Taftville woman charged with assault after altercation

Norwich — A Taftville woman is accused of assaulting another woman with a wooden baseball bat at 1 Pratte Ave. on April 25.

Maria Fontaine, 44, has been charged with home invasion, second-degree assault and sixth-degree larceny. According to an arrest warrant filed by Norwich police Officer Benjamin Sawaryn, the victim told Sawaryn that she was attacked by a male and a female, later identified as Fontaine, as she was getting out of her parked car at her home. The male is not identified in the affidavit.

The victim further told Sawaryn she was pushed into a mud puddle before reaching her home. Fontaine and “involved participant #1,” the male, then allegedly chased the victim into her home, where she was kicked and beaten with “a small bat type object,” later determined to be the lower portion of a broken wooden baseball bat. Sawaryn notes in the affidavit that the victim had minor facial swelling and cuts and scratches. Soon after Sawaryn arrived to the scene, the victim was transported to Backus Hospital.

Sawaryn and another officer contacted the other alleged participant at his residence and took him into custody.

Witness 2, one of three witnesses mentioned in the affidavit, said she saw the victim verbally harass Fontaine and the unidentified male after parking near her home. She said the victim yelled a threat about killing the male’s wife, at which point he confronted the victim. She said she didn’t see anything else.

Witness 3 said she saw the unidentified male and the victim possibly shoving each other while shouting. Meanwhile, Witness 3 said she noticed Fontaine striking the victim’s vehicle with an object and the male then pushing the victim into a mud puddle, at which point the victim said, “I will show you all something.”

Fontaine “chased after the victim after hearing such and caught up to her,” the affidavit states Witness 3 said. “Once the accused was close to the victim, the accused struck the victim on top of her head with the same object used to strike the victim’s vehicle.” Witness 3 said she saw Fontaine and the male enter the victim’s residence behind her. She later observed the male trying to pull Fontaine off the victim and away from the home. Witness 3 gave the names of Fontaine and the male to police.

Fontaine was arrested on May 7. She is set to be arraigned in Norwich on July 2. in the passenger seat of a vehicle driven by 29-year-old Chelsey Chojnacki of Jewett City when the two were pulled over by state police for a routine traffic stop on Interstate 395 in Griswold at 7:07 p.m. Tuesday, according to Connecticut State Police at Troop E in Montville.

While the vehicle was pulled over near Exit 22 in Griswold, police noticed “several indicators of criminal activity” and became suspicious that Brochu may be in possession of narcotics, according to a statement released by police.

Chojnacki was found to be driving with a suspended license and Brochu tried to falsely identify himself to troopers, who called in a narcotic detecting K-9 named Elsa, police said.

Elsa located narcotics in the vehicle and troopers said they recovered 7 grams of heroin, 14 grams of crack cocaine, 23 grams of cocaine and 3 grams of marijuana, along with an unknown number of Naloxone, Oxycodone and Adderall tablets, in the pocket of Brochu’s sweatshirt and stashed in the area near his lap, police said.

Brochu, of 518 Boston Post Road, also was found to be wanted on a felony warrant for violating probation, police said.

He was charged with violation of probation, criminal impersonation, interfering with an officer, sale of narcotic substances and possession of controlled substances, police said.

He was taken to a correctional center where he was being held on a combined bond of $115,000, police said. He was scheduled to be arraigned in New London on Wednesday.

Chojnacki was charged with driving with a suspended license and was released at the scene. She is scheduled to appear in court in Norwich on June 2.