Thomaston PD refuses gift of watermelon from local man charged with threatening

Carmine Cervellino, left, and his son, Ryan, stop at the Thomaston Police Department Friday to drop off a watermelon. Carmine Cervellino, left, and his son, Ryan, stop at the Thomaston Police Department Friday to drop off a watermelon. Photo: Isaac Avilucea — Register Citizen Photo: Isaac Avilucea — Register Citizen Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Thomaston PD refuses gift of watermelon from local man charged with threatening 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

THOMASTON >> Carrying a watermelon they bought from a local grocery store, Carmine Cervellino and his teenage sons nonchalantly strolled into the Thomaston police station Friday afternoon.



Cervellino summoned The Register Citizen to watch as he and his children walked up to the receptionist, who sat behind a thick pane of bullet-proof glass, and asked for Chief James Campbell. They came bearing gifts: paper proof of Cervellino’s recent negative drug test, administered by Concentra Medical Center in Waterbury; and a medium-sized piece of fruit at the center of a controversy enveloping the small town police department after Cervellino’s arrest went viral.



“He better eat this,” Ryan Cervellino said, gently slapping the watermelon.



“It’s a good watermelon,” remarked the elder Cervellino.



Upset with the “process” that led to his arrest last week on a warrant for second-degree threatening and disorderly conduct, Cervellino and his sons staged the melon drop-off to prove a point.



He said he was never interviewed and police didn’t talk to other witnesses, relying only on the word of the alleged victim, who claims she returned home July 4 to a menacing gesture supposed to “intimidate” her. On the counter top was a watermelon that had been gashed by a knife, which stuck out of the fruit.



The police department receptionist took the drug results, telling Cervellino to hold on to the watermelon, then summoned an officer.



When that officer finally came to the front, he returned papers from the drug test back to a fruit-bearing Cervellino, telling him the department doesn’t accept gifts and didn’t appreciate the “photo stunt.”



Cervellino delivered the drug test results because he wanted to show police he’s “not the person they claim me to be.” He declined an extensive interview with The Register Citizen on the advice of his attorney.



But Carmine Cervellino still provided a copy of a Tuesday drug test, which was reviewed by medical officer Todd Simo, and shows Cervellino came back clean for marijuana, cocaine, amphetamines, opiates, PCP, barbiturates, benzodiazepines, methaqualone, methadone and ecstasy.



It will likely be a key point raised by Cervellino’s attorney, Arnold Potash, at his client’s next court appearance on Aug. 28., since much of police’s case originated from a victim’s claim that she found marijuana and Percocet pills in Cervellino’s toolbox.



She snapped a photo of the contraband which she showed police, but officers never recovered the drugs and he was never charged with any drug offenses.



To be sure, the test was performed independently of probation officials in the Litchfield Judicial District, and Cervellino must still submit to weekly drug screenings while his case is pending.



He said he didn’t have the results of an initial screening from probation at Bantam Superior Court, but expects it, like the results he tried showing police on Friday, will prove he doesn’t have drugs in his system.



Already, experts told The Register Citizen, they see serious problems with the case against Cervellino.



John Thomas, a professor of law at Quinnipiac University, said he envisions a state prosecutor having trouble proving intent to a jury if the case ever goes to trial, in large part because the stabbing of the watermelon didn’t take place in the presence of the victim, who was out picking up her child from a friend’s house.



“It’s going to be difficult, if not impossible to prove,” Thomas said.



According to instructions found on the state’s judicial website, a jury must first find Cervellino made a threat. A threat is defined as “the expression of an intention to injure another person. A physical threat is a threat accompanied by some action, such as words accompanied by a threatening gesture.”



In addition, Cervellino would have to have the ability to carry out the threat.



“Mere words are insufficient to constitute a physical threat ... A threat can only be punishable when it is a true threat ... that a reasonable person would understand as a serious expression of an intent to harm or assault, and not as mere puffery, bluster, jest or hyperbole,” according to the judicial site.



Thomas said he expects the case to get thrown out, but he understands why police made an arrest since the alleged threat involved “disturbing behavior.”



“The police have decided discretion is the better part of valor,” he said. “In doing the most to protect the victim, they have charged [him] with the most serious offense and are leaving it to the judicial system to sort out what is most appropriate.”



At face value, it’s “far-reaching” to think Cervellino’s intent was to threaten the victim, unless it was accompanied by menacing glares or fear-inducing words, said Ira Mayo, the Torrington defense attorney handling the high-profile case of murder suspect Tosha Strahan.



Still, he doesn’t agree with Thomas that the case gets thrown out, based off his experience with district prosecutors.



“It’s in Litchfield County,” he said. “It’s not getting dismissed.”

