Police last week arrested a 49-year-old Norwalk man by warrant and charged him with second-degree harassment and 23 counts of violation of a protective order, a felony offense.
The man, who is going through a divorce, has repeatedly called for police to perform welfare checks on his children, who have been with his wife in New Canaan, court documents show.
His wife has said the man “constantly calls NCPD to do welfare checks on her and her two children,” according to an arrest warrant application filed by New Canaan Police and signed in May by the prosecuting attorney and state Superior Court Judge Bruce Hudock.
The estranged pair split custody of their children and a protective order is already in place against the man, the police affidavit said.
The victim told police that at about 7:30 p.m. on May 11, the man appeared at her New Canaan home “with flowers that he bought for her.”
When she asked what he was doing there, “he stated that he had gotten her the flowers for Mothers Day and he wanted to give her money for child support,” according to the arrest warrant application, obtained by NewCanaanite.com. The man asked where she was going and the victim said she didn’t have to tell him “but decided to anyway and told him she was going out to dinner with her friend,” it said.
About two hours later, the woman told police, two of their children called her to say that their dad had phoned them and threatened self-harm. One of the juvenile children was “screaming in terror in the background” and she “wasn’t able to calm down the juveniles” until she got home at about 11 p.m., the police affidavit said.
On May 14, he phoned his estranged wife’s mother to inquire after a child who was unwell, and then began complaining about the victim, the arrest warrant application said.
Under a protective order, the man is forbidden from contacting the protected person in any way as well as others.
The victim told police that the man “has been abusive to her for many years and continues to harass her,” the affidavit said, and that she fears for her life when he is under the influence of alcohol. (He had been told in the past that it’s unacceptable to use police to harass the victim through welfare checks, the application said.)
Hudock signed the arrest warrant on May 28, and New Canaan Police took custody of the man at state Superior Court in Stamford on July 16. According to Connecticut Judicial Branch records, he faces several other charges including disorderly conduct.
The man is being held on $10,000 bond—reduced by the court from an initial amount of $35,000—and is next scheduled to appear Sept. 12 in state Superior Court.
More information is available here on the NCPD website.
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.