She “would be alive today” if proper affirmative steps in accordance with law were taken, according to lawsuit documents.
Nick Rummell | Courthouse News Service
NEWARK, N.J. (CN) – The children of a 48-year-old special education teacher who was hacked to death by her machete-wielding ex-boyfriend, a former New York City policeman, sued the woman’s hometown, claiming it failed to protect her.
Former New York City police Officer Arthur Lomando repeatedly stabbed his former girlfriend of three years Suzanne Bardzell in the driveway of her Midland Park home on Oct. 22, 2015, while she talked with a friend on her cellphone.
Just before the murder, Bardzell’s friend overheard Lomando saying, “I’m sorry to have to do this to you.”
Police responding to a 911 found Bardzell dead in her car with the motor running.
In the March 21 federal lawsuit, Bardzell’s estate says officials and police in her hometown of Midland Park could have prevented the murder.
The estate consists of her children Alexander and Adam Bardzell.
Lomando is awaiting trial on charges that include murder, stalking, witness tampering and violating a domestic violence restraining order.
He has not been offered a plea deal, according to New Jersey press reports.
“Bardzell would be alive today if [the Borough of Midland Park] had taken the proper affirmative steps and acted in accordance with law,” according to the 38-page lawsuit.
The lawsuit suggests the borough officials may have grown numb to complaints of domestic violence involving Bardzell and her former husband, as well as with those with Lomando.
Midland Park “became deliberately indifferent towards any [domestic violence] complaints that Bardzell might make in the future,” the lawsuit claims, calling the indifference of borough officials “shocking and perverse.”
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