JULIE MARILYN KVARNSTROM
WESTFIELD – A city woman was arrested Monday after the allegedly threw her cup of hot coffee at a clerk who refused to sell her cigarettes.
Officers Charles Kielbasa and John Barnachez responded to an 11:06 a.m. call from a North Elm Street convenience store and an employee directed them to two women in the store who he said had been involved in the incident. The officers found the women to be visibly upset and crying. The elder woman said she was having a bad day and admitted that she had thrown coffee at the clerk when she refused to serve her.
Kielbasa reports he spoke with the clerk and immediately observed the skin on her chest to be reddened. The woman said she was in pain and asked for medical treatment. An ambulance was summoned.
The officer reports that, while the woman was waiting for the ambulance, the clerk told him what had happened.
The clerk said that a young woman had asked for a pack of cigarettes and, in keeping with store policy, she had asked for proof of age.
When the woman did not document her age, the clerk refused to sell her cigarettes. The woman went back to her companion and spoke briefly, the clerk said and the older woman then approached the clerk.
The clerk told Kielbasa that the elder woman asked to buy a pack of the same brand of cigarettes that her younger companion had asked for and the clerk refused to sell the older woman the cigarettes.
The customer then, the clerk said, called her an insulting name and threw the contents of the coffee cup she was holding at her.
The suspect was identified as Julie Marilyn Kvarnstrom, 46, of 6 Grant St., and was arrested for assault and battery with a dangerous weapon.
The clerk was transported by Fire Department ambulance to Noble Hospital where she was treated and released.
Kielbasa spoke with the manager who said that the coffee offered in the store is brewed between 196 and 200 degrees Fahrenheit. The manager brewed a new batch of coffee and showed Kielbasa that the heat of the newly brewed coffee was 198 degrees.
Kvarnstrom appeared in Westfield District Court before Judge Philip A. Contant on Tuesday and was released on her personal recognizance pending a Dec. 14 hearing.
