SPRINGFIELD - Not long after a Springfield man realized his van had disappeared from his driveway Saturday morning, it was back - parked across the street, with a woman in the front seat and evidence of a sexual tryst in the back.

By the time police arrived, the owner had confronted the woman, who jumped on his back and repeatedly punched him in the face before adding insult to his injuries, according to the arrest report.



"She stood in the street yelling at him...then turned around, pulled her pants down below her knees and bent over, exposing her buttocks," the report said.

Nicole Brace, 29, of Springfield, was arrested nearby, but not before tangling with two police officers too.

"You're going to have to work for it," Brace said, putting one foot against the cruiser door and the other on the frame when the officers tried to place her in the cruiser, according to the report.

At police headquarters, she was charged with receiving a stolen motor vehicle; resisting arrest; open and gross lewdness, assault and battery (on the car's owner); assault (on one of the arresting officers); assault and battery on a police officer, and larceny under $250.

On Monday, she pleaded not guilty to the charges in Springfield District Court and was released on $200 bail - the same amount set at the police station after her arrest on Saturday.

At the station, Brace told police she was "just using (the van) for half an hour" and never intended to steal it, according to the arrest report.

The owner, a Kensington Avenue resident, told police the van vanished around 9 a.m. after he left it running in his driveway to warm up; a debit card and a bank envelope with $160 inside were in the glove compartment, he said.

When the van returned an hour later, Brace was driving and a man "in his 50s, short, with no teeth" was in the passenger's seat. The man fled as the owner approached the van, which had blood on the door and the driver's seat, according to the report.

To avoid a confrontation, the owner told Brace he just wanted the keys, and she responded by throwing them on the ground; when he bent down to get them, she jumped on the his back and repeatedly punched him in the head, the report said.

Moments later, she walked away, shouting obscenities, then stopping in the middle of Kensington Avenue to pull down her pants, the report said.

The $160 in the glove compartment was gone, but not the debit card; a used condom and an inhaler were found on the rear floorboard, and both were bagged as evidence, the report said.



At police headquarters, Brace began having breathing difficulties, the report said.

"Hey, where's my inhaler?" she asked, before police retrieved it for her.

She is due back in court for a pretrial hearing on Feb. 23.