Man Charged After Calls: 2006 Court Order Prohibited Contact
By Vanessa De La Torre, The Hartford Courant, Conn.
Feb. 12–NEWINGTON — – A 30-year-old New Britain man was being held on $250,000 bail after his ex-girlfriend told police that he called her about 30 times over a two-hour span on Super Bowl Sunday despite a protective order forbidding contact, authorities said Monday.
Raul Cruz, who lives at 118 Biruta St., faces charges of second-degree harassment and violating a protective order in connection with the Feb. 3 string of calls to the woman’s cellphone and workplace during her evening shift at the Atlanta Bread cafe on the Berlin Turnpike.
Cruz was at Superior Court in New Britain on Friday to deal with separate charges involving the 23-year-old woman, who is the mother of his daughter, when Newington police served Cruz with an arrest warrant. In the other case, New Britain police charged Cruz with risk of injury to a child, second-degree reckless endangerment, interfering with an emergency call, second-degree harassment, second-degree breach of peace and violating a protective order following a Jan. 17 dispute.
The protective order was issued on Dec. 12, 2006, according to court documents.
At 7:20 p.m. on Feb. 3, Officer William Jordan was dispatched to Atlanta Bread after the woman reported numerous calls. She told Jordan that when she picked up the phone, Cruz said he was upset that he wasn’t able to spend time with their daughter on the girl’s birthday, which had been the previous day, according to an arrest warrant affidavit.
The woman also said that the state Department of Children and Families advised her to avoid contact with him, but that Cruz continues to “harass” her on a daily basis even though their 3 1/2 -year relationship ended four months ago, the affidavit says.
As the woman spoke, “I heard the restaurant’s phone ring continuously,” Jordan wrote in the affidavit. The phone’s Caller ID indicated that Cruz was on the other line, so Jordan picked up the phone and identified himself as a police officer, then asked to meet Cruz somewhere so he could speak to him in person, the affidavit says.
“Cruz became belligerent, stating that I would need a helicopter to find him and that he didn’t want to get arrested on Super Bowl Sunday,” Jordan wrote. Cruz also “advised me that he had a ‘large gun’ and that he was currently” at the woman’s home in Middletown.
When asked whether he planned to hurt his ex-girlfriend, “Cruz refused to answer me,” Jordan wrote.
Police searched the Middletown home and Cruz’s New Britain residence that evening, but didn’t find him, the affidavit says. A text message that Cruz sent to the woman as she spoke to police seemed to indicate that he was nearby all along: “You’re still there, stop talking to them, I see you.”
Newington police on Friday originally held Cruz on $50,000 bail, but Judge Joan K. Alexander raised it to $250,000 later that day. Cruz’s next court date was scheduled for Feb. 29.
Contact Vanessa de la Torre at .
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