Police: CT man accused of touching kids in stores arrested again
A Plymouth man with a history of being accused of having inappropriate contact with children in Connecticut stores was arrested again this week on similar charges, police said.
Anthony Anselmo, 64, of the Terryville section of town, turned himself in to police Monday after being accused of touching an autistic girl in the Newington Savers store in May, police said.
Anselmo has been charged with third-degree sexual assault, risk of injury to a minor and breach of peace, police said. He was released on $160,000 bail and is due in state Superior Court in New Britain June 27.
According to police, a witness notified authorities on May 14 after she learned a man had touched a 13-yearold girl in the thrift store at 3137 Berlin Turnpike. Officers responded, but the man was gone.
The woman told police she saw an “older white male” watch the girl and follow her around the store when the child was shopping with her mother, police said.
At one point, after the girl walked down an aisle away from her mom, the witness saw the man follow her, police said. The witness then heard some commotion and asked the girl what happened, police said.
The girl responded that the man “touched her,” according to police, who described the girl as having autism. The woman told the girl’s mother, who followed the man into the parking lot, police said.
The man ran to a black Harley motorcycle and took off south on the Berlin Turnpike, according to police.
Police determined the man had gone into the store about two hours earlier and they identified him as Anselmo.
Anselmo is accused of being involved in a similar incident in a Danbury Dollar Tree on Oct. 17, 2020. In that case, police said he “very quickly” reached under the jacket of a girl while she was holding her mother’s hand and grabbed the girl’s breast, according to the warrant for his arrest.
Police charged him in that incident with fourth-degree sexual assault, risk of injury to a minor and breach of peace on Jan. 9, 2021. Anselmo denied having had physical contact with a child in the store and pleaded not guilty in state Superior Court in Danbury, where he remains on the trial list, according to court records.
He also faces similar charges in West Hartford, where he was charged with fourth-degree sexual assault and risk of injury on Oct. 28, 2020. Details about those allegations weren’t available Wednesday.
Anselmo hasn’t entered a plea yet in that case. He is next due in Hartford court July 12.
Ashley Richard, assistant public defender at the Hartford courthouse, declined to comment Wednesday.