Recent Bergen County Murders Highlight 'Shadow Pandemic'

Mahwah NJ

12 November, 2021

12:17 PM

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BERGEN COUNTY, NJ — Two recent Bergen County murders are highlighting a problem that public health experts and domestic violence advocates have spoken about since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic: domestic violence. As people were increasingly in the home during much of 2020 and 2021, reports of domestic violence cases have risen sharply. In New Jersey, calls to Center for Hope and Safety's 24/7 hotline increased by 46% during the pandemic. During that time, the Center answered more than 6,150 calls, some of which took place during moments of violence. Keep up to date with what's happening in your community by subscribing to your local Patch newsletter here. "As the impacts of COVID-19 continue to threaten the health and safety of our community, the need for our domestic violence programs and services is more critical than ever," said Julye Myner, PhD, Executive Director of Center for Hope and Safety, "All of us at Center for Hope and Safety are extremely concerned about the increase in domestic violence during this extraordinarily stressful time." Two October murders in Bergen County could potentially tie in to this trend. Jason Vicari, 21, of Wyckoff, was charged with murder following a SWAT standoff outside a home at 24 Beechwood Ave. in Elmwood Park, and the death of 81-year-old Ronald Vicari, his grandfather, the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office said. In the nearby Township of Washington, Patrick J. Camilli survived a self-inflicted stab wound, but is charged in the murder of 51-year-old Mary E. Huber, who he lived with. These two murders are just the latest examples in Bergen County, but aren't the only ones to have taken place in what are generally considered fairly sleepy suburbs. In Mahwah, two murders involving either a roommate or a spouse have been reported in 2021. Dieter Zimmerman was charged with the murder of his wife in January 2021 after prosecutors said he stabbed her to death with a kitchen knife, and Milan Ghimire, 23, was charged with murdering his roommate, 56-year-old Phu Tsewang, in their shared Mahwah apartment in July. It's important to note that only the murder of Zimmerman's wife was explicitly described by prosecutors as an act of domestic violence, but the other three do fit some of the troubling trends reported by advocates. Speaking during a New Jersey Business and Industry Association webinar during the summer of 2020, Rosanne DeTorres, a managing partner at DeTorres & DeGeorge Family Law with a long track record of working domestic violence cases, said that domestic violence cases didn't spike during March and April 2020, but then jumped during June and July. At the time, DeTorres said "there's been an explosion of domestic violence behavior and court appearances." In a report published in the New Jersey Law Journal, Family law expert Bari Z. Weinberger and coauthor Dan Pollack, professor of social work at Yeshiva University, analyzed domestic violence outcomes from the spring and summer of 2020 using arrest data from the Newark Department of Public Safety and restraining order data provided by the NJ Superior Courts. That report found two pieces of striking data. According to the report, arrest data samples for 2020 and 2018 from Newark revealed domestic violence arrests were lower in early March 2020 than in early March 2018, but began to increase in late March. Those figures remained elevated through July 2020, as they related to 2018 figures. In its own analysis, the report said, the Newark Department of Public Safety reported 188 domestic violence incidents from March 21 through April 7, an 18% increase over the same period in 2019. Second, NJ Superior Court data "showed relatively low numbers of requests" for temporary restraining orders while courts were closed during the early days of the pandemic. As courts reopened, however, things changed. From late July to mid-September, total requests rose sharply compared to pre-March levels, the report found. The economic impacts of the coronavirus pandemic cannot be understated when pinpointing where the problem comes from. Partners for Women and Justice and the Seton Hall Law School Center for Social Justice published a report that articulated many of the indicators and stressors heighting these instances of abuse, calling domestic violence during the era of COVID-19 a "shadow pandemic." According to the report, "the economic impacts of COVID-19, including job losses, housing instability, and lack of child care, are increasing the risk of domestic violence especially for survivors of color. At the same time, pandemic-related economic stressors have limited the ability of survivors to leave abusive relationships." Additionally, the pandemic has made already uneven power dynamics even more troubling. "COVID-19 has enabled people who abuse their intimate partners to use longstanding power and control tactics such as isolation, coercion, and threats, in new and chilling ways to prevent domestic violence survivors from seeking help to escape abuse," the report said. As the saying goes, the first step to fixing a problem is acknowledging that there is one. Consider that box checked. So how can the state better help victims? The report from Partners for Women and Justice and the Seton Hall Law School Center for Social Justice also offered "recommendations for promoting safety for domestic violence survivors and their children as the pandemic continues and during the recovery." The report found that New Jersey had actually acted swiftly in providing resources for survivors and the agencies that provide them aid. Nonetheless, however, there is still more that could be done, they said. Here are their recommendations for what lawmakers and officials can do: "Allocate financial resources to address the long-term affordable housing needs of domestic violence survivorsProvide financial support to maximize access for survivors and their children to mental health treatment including services which meet their linguistically and culturally diverse needsIncrease transparency in reporting of domestic violence related data and examining data collection practices to ensure that timely review of comprehensive data will inform best practices and policy choicesPursue policies designed to address structural economic and racial inequalities which contribute substantially to the problem of domestic violence" Read the full report here.