Kick in Door: $3,500 Bond; Contact Wife Afterward: $100,000

A New Canaan father accused of kicking in a door and yelling got arrested on domestic violence charges and was told not to contact his wife; when he did, he was arrested and held on $100,000 bond, police said.

Not contacting his wife was a condition of his initial release on bond, police said.

New Canaan police gave this account (an accusation not proven in court) of the matter:

On Saturday, Feb. 1, the man's wife told police that during a family dispute, at their home on Forest Street, she was in a bedroom with her two young children when her husband, 39, was yelling. At one point he kicked down the door.

She later fled to a neighbor's home and called police at 10:26 p.m. Police arrested the husband on charges of third-degree criminal mischief, disorderly conduct and two counts of risk of injury to a minor (a felony).

He was released later on $3,500 bond. The condition that he not contact his wife is a rather common one when an arrestee is released after a family dispute of this kind.

On Sunday, the wife's sister told police she thought the husband may have tried to get in touch with her sister.

Police contacted the wife, who told them that when she was getting gasoline at a rest stop on the Merritt Parkway her husband pulled up alongside her car. She said he asked to take the children to Stepping Stones Museum for Children in Norwalk. She agreed in order to avoid another fight.

She later found that he had called her cell phone three times before the rest-stop meeting. He called again to ask her to come to the museum to take the children after their visit.

New Canaan police arranged with Norwalk police to arrest the man at the museum. He was arrested there by New Canaan police and charged with five counts of violating a criminal protective order.

Bond was set at $100,000. He was scheduled to appear Monday in state Superior Court in Norwalk.