COP CHARGED WITH ASSAULT
PART-TIME OFFICER IN BETHEL AND RIDLEY PARK ARRESTED IN DOMESTIC DISTURBANCE
PROSPECT PARK » A part-time Bethel Township and Ridley Park police officer is charged with simple assault and related offenses for a domestic disturbance in which he allegedly told a woman he was going to “f—-ing kill her and bury her.”
Johnathan Thomas Lazaro, 28, of the 800 block of Chester Pike, is also charged with harassment, terroristic threats, reckless endangerment and endangering the welfare of a child, according to an affidavit of probable cause for his arrest written by Prospect Park Police Sgt. Henry O’Neill.
The affidavit says Prospect Park officers responded to a domestic disturbance call about 10:52 p.m. Feb. 11 at the apartment Lazaro shared with an unidentified woman. Lazaro voluntarily left for the evening, the affidavit says, but returned sometime later.
Officers Eric Davis and Moira Cummings were called back to the apartment about 4:44 a.m. Feb. 12 for another domestic disturbance call. Dispatch was reporting an open line with a woman screaming for help and asking someone to call police, according to the affidavit, and several other tenants had also called 911 reporting a woman screaming.
The officers also heard the woman screaming for help as they approached the door, according to the affidavit. When they knocked, the alleged victim came rushing outside asking for help, the affidavit says.
Davis saw Lazaro kneeling at the top of the stairs holding a small child and had him re-enter the apartment for the child’s safety, according to the affidavit. Lazaro allegedly told Davis that he went to a bar where he consumed alcohol and had only returned to take the child to his parents’ house.
The alleged victim told the officers Lazaro was angry and visibly under the influence of alcohol when he came back, the affidavit says. Lazaro allegedly asked for the woman’s cell phone and she refused to hand it over.
“The victim reported Lazaro kept getting more and more aggressive and threw her on the bed while she was holding their daughter in her arms,” according to the affidavit. “The victim reported that she told Lazaro she as calling 911 and he said he would ‘f—-ing kill her and bury her’ before she could get to her phone and call 911.”
The alleged victim provided a written statement and photographs were taken of injuries to her arms and neck, the affidavit says. Lazaro was taken into custody and arraigned before Magisterial District Judge W. Keith Williams II Feb. 12, according to court documents. He posted
$2,500 cash bail the same day. Daily Times records indicate Lazaro was hired as a part-time Ridley Park officer in February
2020. Ridley Park Police Chief Robert Frazier said this week that Lazaro is no longer on the schedule there and has not been for a while, though he is neither officially suspended nor terminated. Frazier said Lazaro had only been working a day or two here or there for some time and he could not recall the last time Lazaro was on
“The victim reported Lazaro kept getting more and more aggressive and threw her on the bed while she was holding their daughter in her arms. The victim reported that she told Lazaro she as calling 911 and he said he would ‘f—-ing kill her and bury her’ before she could get to her phone and call 911.”
— According to the affidavit
Daily Times records indicate Lazaro was hired as a parttime Ridley Park officer in February 2020. Ridley Park Police Chief Robert Frazier said this week that Lazaro is no longer on the schedule there and has not been for a while, though he is neither officially suspended nor terminated. Frazier said Lazaro had only been working a day or two here or there for some time and he could not recall the last time Lazaro was on the roster.
the roster.
“He’s not working for us,” Frazier said.
Bethel Township Police Chief John Egan said Lazaro, who also joined that force in February 2020, has been taken off the schedule “indefinitely” and is not collecting a paycheck. Egan said any other steps the department takes will be determined by how the case proceeds.
“I did speak with him, he doesn’t wish to fight us taking him off the schedule and we’ll see what shakes out in the preliminary hearing,” said Egan. “If it passes the prelim, it will be another thing we’ll have to deal with at that time.”
Egan described Lazaro as a good officer with no disciplinary issues during his first year with the department.
“It is what it is,” said Egan. “We have to sit back and see if it’s held for court and that’s one of the $64,000 questions, is when is court going to occur. In normal times, the hearing would have taken place this week.”
A preliminary hearing was scheduled for Feb. 22 before Magisterial District Judge Jack D. Lippart, but did not appear to take place based on court recordings from that date. Online court records have not been updated to reflect whether the hearing was waived or continued. Defense attorney Robert J. Bush did not return a call seeking comment.