Man arrested in connection with 20-year-old sex assaults

MIDDLETOWN — A city man was arrested late last month and charged with allegedly repeatedly sexual assaulting a minor two decades ago, according to Middletown police.

Cromwell police contacted Middletown police July 7, saying the case they had been investigating turned out to have occurred in Middletown, the town where the victim lived, according to a warrant.

A Cromwell officer met with the victim April 30, after she reported a 20-year-old spate of sexual assaults when the individual was 9, according to court documents.

The victim identified Jeffrey Labonte of Bailey Road, Meriden, as the perpetrator, the report said.

At the time, the victim was staying with Labonte because her mother had been badly injured and was in the intensive care unit for 18 days, according to the warrant.

The mother and Labonte had been in a relationship, authorities said. The victim, who reported seven sexual assaults, said she stayed there with other children, and was “forced” to sleep in a room with Labonte, according to court documents.

one incident, the victim said, she felt “in fear for her life,” the report said.

Labonte allegedly told the victim if she told her mother, she would be “disappointed” and “what we do and talk about should be kept a secret,” which he reportedly said in the hospital while waiting to see the mother, and in a car.

When the victim was about 19, in 2013, Labonte was arrested in Plainville for first-degree sexual assault of his daughter, the report said. That was confirmed by Plainville police, the warrant said.

The victim said she reported the assaults to college officials after hearing of the 2015 conviction, and “realized how close she was to being raped,” the warrant said. The mother, who was interviewed in May, allegedly told authorities that, in December 2019, the victim told her she was sexually assaulted in 2003.

When her daughter would visit during the 18 days she was in ICU, the mother said the girl appeared “traumatized, saddened, and even terrified,” according to court docuDuring ments, but she attributed it to her being hooked up to equipment.

In 2013, the mother asked Labonte if he had touched her daughter inappropriately, which he allegedly declined.

Labonte turned himself in to Middletown police on an outstanding warrant Aug. 27, according to a report.

He was charged with three felonies — illegal sexual contact, sexual assault with use or threat of force, and sexual assault with a victim under 15. Labonte was released from custody after being issued a $50,000 bond and is due back in court Oct. 25.

Labonte