Police last week arrested a 48-year-old New Canaan man by warrant after receiving a report earlier in the day that he’d threatened to kill his wife in her sleep.
At about 12:04 p.m. on May 28, a Thursday, Officer John Barlosky was dispatched to a Parade Hill Road home “on a mandated report from a therapist, reporting ongoing abuse,” according to an affidavit from Barlosky that forms the major part of an arrest warrant application signed the same day by state Superior Court judge John Blawie.
According to the reporting therapist, working out of a Westport office, a patient had come into a session that day “with numerous bruises on her arms” and told the therapist that her husband had “threatened to kill her in her sleep with a knife,” the affidavit said.
The therapist told police that the victim had been in their care for several months “and that she is the subject of both verbal and physical abuse regularly and it’s becoming increasingly worse,” Barlosky said in the affidavit. The husband also is “beginning to be verbally abusive in front of other people in public,” the arrest warrant application said.
Officers traveled to the Parade Hill Road home to interview the victim. There, Barlosky “observed multiple bruises on Victim 1’s arms and she was upset and crying,” the application said. The knife threat had been made about two weeks prior, the victim told authorities.
“She stated that she believes her husband is capable of attempting to kill her,” it said.
Officers stayed with the victim, saying “she should pack a bag for her and her 2 children, and leave the home,” the arrest warrant application said.
“When asked about the bruises on her arms, she stated she did not want to talk about it,” it said. Asked whether there had been prior domestic incidents, she nodded yes, though police hadn’t been called, the affidavit said.
Police ran the victim through a domestic violence “lethality screen” and she scored high. Police then called the Lethality Assessment Program or “LAP” line, explaining to a therapist there the details of the victim’s situation. During a private conversation with the LAP therapist, the victim “seemed to be open to their resources,” the arrest warrant application said.
Police told the victim that they could get her into a safe house that night, “to which she responded that she’s waiting for a callback from the therapist after they took her initial information.”
After providing the victim with the resources “and urging her to take this matter seriously,” we left the residence, Barlosky said in the affidavit, as the victim said she was “nervous about her husband coming home and seeing cops in the driveway.”
Police charged the man with second-degree threatening and disorderly conduct. He turned himself in at about 6:08 p.m. that Thursday. The man was held on $100,000 bond overnight and scheduled to appear in state Superior Court the following day. According to Connecticut Judicial Branch records, the man has not yet pleaded. He was released by the court after promising to appear July 28.
The Domestic Violence Crisis Center in Stamford provides services, support and education for the prevention and elimination of domestic violence. Its 24-hour hotline is 888-774-2900. To reach DVCC offices during regular business hours, the number is 203-588-9100. Services are free and confidential, multilingual and multicultural. Here’s a podcast with the organization’s executive director.