By Kevin Shea | NJ.com
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HUNTERDON COUNTY, N.J. — A grand jury has indicted the Hunterdon County police sergeant authorities say criminally mishandled 911 calls reporting gunshots and screaming near the home where a woman and her boyfriend were later found shot dead.
A grand jury indicted Kevin Bollaro, a suspended Franklin Township officer, on official misconduct, a second-degree felony, for his actions surrounding the murders of Lauren Semanchik and Tyler Webb — who were killed by a New Jersey State Police trooper.
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The 52-year-old also faces the charge of tampering with public records, a non-indictable disorderly persons charge. The Hunterdon County Prosecutor’s Office has said Bollaro lied about his movements in his report of the incident.
On the evening of Aug. 1, 2025, a dispatcher alerted Bollaro to three 911 calls near Semanchik’s home, all reporting gunshots and screaming. Bollaro acknowledged them, but did a substandard job investigating, only speaking to one caller — without his body cam activated — and then went for pizza, the prosecutor’s office has said.
Bollaro, after receiving the first call, drove in the opposite direction and went to an ATM. While there, the second call came in.
After the third call, he drove to the Upper Kingtown Road area, where Semanchik lived, without his lights or siren activated. When he arrived, 17 minutes had elapsed.
As Semanchik and Webb lay dead or dying at her home, Bollaro spent a total of 12 minutes investigating and was once about 562 feet from Semanchik’s house, the prosecutor’s office alleges.
The couple had been dating a few months and her father found them the next morning, outside, when he arrived at her home expecting to accompany her to a local festival.
Semanchik’s ex, State Police Lt. Ricardo J. Santos, killed them and then took his own life in Middlesex County.
Webb, 29, a mechanic and volunteer firefighter from Ocean County , and Semanchik, 33, a beloved veterinarian in Long Valley, in Morris County, started dating in May 2024 after meeting at a pop-punk concert in Asbury Park.
Bollaro’s lawyer, Charles J. Sciarra, said the prosecutor’s office will ultimately regret the indictment.
“At the absolute very worst, Kevin Bollaro, with an unblemished record for 24 plus years, did a bad job at his job on that day. That is not a crime and they cannot make it one, no matter how much some people hate cops,” Sicarra said in a statement.
The lawyer said the facts will show the calls were handled like the hundreds of other shots fired calls, “with or without yelling,” that local Hunterdon County police deal with. “We have researched and obtained thousands of dispatch call records and the court will hear how common these calls were and how routine were the responses.”
“But worst is the torment that these families will endure,” the statement went on. “Their loved ones were assassinated at close range by a maniac who then went and killed himself and nothing Kevin Bollaro did or did not do could change any of that.”
Sciarra said he understand the families want justice. “They will not get it from the criminal prosecution of Kevin Bollaro , a local police officer who had nothing to do with any of this domestic violence tragedy and was just starting his shift when these calls came in some time after their loved ones were murdered. My heart breaks for them.”
The investigation into the murders led the prosecutor’s office to take day-to-day control of the Franklin Township police department last August. The office in May of this year returned to local control with new leadership.
Semanchik’s family and their lawyers have maintained that police agencies failed Semanchik multiple times, from when she and Santos ended their relationship in late 2024, and the trooper started stalking and harassing her, to the evening she and Webb died.
And both victim’s families plan to sue three police departments for an array of failures, their lawyers announced last month.
The Hunterdon prosecutor’s office previously said they have footage from Semanchik’s vehicle — which she installed — which shows Santos following her home from work Friday evening, Aug. 1, 2025.
Santos approached Semanchik’s property on foot — at about 6 p.m.
Webb arrived at the home at about 6:45 p.m.
The first 911 call arrived at dispatch at 7:08 p.m. from a resident at 41 Upper Kingtown Road who reported gunshots and screaming. Semanchik lived at 39 Upper Kingtown.
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