A lawyer for Venetta Benjamin, whose 3-month-old infant daughter was allegedly kidnapped and thrown from the Driscoll Bridge on Tuesday (Feb 16th) by the baby’s father, said she attempted to get a restraining order against him the day before but was turned away by the East Orange Police.
In a brief e-mailed statement this afternoon, Mitchell Liebowitz said his client sought a restraining order against the father, Shamsid-Din Abdur-Raheem, on Monday, at 10:30 a.m.
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“It was Presidents’ Day, and the Family Court was closed,” Liebowitz wrote. “Tragically, the East Orange Police Department turned her away — without contacting the on-call judge — telling her she should go to the Family Court in Newark the next day.”
East Orange Police Chief Ronald Borgo today said the officers’ actions that day were “under investigation as we speak. We’re looking into it,” he said. The chief would not comment on the e-mail itself.
Liebowitz called the East Orange Police Department’s action “completely contrary to law and established procedures.”
State Police boats scaled back their efforts Friday to find the 3-month-old girl, Zara Malani-Lin Abdur Raheem, after three days of intense searching.
Abdur-Raheem, 21, is accused of kidnapping Zara Malani-Lin Tuesday from her grandmother’s East Orange home. Abdur-Raheem struck the woman with his car when she tried to stop him, police said. He then drove south on the Garden State Parkway to the Driscoll Bridge, where he threw her into the Raritan River, according to the account authorities say Abdur-Raheem gave after his arrest.
Abdur-Raheem has pleaded not guilty to kidnapping the baby and attempted murder charges relating to his actions against the grandmother.
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