A 31-year-old New Haven police officer was arraigned in state court Monday on three domestic-violence charges stemming from his alleged beating up and choking of his girlfriend — who is also a New Haven police officer — during a late-night dispute.
Those details are included in a three-page arrest warrant affidavit written on Jan. 27 by North Branford Police Sgt. Jeffery Leiby.
The affidavit — which was released by the state judicial branch to the Independent Monday afternoon — shines a light on what sparked the arrest on Friday of a seven-year veteran New Haven police officer on charges of third-degree assault, second-degree unlawful restraint, and third-degree strangulation.
The city police department put out a press release late Friday night announcing the arrest, and stating that Acting Police Chief Renee Dominguez has put the arrested officer on administrative leave while the city police department conducts its own parallel investigation.
Friday’s arrest marked at least the seventh New Haven police officer in the past four years to be arrested on a domestic violence charge. Click here and here for previous stories about some of those cases.
According to a state judicial spokesperson, the arrested city police officer was arraigned in New Haven state court on Monday for the three domestic-violence charges listed above. (Per site policy, the Independent is not publishing the criminal defendant’s name until he offers his side of the story, enters a plea in the case, or is found guilty or innocent by the court system, or if we obtain independent evidence or confirmation.) The officer was released Monday on a $5,000 bond.
Leiby’s affidavit makes clear that both the criminal defendant and the victim in this alleged domestic violence case are New Haven police officers.
Leiby and fellow North Branford police officer (and former city police union President) Craig Miller interviewed “Victim #1” at around 5:07 a.m. on Jan. 25 in the police lobby of the North Branford Police Department.
She spoke with the North Branford officers while joined by yet another New Haven police officer, both of whom “were wearing their New Haven Police Department uniform and were on duty.”
"Grabbed Her And Threw Her On The Floor"
Victim #1 stated she had been dating the arrested officer for approximately two years. She said he had moved into his new residence in North Branford on Jan. 21.
The victim told the North Branford officers that she and her boyfriend “got into an argument” the previous weekend, and her boyfriend “didn’t want to speak with her.”
She said she texted her boyfriend “to try and fix things but he didn’t respond back to her.”
She then drove over to his North Branford residence at around 11 or 11:30 p.m. When she arrived, she said, she saw “an unfamiliar vehicle parked in his driveway.”
So she knocked on the front and side doors of the residence. When the boyfriend answered, she asked him whose vehicle was parked in the driveway, as she suspected he had “another female inside the residence and he told her not to worry about as it wasn’t any of her business.”
As the side door was open, the victim walked inside the residence to look for the suspected other woman. The boyfriend followed her around inside the residence, telling her there was no one else there.
When the victim went to open the basement door, she said, her boyfriend “grabbed her and threw her on the floor.” She said she tried to get up but he just kept throwing her on the floor and grabbing her.
“Victim #1 said she was being tossed around in the living room/kitchen area of the residence. Victim #1 said at one point [her boyfriend] had her on the couch and got on top on her (full mount) and started choking her with his hands. Victim #1 said during this time he was yelling at her to ‘get the fuck out’. She said she was in shock and didn’t know what to do and didn’t even fight back.”
She tried to grab her phone to record the incident, “but he snatched the phone out of her hand,” the victim said.
Eventually, she was able to get up and free herself from her boyfriend. She said she was going to leave, went to her car, and drove home.
Vomit. Urgent Care. Bruises. Concussion?
When she got home, the victim told North Branford police, “she began to vomit as she had hit her head on the floor during the incident.” The next morning, she went to an urgent care center in North Haven. She said she learned at that urgent care center she may have suffered a concussion and needed to go to the emergency room.
So she went to the emergency room, “but they were asking her too many questions and she didn’t want to make a report so she just left.”
As a result of this incident, the victim said, she “sustained bruises on her arms and that her entire body hurts.” She told the North Branford officers she didn’t want to report the incident because she cares about her boyfriend “and doesn’t want to get him in trouble.” She said this was the first time he had “ever gotten physical with her.”
The victim showed the two North Branford officers “some bruising on her right arm.” Leiby wrote that he saw “a large patch of significant bruising on her right arm between her elbow area and hand area.” She also later sent the officers a photograph showing “significant bruising on her left arm between her elbow and hand.”
Leiby wrote that, on Jan. 25, North Branford Police Sgt. Corey Lemmons and Officer Massimo Piroli responded to the boyfriend’s residence “for the purpose of securing two personal handguns/ammunition from him as well as attempt to speak with him regarding the incident.”
According to Leiby, the boyfriend “declined to speak with us regarding the incident or provide a statement.”
Leiby concluded the affidavit by requesting an arrest warrant be issued for the city police officer because he believes there is probable cause for the three domestic-violence charges.
Is the woman to be charged with trespass, assault, threatening??