New Canaan Man Charged with Punching Elderly Mom

New Canaan police have added the charge of assault of an elderly person to a 43-year-old town resident who had previously been arrested on drug and weapons charges when he'd taken his father's car without permission in November and was discovered in the vehicle with another person driving and suspected crack cocaine in various areas of the vehicle, police said this week.

According to Sgt. Carol Ogrinc, Jonathan B. Steinmetz, of 275 Park Street, was initially arrested after police responded to his father's residence on Nov. 23. While police were speaking with Steinmetz' father about the missing vehicle being used without his permission, Steinmetz arrived on scene in the car. A subsequent conversation with the suspect. the observation of powder on the vehicle door near the window controls and a suspected crack rock on the passenger's seat and in the glove compartment, and the discovery of an unmarked assault rifle-style paintball gun lacking any of the identifying safety features, like an orange tip, in the back seat, Steinmetz was arrested.

Police this week said that, during that initial investigation, police were speaking with Steinmetz' elderly mother about that incident when she reportedly confessed her son had punched her in the arm and knocked her off her balance on Nov. 21, Ogrinc said.

An officer assisting a disabled vehicle on Park Street near Mead Street saw Steinmetz driving and flagged him down to pull over. The officer, who was familiar with Steinmetz from the original incident, explained to the suspect there was a warrant for his arrest and placed him under arrest. While taking Steinmetz into custody, a search of his person resulted in the discovery of glass pipe with burn marks on one end, indicative of smoking crack, Ogrinc said.

In addition to the original charges of using a vehicle without the owner's permission, possession of narcotics, possession of paraphernalia and carrying a facsimile firearm, Steinmetz now faces the elderly assault charge and an infraction for possession of drug paraphernalia, which only becomes a criminal charge when the possession is in combination with more than half-an-ounce of marijuana or equivalent presence of drugs. On the new charges, Steinmetz was released on a Promise to Appear and scheduled to appear in court on Dec. 23.