Woman might be blind in one eye after boyfriend beat her in Middletown, police say
A North Carolina woman will likely be blind in one eye after her boyfriend beat her in Middletown over the weekend for “getting too friendly with the girls” at a gathering, according to the warrant for his arrest.
Kasime Leary, 39, of Ahoskie, N.C., was arrested Monday after undercover detectives spotted him, police said. He was charged with first-degree assault and was in custody early Tuesday on $500,000 bail. Leary also has an address on Westfield Street in Middletown.
According to the arrest warrant affidavit, the woman was dropped off at Middlesex Hospital Saturday night by someone driving a black Jeep Patriot. She had significant injuries to her head, face and eyes — both of which were swollen shut.
“She appeared to have an unnatural depression in her left eyelid,” an investigator wrote in the warrant. The Jeep took off.
Although she was badly injured and “reasonably intoxicated,” the warrant said, police were able to talk her. The woman told a detective she was injured when she went for a walk after being at a house party. A large man propositioned her for sex, and when she refused, he began beating her, she said, according to the warrant. She then was picked up by her friend, “Larry,” who brought her to the hospital, she said.
Police called Larry, but he “just continually stated, ‘What’s up?’” and then hung up, the warrant said. He wouldn’t answer any more calls.
On Monday, two investigators went to Hartford Hospital to talk to the woman. She had been transferred there because of the seriousness of her injuries, the warrant said.
The woman told investigators that her boyfriend, Kasime Leary, or Larry, was the person who assaulted her, but things are “OK now,” the warrant said.
She said she and Leary had traveled to Connecticut to visit his friends. She does not know anyone in the area, she said. They were hanging out at a small gathering in some townhouses in Middletown “and she was ‘getting too friendly with the girls,’ " the warrant said. It didn’t elaborate.
The hospital wouldn’t let Leary visit her in the hospital, but the two talked on the phone, she told police, and he planned to pick her up when she is discharged, according to the warrant.
Police learned that Leary has a criminal record in North Carolina that includes multiple convictions for assault on a female and injury to personal property, the warrant said.
When detectives went to look for Leary Monday, they saw him driving the Jeep and took him into custody, police said.
Hospital staff told police that the woman may have suffered a fractured orbital bone and may lose her sight in one eye.
Christine Dempsey may be reached at cdempsey@courant.com.
