DENVER (AP) — An ex-cop fired from his job as an investigator at the U.S. Center for SafeSport for allegedly stealing money seized at a drug bust has been arrested again, this time charged with rape and sex trafficking.
Jason Krasley, a former police officer in Allentown, Pennsylvania, was arrested Friday and charged with felony rape and involuntary sexual servitude for crimes allegedly committed while he was on the force between 2011 and 2015, according to a news release from the district attorney’s office.
Krasley left the department in 2021 and went to work for the SafeSport Center, which fired him last year shortly after learning he’d been arrested for allegedly stealing $5,500 from a drug bust he helped conduct while on the force.
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The new arrests resurface the question of how Krasley was able to maneuver through what officials at the center say is a robust vetting process it uses to hire people tasked with uncovering sensitive information regarding sex-abuse cases.
The Denver-based center was established in 2017 to deal with sex-abuse cases in Olympic sports from the elite level down to the grassroots. As of late last year, it had 36 people on its investigation team; it has tapped into police forces, where some detectives deal with similar cases, to fill some of those positions.
“I am appalled that a former staff member has been accused of such heinous acts in his previous role as a police officer,” SafeSport CEO Ju’Riese Colon said in an emailed statement to The Associated Press. “We hold all staff to the highest standard because safeguarding athletes is our utmost priority.”
The AP has learned of two cases Krasley handled — one of which was assigned to another investigator after his arrest on the theft charges. In the other, the claimant asked if her case could be reopened in the wake of the arrest and was told in an email from a SafeSport employee that “those matters are already being reviewed prior to the requests and media attention.”
Colon said the center has commissioned a third-party audit of cases Krasley handled.
“We are working with subject matter experts to determine what additional actions should be taken in light of the new allegations,” she said.
Krasley faces additional counts of felony kidnapping, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse and intimidation of a witness, in addition to misdemeanor criminal coercion.
Krasley’s attorney, James Burke, told lehighvallleylive.com that Krasley “absolutely denies the allegations.” Burke did not return a voicemail left at his office by AP.
Krasley, 47, also is named in a whistleblower lawsuit filed last year by two Allentown officers who alleged widespread misconduct in the department.
Also arrested and charged with felony rape and involuntary sexual servitude Friday was a current Allentown officer, Kevin Weaver, who has been placed on administrative leave.
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AP sports: https://apnews.com/sports
