Man accused of starting an apartment fire arrested for allegedly harassing ex-girlfriend
TRENTON — A city man whose ex-girlfriend accused him of igniting an apartment fire was arrested last week for allegedly harassing the woman.
Jermaine Monk, 37, is charged with stalking and terroristic threats.
According to law enforcement, around 11 p.m. Thursday, someone set an Eisenhower Avenue apartment on fire. No one was home at the time of the blaze, police say, and no injuries were reported. But about an hour and a half later, a woman called police and said that she believed her ex-boyfriend started the fire.
The woman told police that two days prior to the fire her ex-boyfriend Jermaine Monk threatened to kill her. The woman also said Monk called her family members and threatened to kill them. As a result of the woman’s statements, Officer Maurice Crosby then issued a terroristic complaint warrant for Monk’s arrest.
Meanwhile, as Detective Thomas Brophy was investigating the fire, he learned additional information that led him to issue a stalking complaint warrant for Monk’s arrest.
Both warrants were then turned over to TPD’s IMPAACT Unit, and Monk was arrested Friday at his Escher Street home.
Police say the cause of the fire remains under investigation, and that no one has been charged in connection with the blaze.
Meanwhile, Cherkera Stepps, who lived in that Eisenhower Avenue apartment, says she fears for her life because Trenton Housing Authority is planning to place her in a thirdfloor apartment in the same building.
“I don’t understand why THA would put me on the third floor of the same building where the apartment burned down,” Stepps said Tuesday afternoon. “It’s like they don’t care about anyone’s life.”
According to Stepps, Monk is her sister’s ex-boyfriend. And until two weeks ago, the two sisters hadn’t spoken in years, Stepps said.
“My sister told me that she was moving to Georgia and she wanted to spend the night at my house for two days,” Stepps said. “She didn’t tell me that her ex-boyfriend was trying to kill her, and she never told me he was threatening her until the fire happened.”
After the fire, the Red Cross placed Stepps and her three kids in a hotel where they still remained as of Tuesday afternoon. And Stepps said she was unable to salvage anything from the fire.
“Someone set my daughter’s room on fire, then set my bedroom on fire, and then he set the living room on fire,” Stepps said. “Everything was ruined. We don’t have any clothes; we don’t have anything.”