WESTFIELD – City police officers have sought a warrant to arrest a Union Street resident after an altercation which began when his girlfriend found something unexpected in his pocket.
Police report that a tenant of a Union Street housing complex came to the station Friday afternoon to complain that her boyfriend had assaulted her.
Officer Michael Ruffo responded to speak with the complainant and reports that he immediately noticed small injuries in the area of her right eye.
The woman told Ruffo that her boyfriend had “stumbled” into her apartment about 2 a.m. that morning, obviously drunk.
She said that he told her that her cell phone, which he uses, had been damaged before he got into bed and went to sleep.
The woman said that, after her boyfriend passed out, she looked in his pockets for the phone but first found a condom.
Since he does not use a condom when he is with her, she took it as prima facie evidence that her boyfriend was unfaithful to her, Ruffo reports.
The woman told him that she called a relative to investigate his apparent faithlessness and, while she was on the phone, the man woke up and struck the phone away from her.
The victim said that he punched her repeatedly before going downstairs to sleep.
In the morning, the victim said, she confronted her boyfriend about his actions the night before but he said he had been too drunk to remember anything which had happened.
The woman said she subsequently decided, after speaking with a family member, to report the assault to police.
Ruffo reports that while he was speaking with the victim the suspect called her. He reports that he asked the suspect to come to the station to offer his account of the events in question but the man declined to cooperate.
The victim said that the man is homeless so Ruffo applied for an arrest warrant for a charge of assault and battery in domestic relationship.
That evening, at 8:55 p.m., the victim called police to report that her home had been broken into.
Officer Seth Florek responded and reports he found that a screen had been removed from a kitchen window and the window had been shattered to gain access.
The victim said that a neighbor told her that her former boyfriend had been seen breaking into the apartment.
A charge of breaking and entering was added to the warrant application.
The victim said that the only things which appeared to be missing were her former boyfriend’s clothes, personal property and a plastic bin which he may have used to carry his belongings.
The woman said that the bin is her property.
The suspect was also charged with larceny of property valued less than $250.
