Lehigh Township Board of Supervisors approved a $1.75 million payment March 26 to settle a federal lawsuit brought by a former township police officer.

The township will pay Jessica Edwards the sum to settle a suit she filed against the township’s police chief, Scott Fogel, alleging he sexually harassed her, physically accosted her and retaliated against her during her five-year employment with the township.

The township is expected to pay $275,000 of that amount, which is the back wages owed Edwards. The insurance company will pay the remainder.

The case was dismissed in federal court Feb. 23 because a settlement had been reached, but the terms of the settlement were not made public until March 26 when supervisors approved it as an agenda item during their meeting.

Residents then questioned the supervisors on how they plan on preventing something like this from happening again, and they wanted to know how much their taxes will go up to pay for the settlement.

“I’m just floored at the amount of the settlement,” township resident Bill Hart said.

Supervisors didn’t directly answer the questions, saying they can’t discuss the settlement or they couldn’t give residents those answers just yet.

In a complaint filed in June 2023, an attorney for Edwards said she was “singled out and persistently disparaged, belittled, sexually objectified and insulted by Police Chief Scott Fogel.”

“She was physically accosted by him, denied opportunities for professional development and growth, retaliated against for complaining of mistreatment and ultimately placed in such a hostile, toxic and intolerable work environment that she was forced to resign for her own well-being,” Edwards’ attorney, Ryan Corkery of Ansa Assuncao LLP, wrote.

The lawsuit named both Fogel and Lehigh Township Police Department.

Edwards was hired by the department in February 2018. The complaint alleged Fogel questioned whether Edwards was having a sexual relationship with another officer, made sexualized comments about her social media activity and, in a meeting with her, pulled up his shirt to expose his “stomach, navel, nipples and chest.”

Edwards alleged that during the winter of 2020, Fogel “approached her from behind, gripped her hair and forcefully snapped her head back, pulling her toward the midsection of his body and torso.”

A similar incident happened in a Lehigh Township parking garage in December 2020, the complaint states, and a police sergeant made an official report to the township.

“The township took no meaningful action to investigate the incident, discipline Fogel, deliver remedial education and/or training to Fogel regarding appropriate boundaries or render any support or assistance to Edwards,” the complaint stated.

Edwards alleged that, after the issues were brought to the township, Fogel “became emboldened and commenced a campaign of retaliation” including demanding privileged information when she was late for a training event following a medical emergency.

In April 2022, Edwards filed a complaint against the police department, Lehigh Township and Fogel with the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

She resigned from the department June 1, 2023.

The lawsuit included multiple counts of sexual harassment as well as battery, defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

Fogel remains the township’s police chief.

Editor’s note: Jarrad Hedes contributed to this report.