New Haven Independent

LaFleur, a 33 year-old New Haven man, offered that alibi Thursday as he took the stand in in Connecticut Superior Courtroom 6B on Church Street to defend himself against charges that he assaulted two different women on separate occasions on West Division Street in Newhallville.

It was an unusual turn in a trial that veered off script this week, as a key witness changed her story on the stand.

A day before LaFleur decided to testify, two key witnesses in the case against him took the stand — the two women he allegedly beat up.

The first witness repeated the story she originally told police last Aug. 21. She said LaFleur punched her repeatedly in the face. Several of her facial bones were fractured.

She was followed on the stand by the officer who originally interviewed her at the emergency room. “Her right eye was swollen shut,” testified the officer, Katherine Bisson. “Her left eye was half closed.” LaFleur was charged with assault in the first degree and violating the conditions of his release from incarceration for a previous offense.

Then came the alleged victim in the second case. The state has accused LaFleur of punching her on July 24, 2008; then repeatedly telephoning and coming to her window on March 29, 2009, in violation of a protective order. He was charged with third-degree assault and violating a protective order, in that instance, and again when he had verbal and physical contact with the second victim in front of a Kimberly Avenue barbershop where he works.

That’s what she told the police happened at the time. But when Assistant State’s Attorney James Clark asked her to repeat the story on the stand Wednesday, her memory failed her.

“I can’t remember,” she repeatedly told Clark. In frustration, Clark finally asked her what had caused the drastic change in her story. She met the question with a stare and further silence. After extended questioning, she recanted her statements from both July and March.

She had more information to offer LaFleur’s defense attorney, Walter Bansley (pictured at the top of the story).

Four hours before the alleged incident on July 24, she testified, she discovered that another woman was pregnant with LaFleur’s child. She was angry with him. That led her to go to the police. Responding to questions surrounding the March events, she testified to being bipolar and schizophrenic.

The next witness was Stephanija Ban Weljin the officer who had responded to the July events. Clark objected to most of Bansley’s questions about what happened that day. Since the victim recanted her testimony, Clark argued, the questions were hearsay, and therefore irrelevant.

Towards the end of the officer’s testimony, Bansley asked, “Is the state going to keep chuckling?”

A Familiar Alibi?

With the state’s case on the ropes, Bansley and LaFleur returned to court Thursday with a surprise: LaFleur would testify in his own defense. That doesn’t regularly happen in these cases.

Asked why he agreed to let LaFleur testify, Bansley stated that his client is articulate. “It was important to hear from him,” Bansley said, since “the allegations were of a he/she said nature.”

But LaFleur might not have ended up helping his case.

On the stand, LaFleur responded first to Bansley’s questions.

He testified that on the night of the first alleged assault, last August, he was elsewhere, in his own trouble: He claimed he’d been jumped by several men and thrown into a black car. He was then driven to the home of an acquaintance, where he was stripped naked, he said. He said his attackers then dragged him outside where he was able to escape. He reported the incident the next morning to the police, he said.

Did you assault the victim in this case? Bansley asked LaFleur.

“No, I did not,” he responded.

When it came time for Clark to cross-examine him, the prosecutor zeroed in on details of the alibi.

LaFleur had originally told the jury he did not know the victim of the August assault well. They met at a charity basketball game, and she occasionally came by his house, he said. Clark continued to probe.

“She was a runaway,” LaFleur said. “I was just being friendly.” Clark wondered aloud why he had not shared more details about the victim earlier.

Clark also reviewed police incidents involving the LaFleur and the second victim, including one on April 23, 2005, when she accused him of kicking her. LaFleur told the police that at the time of the accusation he was being chased. Furthermore, he told police that an unknown man had attempted to assault him.

“Sounds awfully familiar to the story you are making up” now about the first assault, Clark remarked.

Clark added to that suggestion with the testimony Friday of Officer Nicholas Marcucio. Marcucio was among the officers to whom LaFleur reported being assaulted by a group of men in 2008.

Clark asked him if he had observed bruises or other injuries on LaFleur’s body at the time. “No,” Marcucio answered.

Final arguments are scheduled to begin on Monday.