A Connecticut state trooper who was arrested in West Hartford on Sunday morning is accused of hitting and choking his fiancée, according to West Hartford police.
West Hartford police made the arrest after responding to Memorial and Isham roads just after 5:30 a.m. Sunday to investigate reports of a man was hitting a woman and a man who “went after” a woman.
Officers arrived to find 33-year-old John C. Adam and a woman, according to the incident report on the arrest.
Adams was wearing a state police sweatshirt, so officers asked him if he is a state trooper and Adams said he’s with Troop H and told police he got concerned when his fiancée didn’t come home after going out with friends for the night.
He said he went to West Hartford because that’s where she had gone, saw her in a car with a man and was “confused,” so he and went to see what was going on, according to the incident report.
First Adams approached the car, then followed it until the driver stopped on Memorial Road. At that point, an argument started and police showed up, he said, according to the incident report.
But Adams’ car was facing the wrong way, so officers questioned him about it and Adams responded that he “pulled around” the other vehicle and blocked it from going through the intersection, according to police.
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But when Adams spoke with a West Hartford police sergeant, he gave another account of what happened.
He said he found his fiancee’s vehicle unoccupied and was waiting for her to return when a man pulled up with the woman in the car, so Adams approached the car, according to police.
Police noticed that the victim’s clothes and hair were disheveled, that she appeared upset and nervous and had what appeared to be a red marks from fingerprints on her neck, according to the incident report.
She told officers she’d gone out in West Hartford with friends, then to Hartford and asked the driver to bring her back to her car, which was in West Hartford.
Her account was that Adams approached as she and the driver were talking and the driver drove away until she told him she knew Adams and for him to stop the car, according to the police reports.
When the victim approached him, Adams slapped her cell phone out of her hand, grabbed her purse and threw it toward the car, yelled at her and told her to get in his car, the woman told police.
She recalled telling Adams she would go in her own car and told him to leave, but Adams “pushed her” neck and face, police said.
The woman refused medical treatment.
When police spoke with the man who drove the victim from Hartford to West Hartford, he said he drove away when Adams pulled up neat them because he didn’t know the man.
Then Adams started following him and cut him off, according to court paperwork.
The driver said he stopped when the woman asked him to, then he saw Adams throw the victim to the ground and throw something at her, according to police.
Another witness said Adams grabbed the woman by the neck, forced her into the passenger seat of his car and choked her.
Adams was taken into custody and charged with third-degree assault, second-degree breach of peace and third-degree strangulation.
He was released from custody after posting $50,000 bond, ordered to stay away from the victim and not possess a dangerous weapon, according to police.
