Police department to pay millions to mom whose girls were kidnapped, killed by dad
A settlement has been reached between two officers with the York County Regional Police Department and the estate of two girls who were killed by their father in 2021.
A judge ordered York County Regional Police to pay $3 million to Marisa Vicosa, who accused its leadership of failing to adequately respond to the abduction of her daughters by their father, Robert Vicosa, who eventually killed them.
Robert Vicosa, a former Baltimore County Police Officer, invited Marisa Vicosa to celebrate a birthday his home on Nov. 12, 2021, but instead held her in his basement, and with the help of accomplice Tia Bynum, he tortured, drugged and raped her.
After she escaped two days later, he took his daughters and fled to Maryland, where he eventually killed Bynum and his daughters — 6-year-old Aaminah and 7-year-old Giana. He then killed himself.
Harold Goodman, Marisa Vicosa’s lawyer, called the situation tragic.
“However, actions by law enforcement could and likely would have made a difference between their lives and deaths,” Goodman said.
Goodman filed the settlement on Tuesday, and York County Judge Clyde W. Vedder approved it Friday.
When Marisa Vicosa convinced Robert Vicosa to let her leave their former home on Pleader Lane in Windsor Township, York County, on Nov. 14, she reported the situation to Corporal Dan Miller, who assembled a team and was prepared to respond immediately, according to a lawsuit that was never filed because the settlement was reached.
However, Miller’s response hinged on approval from superiors such as York County Regional Police Department Lieutenant Kenneth Schollenberger and Chief Tim Damon. The two quashed any plan for initial response to the hostage situation, according to the unfiled lawsuit.
“Her children continued to remain in the custody of the man who had just raped and tortured her over three days, and who had repeatedly threatened to kill her children,” the unfiled lawsuit wrote.
Instead, they agreed to get an emergency protection from abuse order against Robert Vicosa, and a search warrant for the residence that night. However, a decision was made to delay service of the search warrant until Monday, Nov. 15, when police assumed the girls would be at school.
They didn’t know the girls were homeschooled.
By the time police searched the home at 3 p.m. Nov. 15, Robert Vicosa had fled with the girls.
Police also searched the home of Bynum — Bynum was home at the time, according to the unfiled lawsuit — but did not arrest her despite knowing she helped abduct and torture Marisa Vicosa.
The York County Regional Police Department’s insurance carrier, EMC Insurance, will pay the costs of the settlement, according to Goodman.
Of the total, $400,000 will go to Marisa Vicosa for the emotional distress she endured as a consequence of the childrens’ deaths. Meanwhile, $800,000 will be paid to each of the children’s estates, which are overseen by their mother.
The remaining $1 million will go to Goodman’s firm, Raynes and Lawn, to cover its legal fees.
“We and Ms. Vicosa are grateful not just for the settlement but for the opportunity for this and other police departments throughout Pennsylvania to work in depth and cooperatively with district attorney offices to eliminate, or vastly limit, these sorts of tragedies from ever recurring,” Goodman said.
York County Regional Police Chief Tim Damon did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Goodman said he and Vicosa will host a press conference regarding the settlement sometime in the next two weeks.
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