From this result, we can conclude that the October 2012 search for the murdered Clayton 12-year-old was not conducted negligently.
Almost four years after 12-year-old Autumn Pasquale of Clayton was laid to rest, any legal controversy over how law enforcement responded to reports that she was missing has apparently been laid to rest, too.
In a two-paragraph press release, the Gloucester County Prosecutor's Office stated this week that a Superior Court lawsuit filed by Autumn's estate in 2014 against several police agencies had been "dismissed without costs or attorney's fees."
Autumn went missing from her home on October 20, 2012. Tragically, her body was discovered two days later, stuffed in a recycling bin outside a vacant Clayton home. Subsequently, 15-year-old Justin Robinson, an acquaintance, pleaded guilty to her strangulation murder.
While wounds to the Clayton community have healed to a degree, some of Autumn's relatives have clung to the belief, expressed in the suit, that law enforcement "failed" by not looking for her hard enough. Despite autopsy reports showing that she was killed hours after she went missing, the suit suggests that law enforcement should have found Autumn sooner, perhaps while she was still alive.
Citing an "agreement with all parties," but divulging no details about that agreement, the prosecutor's office said the civil litigation ended May 31 with a "stipulation of voluntary dismissal." In addition to the county prosecutor, named defendants included Gloucester County itself, as well as the New Jersey State Police, and local police departments in Clayton and Glassboro, plus Elk, Franklin and Monroe townships, along with several of their officers.
To the outside world, the search for Autumn appeared to be thorough and diligent. It involved scores of local volunteers as well as the public safety agencies above. One can appreciate that family members would think that had the searchers not left that one stone unturned, the result would have been different.
The lawsuit dismissal should give the public assurance that law enforcement did not "botch" the Autumn Pasquale case. The searchers and their coordinators performed their jobs adequately and conscientiously, even if the parameters were not to the family's liking.
Nonetheless, the existence of an "agreement" about which no details have been disclosed permits some ambiguity to persist. Are there stipulations for investigators to improve their procedures? The lawsuit claims that the county should have initiated a "Child Abduction Response Team," which is apparently a more structured search protocol.
One reason we oppose "sealed" settlements of lawsuits against government units is that this denies public access to facts that could reveal a taxpayer-funded agency's pattern of inadequate training or prohibited behavior, such as sexual harassment. The Pasquale family suit ended in a dismissal, not a settlement, but the principle applies. We hope there is no formal "non-disclosure" language.
If the agreement with the family requires or recommends any changes in policing techniques, we should all know. Law enforcement cannot always do a perfect job, but it can always be prompted to do a better job.
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