An Allentown City councilwomen and 2021 candidate for Allentown mayor has been charged with two misdemeanors after failing to report a suspected case of child abuse or make a proper referral to authorities.

Cecilia “Ce-Ce” Gerlach, 35, of Allentown, is charged with endangering the welfare of a child, a misdemeanor of the first degree; and penalties for failure to report or refer (by a Mandated Reporter), a misdemeanor of the second degree, according to Lehigh County District Attorney Jim Martin on June 29.

The investigation began in May when a Lehigh County District Attorney’s Office detective was assigned to investigate a Facebook post from April 2021 that alleged Gerlach, while in the course of her employment with the Synergy Project in July 2020, took a then 16-year-old boy to a homeless tent encampment in a wooded area of Allentown, Martin said.

According to Martin, the investigation revealed that Gerlach was an employee of Valley Youth House as a homeless street outreach caseworker and had been assigned to the Synergy Project.

The teen, whose name will not be released, told a detective that he had run away from his home and had contacted the Synergy Hotline number and came into contact with Gerlach, who was the worker on duty at the time.

The teen said he told Gerlach he had run away from home, said he was 16-years-old, and needed a place to stay.

Gerlach provided the teen with a tent and other supplies and walked him to the homeless tent encampment known as “Tent City” located at that time along Basin Street and Martin Luther King Boulevard in Allentown.

The teen said Gerlach made contact with a resident in the homeless encampment and asked that he “take care” of the teen while the teen was there.

Records show that since 2020 to present, there have been a total of 36 police calls at the homeless encampment, that it is an unlicensed mass gathering with no access to public utilities.

Those 36 police calls range in incidents from assaults, warrant services, armed subjects, disturbances and thefts.

Records from the Lehigh County Coroner’s Office also show there have been six death investigations at the encampment for the same time frame.

The teen said while at the homeless encampment, he was subjected to sexual solicitation to perform oral sex on a male resident in exchange for a cigarette.

He said he observed prostitution taking place in exchange for drugs and several fights among those living there.

In an interview with an unnamed man living at “Tent City,” the man described the teen as a “young skinny kid that was scared to be there and not capable to taking care of himself.”

The man said Gerlach had told him she tried to get the teen into the YMCA, but they would not accept him because he wasn’t an adult.

The man said that in his past six years living at the homeless encampment, he had been the victim of numerous thefts and described it as a dangerous place.

Documents from Gerlach’s employer show she was hired by Valley Youth House on June 1, 2020 and on June 4, 2020; she had completed the State Mandated Reporters Training which defines the Mandated Reporting of Child Abuse Cases in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

Those records also show Gerlach’s first interaction with the teen was on July 6, 2020, when she took him to the homeless encampment and he spent the night.

The records state Gerlach returned the following day, did additional paperwork and the teen was returned back to the same location.

The completed intake paperwork shows that the teen’s age was known to Gerlach and demonstrates her knowledge that she should have reported this to ChildLine at the time.

She could have contacted either the Allentown Police Department or Lehigh County Children and Youth, rather than take him to “Tent City.”

On July 7, 2020, the teen was seen by an outreach worker at “Operation Address the Homeless” and that worker contacted Promise Neighborhood because she could tell the teen was “young and should not be in tent city.”

A worker at Promise Neighborhood contacted Gerlach about the teen and said he should not be at the homeless encampment and at 3:44 p.m. the same day, Gerlach finally contacted ChildLine about the teen.

Valley Youth House conducted an internal investigation once they were informed of media coverage of the incident and Gerlach was asked to submit details of her involvement.

In her correspondence, she denied knowing the teen’s age at the time of her interaction with him.

This is contradicted by her own entries.

Her position was then terminated by Valley Youth House.

Charges were filed on June 29 after an exhaustive eight-week investigation with one interview conducted as recently as last week.

Upon an agreement by the District Attorney’s Office with defense counsel, Gerlach was permitted to surrender to authorities to be arraigned.

She was arraigned by District Judge Rashid Santiago on behalf of District Judge Karen C. Devine and was released on unsecured bail.

“There will be no further comment at this time,” Martin said.