Police found a woman lying on the roadway when they were called to the scene of a reported assault late on Halloween night, and soon afterward they arrested a man she recently had been dating, charging him with the assault and with taking her vehicle.
The woman said she didn’t want any medical care, police said.
Darien police described what happened with this account, including accusations not proven in court:
Sometime around 11 p.m. on Tuesday, Halloween night, the man confronted the woman at the business where they both were working. He demanded a ride home, and she refused to give him one, the woman told police.
Police didn’t identify the business or its location, but it was close enough to the Post Road that the woman’s vehicle was parked there.
The woman told police that the man, Devin Natividad, 21, of Russell Street in New Haven, had been in a dating relationship with her, and that it had recently ended.
Arrest photo from Oct. 31, 2017 for Devin Natividad, 21, of New Haven
When she tried to leave the business, he blocked her by holding her shoulders. Not until the manager became involved in the confrontation was she able to go.
She walked to her vehicle, but Natividad followed her, knocked her hat off her head, took her cell phone and smashed it, then took her purse and emptied it on the ground. As she began collecting her belongings, he kicked her vehicle.
When she confronted him, he hit or punched her in the stomach and tried to wrestle her to the ground. He took back her purse and began walking away, along the Post Road.
She got in her vehicle and followed him. When she got out of it to confront him again, he jumped in and drove about half a mile down the Post Road, then got out of the vehicle, locked it and walked away, taking the keys with him.
Several witnesses spoke to police and corroborated the woman’s account. After police were called, they found him near the Post Road and Day Street, downtown.
Natividad, of Russell Street in New Haven, was charged with second-degree criminal mischief, use of a motor vehicle without the owner’s permission, second-degree breach of peace and second-degree unlawful restraint.
He was held on a $5000 bond and didn’t post it, so he was taken the next day to state Superior Court in Stamford. His bond has been reduced to a promise to appear in court on Dec. 5.
The Connecticut Judicial Branch website lists a second charge of second-degree breach of peace against him.
A Previous Arrest
Natividad was arrested last December by Bridgeport police on charges of risk of injury to a child (a felony), third-degree assault and disorderly conduct. He has no bond in that case.
The next court date for that case (in state Superior Court in Bridgeport) is scheduled for July 2018, which sometimes means that the prosecution of it was headed toward a dismissal of the charges.
In cases where dismissal is contemplated, defendants are usually expected to be on their best behavior, since the long delay in the next court date allows prosecutors to change their minds and decide to prosecute the case.