Police: Protective Order & Warning Didn't Keep Him Away

Vito Luciano, the estranged husband of a New Canaan woman, who had a protective order against him, went to see his wife anyway and was warned by police that he would be arrested if he returned to the place where she was living, police said.

That was on Monday, March 24. The next day, police said, they got a call from a relative of the woman who told them Luciano had been seen near the wife's residence.

Police gave this account (a series of accusations not proven in court) of the matter:

Back on Dec. 3, 2013, Luciano was arrested after refusing to let his wife out of the house, grabbed her by the throat, threatened to kill her, then started strangling a male relative of the woman when he intervened.

On Monday, police spoke with the wife, who told them her husband had been at her home and spoke with her. She said she told him to leave.

Police checked the area and didn't see him, but the New Canaan YMCA wasn't far away, so an officer checked the parking lot there.

And found Luciano, who was just about to leave the parking lot. Police confronted him and arrested him there on charges of first-degree criminal trespass (a misdemeanor) and criminal violation of a protective oder (a felony).

Luciano's bond was set at $100,000. He did not post it and appeared the next day in state Superior Court in Norwalk. Luciano was then released on a promise to appear in court.

He had been charged on Dec. 3, 2013 with second-degree strangulation, second-degree threatening, first-degree reckless endangerment and disorderly conduct. Those charges have not been resolved in court.