PFC GEORGE J. ELIAS
4-527th Military Police Company

September 23, 1983 - March 20, 2004
From Whitehall Township, Pennsylvania



Morning Call News
Allentown 21/3/2004

Four men, all members of well-established families in the Lehigh Valley's Syrian-American community, were killed in East Allen Township early Saturday when a pickup truck ran a stop sign at Airport Road and hit the car they were riding in, state police said. One of the victims was a soldier who had just returned from Iraq and another an assistant district attorney for Lehigh County.

Killed were:
George Elias, 20, of Whitehall Township and an Army private on a 21-day furlough from Iraq who had been feted by family and friends at a coming-home party March 2. He was scheduled to return to the Army this week, leaving the United States for Germany, friends said.

Danny Khalouf, 27, of Allentown, an assistant district attorney for Lehigh County. He would have soon been working out of an Allentown field office on cases under an anti-blight and anti-crime program.
Joseph Nimeh, 26, of Allentown, who had ownership in a Whitehall 7-Eleven.

Joseph Azar, 27, the driver, who was a mechanic, friends said.
Police said Christopher Kozo of Bethlehem was driving west at 2:10 a.m. on Locust Road and failed to stop at a stop sign at Airport Road. His pickup collided with Azar's car as Azar traveled south on Airport Road.

The passengers in Azar's car were ejected and both vehicles hurtled into a field on the west side of Airport Road.

All four men, who friends said were returning from a day in Atlantic City, were pronounced dead at the scene. Bethlehem Township Ambulance treated Kozo at the scene for minor injuries, police said.

Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli said that authorities including a state police reconstruction team are investigating.

"Everything is being looked into, and, of course, one of the things we will look into is whether alcohol was involved," he said.

As of late Saturday, no one had been charged in the accident, believed to be the deadliest in the Lehigh Valley and region since December 2001 when a one-car crash in West Rockhill Township killed four young Upper Bucks adults.

News of the death of four popular, promising men struck a blow to the Lehigh Valley's tight-knit Syrian-American community.

The Rev. Sami Hayek, who baptized Elias as an infant at Easton's Our Lady of Lebanon Catholic Church, noted the paradox of a man dying on a peaceful suburban road scant weeks after leaving a war-torn country such as Iraq.

"We were happy that he was back from the war safe and sound," Hayek said. "The irony of it. He died in the safest place."

Hundreds of people, many with tears in their eyes, exchanged hugs and handshakes throughout the day at St. George Antiochian Orthodox Church in Allentown, a key community and spiritual center for Lehigh Valley residents of Arab descent. Immediate family members of the victims were among them.

A smaller group of mourners, many of them young childhood friends of the victims, gathered outside at Second and Allen streets, near a home where friends said Elias had been staying during his furlough.

"It's going to be a major, major impact, I mean major," said Khalouf's first cousin Semon Dorgan, 22, of the effect the deaths will have on the community. "It's like I lost my brothers, basically."

Friends described the victims as part of a group of young people who grew up together, many of them the children of parents born in Syria.
Dorgan said he knew Nimeh, Azar and Khalouf well and that the four men were inseparable friends.

"You could have an argument with them and two minutes later it would be completely squashed, it would be fine," Dorgan said.

A military police officer, Elias, whose family owns the Elias Farmers Market at Front and Tilghman streets in Allentown, patrolled Baghdad's dangerous streets. His father, Joseph Elias, visited him four times in Iraq the first time after his son suffered minor injuries in a vehicle accident there.

Elias had completed about two years of a five-year stint in the army.
He "was very fond of the Army and his country," said Alex Abdouche, 20, who described Elias as a friend whom he had grown up with and with whom he had attended Whitehall High School.

Elias' second cousin, Shaadi Elias, said the soldier wanted to finish his time in the Army and return to the family business.

Last Sunday, Our Lady of Lebanon Church awarded Elias a plaque for his service in the Army, said Elias Chadd, 42, of Allentown, describing Elias as a worshiper at the Easton church.

"Obviously he was proud, but he was humble at the same time," Chadd recalled. "You could see it in his face."

Lehigh County District Attorney James Martin said Khalouf started with his office about two years ago after working in local law offices.

"Danny was happy in his job. He was still getting experience, more responsibility in his office," he said.

Plans were under way for Khalouf to work out of an office on Second Street as part of the Weed and Seed crime fighting program.

"Danny was a natural fit because he was familiar with that community," Martin said.

Another colleague, Lehigh County Chief Deputy District Attorney Steve Luksa, recalled sadly: "Just within 24 hours ago I was joking with him and having lunch and talking court cases and Eagles football with him. I don't know what else to say."



Request to move homicide trial filed
Cops: Man killed 4 while driving drunk in East Allen Twp.

Tuesday, July 20, 2004
By RUDY MILLER
The Express-Times

EASTON -- The attorney for an East Allen Township man charged with killing four people in a drunken-driving wreck says his client's right to a fair trial has been jeopardized by pretrial publicity.

Christopher Kozo's trial must be moved out of Northampton County or jurors must be brought in from another county due to excessive pretrial publicity, attorney Thomas Ceraso said in court papers filed Monday.

Kozo, 23, is charged with killing 20-year-old George Elias, who served in the Iraq war; Lehigh County Assistant District Attorney Danny Khalouf, 27; Joseph Azar, 27, of Allentown; and Joseph Nimeh, 26, of Allentown.

Authorities say Kozo had a blood-alcohol content of at least 0.12 percent during the wreck March 20 at Locust and Airport roads in East Allen Township. The victims in the wreck also had alcohol in their systems. Pennsylvania's legal limit for drivers is 0.08 percent.

"Community sentiment is clearly against the defendant due in large part to the sensational news stories, the heritage of the four victims and their various stations in life and the death of an assistant district attorney from Lehigh County," Ceraso wrote.

More than 8,000 mourners, many of whom were Syrian-American, attended a memorial service for all four men.

Kozo faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 12 years in prison if convicted of all four counts of vehicular homicide while driving drunk.

Ceraso also asked a county judge to suppress Kozo's confession to police. Ceraso said Kozo had not been read his rights when he told police he had drunk at least 10 beers on the night he crashed while driving home from a topless bar.

The attorney also argues police should not have been permitted to perform a blood-alcohol test on Kozo after the wreck because they had waited more than two hours to perform the test.

Ceraso also asked the court's permission to question prospective jurors individually rather than in a group, and he asked a judge to throw out all charges due to a lack of evidence.



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