Cervellino is getting a divorce but the couple appears to still be living together. On July 4th, his wife went to police to report that Cervellino had drugs and marijuana in a toolbox. However, when the police arrived, the toolbox was gone and no charges were brought against him.
When the wife returned home, she said that she found a watermelon with a knife stuck in it. Cervellino then allegedly came in and started to carve the watermelon in “a passive-aggressive manner.” I am not sure what that looks like but, assuming Cervellino was hacking the melon, it remains a difficult basis upon which to build a criminal case. Yet, he is now charged with threatening and disorderly conduct.
The facts do not seen to fit a first degree charge so here is the second class misdemeanor language:
Sec. 53a-62. Threatening in the second degree: Class A misdemeanor. (a) A person is guilty of threatening in the second degree when: (1) By physical threat, such person intentionally places or attempts to place another person in fear of imminent serious physical injury, (2) such person threatens to commit any crime of violence with the intent to terrorize another person, or (3) such person threatens to commit such crime of violence in reckless disregard of the risk of causing such terror.
(b) Threatening in the second degree is a class A misdemeanor.
The use of melon carving alone would seem a weak basis for a charge, particularly when the couple is going through an obviously heated divorce. His attorney is likely to argue that the earlier effort to have him arrested reveals a pre-disposition of the wife to secure a charge against him. Conversely, the wife can say that the earlier call was a genuine allegation and the display with the melon was obviously designed to frighten her. That puts the court squarely in the middle of a messy divorce. There may be more facts that come to light but, if this case is entirely based on melon cutting, the prosecutor will have to get some admission from Cervellino to make a compelling case.
Source: NBC