel and Krasniqi filed suit in the Northampton County Court of Common Pleas in July 2025, asserting violations under 42 U.S.C. §1983, including excessive force, failure to train, and Monell liability, along with state tort claims for assault, battery, and negligent infliction of emotional distress. The case was later removed to federal court.
Court’s decision narrows the case
In his opinion, Judge Gallagher accepted the plaintiffs’ factual allegations as true for purposes of review but concluded that the complaint did not allege sufficient facts linking Officer Dieter or the Washington Township department to actionable misconduct under federal or state law. As a result, all claims against those defendants were dismissed.
The decision leaves the Borough of Bangor, Chief Jones, and Officer DeLeon as the remaining defendants in the case, which continues to move forward in the federal district court.
What’s next
The plaintiffs’ central claims—focused on alleged excessive force during the arrest and interference with Krasniqi’s attempt to record the incident—remain before the court. Future proceedings are expected to address discovery, expert testimony, and potential motions involving the remaining defendants.
The case, Fehnel et al. v. County of Northampton et al., is docketed as Civil Action No. 5:25-cv-04783-JMG in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
