Court Documents: Shooter In Coventry Murder-Suicide Had History Of Domestic ... - Hartford Courant

COVENTRY — Police never received a report of domestic violence at 6 Stage Road until Aug. 23, when Gregory S. Pawloski Jr. fatally shot his wife, Janice Lesko, before turning the gun on himself.

But more than a decade earlier in another town, a different woman in Pawloski's life made a series of complaints about him, saying that he was violent on more than one occasion.

That the women's situations appeared to be starkly different — but under the surface could have been similar — shows that the state needs to do a better job of recognizing domestic violence, said the head of the Connecticut Coalition Against Domestic Violence.

Karen Jarmoc, the group's executive director, said she met with Pawloski's former girlfriend, Kimberley Fontaine, after the deaths and gathered information about her troubled relationship with Pawloski.

Court documents show that Fontaine made several complaints about Pawloski as she sought restraining orders against him and changes in custody and visitation agreements over the past 11 years. Fontaine said that Pawloski attacked her when she was pregnant with their daughter and, years later, physically and emotionally abused both the child and herself.

During one incident, she said, he tried to get his hand on a gun, she said.

Most recently, in May, Fontaine sought to end Pawloski's visitation rights with their teenage daughter, claiming that he was "very abusive" to her.

State records show that Pawloski was arrested twice on charges stemming from Fontaine's complaints about domestic violence, although one of the cases was dropped.

In an application for a restraining order, Fontaine wrote about a violent clash that erupted at their Willington house when she tried to break up with him on Oct. 21, 2001.

Details about the arrest are not available because, by law, such records must be destroyed after 10 years, said Joe Sollima, administrative clerk at the Superior Court Records Center in Enfield.

But Fontaine recounted the assault and another incident with Pawloski in written testimony that she submitted to the General Assembly while lobbying for a bill that would require all domestic violence shelters in the state to be open 24 hours — a bill that was passed by the legislature.

Fontaine, recounting that night in 2001, said that after the childen were in bed, she told Pawloski that she had decided they had to go their separate ways.

"He went ballistic and was screaming and yelling," she said. He ripped the phone out of the wall when she tried to call police, she said.

Pawloski, a hunter, quieted down and went outside. But he came back and forced his way back into the house as she tried to lock the door, she said.

He kept demanding the keys to their bedroom safe, which contained his .38-caliber Colt handgun, she said, and when she didn't hand them over, he tried to break into it. She could hear the clicking sounds of the safe's handle moving, and the sound of metal objects being used to pry it open as she huddled with her children in her daughter's room, she said.

He pushed on one side of the door while she pushed back to keep him out, she said.

"As he pushed with all his strength on one side, I stood on the other, desperately trying to keep him out," she said in her written testimony to legislators. "I kept telling him the police were on the way."

He finally gave up and left in his car, only to be stopped by police less than 5 miles away. They arrested him.

Pawloski was charged with disorderly conduct and convicted on Nov. 20, 2001, of a substituted charge of breach of peace. He received a suspended six-month jail term, followed by two years of probation, at Superior Court in Rockville, according to a court clerk.

Fontaine said that her experience seems hauntingly similar to what happened in Coventry on Aug. 23.