Bizarre, Criminal law

Fruit Felon: Connecticut Man Arrested For Criminal Threats and Disorderly Conduct After Wife Says That He Was Cutting Watermelon In Aggressive Way

Carmine+Cervellino1200800px-Watermelon_slicesThere is a curious charge in a case in Connecticut where Carmine Cervellino has been arrested for criminal threats for carving a watermelon in an allegedly aggressive way.

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

23 thoughts on “Fruit Felon: Connecticut Man Arrested For Criminal Threats and Disorderly Conduct After Wife Says That He Was Cutting Watermelon In Aggressive Way”

  1. sounds like the wife is trying to make any charge she can against the husband as more leverage in the divorce @ ITS NO LAUGHING MATTER you’re right it isnt im a survivor of domestic abuse and have the scars to prove it the issue with this charge is if the wife is that scared exactly why is she staying around ? why doesnt she move out while waiting for the divorce ? that is easily answered her lawyer told her if she leaves the house she loses it she has to get the husband out to retain it .unlike her i moved a state away and he found me. now if he chases her once she leaves thats a different story.

    What i get from this story is the wife is trying to get her husband removed from the house so she can keep it. also you might want to watch the investigation discovery channel you will find many more women then men are the abusers they have sites up about it. read them and find out just how abusive the murderous women can be. they can and are more greedier then men and thats the feel i get from this story. she knows she isnt going to get but so much so how about taking it all from him…..

  2. Karen S: I think your last sentence has to do with joint bank accounts.

  3. Gary:

    I am including the murders of women when I say that a male significant other is the most likely culprit.

    31% of murdered children were killed by their fathers, and 29% were killed by their mothers.

    But that includes another disturbing figure: 85% of murdered newborns (a small cohort studied) were killed by their mothers.

    Newborns were most often killed by their mothers, likely trying to hide their pregnancies. That figure likely skews the above figures. I haven’t seen the data, but if 85% of murdered newborns are killed by their mothers, most older children would have to be killed by their fathers to make the overall figures so close to even.

    In any case, children are more at risk of harm from someone they know, whether parent, teacher, or family friend, than from a stranger.

    Women, however, are at most risk of murder from their significant other – such as a lover or husband who would rather she be dead than be with someone else, due to a property view of women.

    http://news.discovery.com/human/mother-killer-murder-child.htm

  4. This is a lesson for all you chumps out there married to dangerous lying women. Pull out now like your fathers should have. This guy needs a criminal defense lawyer with a partner who does divorces and perhaps a plumber who will clean out an outhouse.

  5. Karen S:

    Women are responsible for more child homicides than men are.
    They are also responsible for more domestic violence against children, then men are as well.

  6. “What are you in for?” “My wife felt I carved a watermelon in a threatening manner.”

    Well, I hope they build more jails, because they are going to be filled with almost 100% of the population, which has, at one time or another, vacuumed or washed the dishes in a threatening manner. And it’s true – Gallagher will be the first to go. Poor watermelons.

    Paul – it is true that domestic abuse is rampant. When a child or woman is murdered, the male significant other is most often the cause. In this particular case, the woman has given the appearance of using the criminal justice system to fight with her husband.

    Sharing a home while you go through a divorce is a BAD IDEA, right up there with engaging in a land war in Russia in winter.

  8. He went in dumb and come out dumb too. It is time for him to get out of ear shot of that itchBay. Next she will allege he sexually assaulted the kid or dog.

  10. Gary T wrote “I will make four [jokes], and no more than that”

    I apologize for things I must have said before. That remark was amusing.

    Good thing he wasn’t black. Just imagine what the press would have made of a black man using a watermelon as a weapon!

    I’ll wait until samantha shows up to start making fun of the woman in this situation.

  12. Good thing he wasn’t listening to Dana Carvey’s “Chopping Broccoli” while cutting the watermelon. They may have charged him with a felony!!

  13. This is bizarre! Just what constitutes passive aggressive behavior is hardly the province of judicial review. But the law itself is subject to that sort of review. Strike it down, Professor Turley.

  14. Paul:

    I will make four, and no more than that. Such tragedy does not need any more than that.

  15. Domestic abuse is not a laughing matter. Way too many men get away with threatening behavior towards their spouse. Is is the case here? I don’t know. How many jokes will you all make if in the next week the wife is found dead with knife wounds?

    1. Gallagher must die.
      How many innocent watermelons were obliterated for this man’s violent behavior?

  17. Maybe a domestic violence charge, but disorderly conduct?
    Really, what if he had a punching bag, and she watched him, could she charge him with hitting it in a threatening way?

  18. Sounds like the cops decided that Mr. Cervellino was a “bad actor” and built an arrest on available facts.

    That decision could have been a real fear for Mrs. Cervellino’s safety, a desire to get Mr. Cervellino out of the house, or perhaps he just irritated the cops.

    Regardless, Mr. Cervellino now has a record and will spend significant dollars getting out of this mess.

    (One consolation for Mr. Cervellino, he can use marital assets, so Mrs. will end up footing half the bill.)

  19. Could this just be a case where the police actually thought this just might diffuse a developing ugly domestic scenario? Lived through a similar situation as a young child where local law enforcement apparently brought all kinds of charges against my father (A WWII vet suffering from post trauma syndrome, which was NOT discussed in those days), solely to get him to submit to the help he needed. But at that time, it seemed all the law enforcement were very supportive, respectful, and had a sense of a higher moral obligation, and applied the law to fit that end. My father was respected and got the help he needed. It seems these days, that the use of the law to aid an ethical and moral outcome isn’t how it works in a lot of situations.

  20. I’m surprised the prosecutor didn’t just drop the case.

    How does one get a disorderly conduct charge in a private residence?

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