Pasquales file civil lawsuit in Gloucester County
Law enforcement "failed" Autumn Pasquale in 2012, according to a civil lawsuit filed Monday by the slain Clayton girl's family.
The action filed in Gloucester County Superior Court by the estate of Autumn Pasquale — her father, Anthony, and siblings Natalie and A.J. Pasquale — claims law enforcement "did not follow appropriate procedures," including a canvass of the immediate area where the girl went missing two years ago this month.
The suit is filed against Gloucester County, its prosecutor's office and New Jersey State Police. Also implicated are police in Franklin Township, Monroe Township, Glassboro, Elk Township and Burlington City, as well as three Clayton officers — Eduardo Diaz, James Mayo and Mark Connick.
Twelve-year-old Autumn was last seen Oct. 20, riding her bicycle through the borough. Later the same day, her father reported her missing to Clayton police.
The lawsuit claims Clayton police did not take appropriate action, and a Child Abduction Recovery Team was not initiated until the next day.
Autumn's body was discovered by police Oct. 22. She had been strangled the day she disappeared by Clayton teen Justin Robinson, then 15.
He dumped her body in a trash can and pushed it into the yard of an abandoned property. Robinson pleaded guilty to the murder last year and was sentenced to 17 years in state prison.
"If proper and adequate law enforcement techniques would have been employed in this matter, Autumn may have been discovered sooner and a reasonable chance exists that she would have survived," the lawsuit claims.
But the civil action points "misplaced" blame on police, according to Gloucester County Prosecutor's Office spokesman Bernie Weisenfeld.
"Law enforcement could not have prevented the death of Autumn, because she was killed several hours before she was ever reported missing."
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County and state police would not comment. Officials in towns listed as defendants could not be immediately reached.
"This is a terrible tragedy that we believe could have in part been avoided if law enforcement had followed their own rules in training," said Greg Zeff, the Pasquale family attorney.
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The Pasquale estate seeks monetary damages for each of seven counts it brings against the law enforcement agencies, including two counts of due process violations, a state-created danger, failure to train personnel, wrongful death, willful disregard and negligence.
While Autumn's death deprived the Pasquales of the girl's companionship, "the parents have also lost any direct financial contributions, which would have been made by the child to her survivors after she became a wage earner.
"They also lost the value of the child's anticipated services to survivors such as household chores and care of siblings," according to the lawsuit.
Reach Carly Q. Romalino at (856) 486-2476 and cromalino@courierpostonline.com. Follow @CarlyQRomalino on Twitter.