Digest

Man's alleged thoughts spark brutal attack

By Times Staff Writer
Published September 29, 2007

MOON LAKE

First came a punch to the face, and then a wooden board to the head, blow after blow, and out came a pocket knife, piercing the man's leg and forearm, severing part of his ear. By the time the beating was done Aug. 24, according to a sheriff's report, Richard Bernhardt had lost seven teeth and sustained several puncture wounds. His skull was visible. He needed 21 stitches to reattach his scalp. The attacker, according to authorities: Kraig Richard Constantino, 38, who is 5 feet, 5 inches tall and 200 pounds and lives at 12025 Smokey Lake Loop. He was arrested Thursday afternoon, charged with attempted murder and held without bail Friday in the Land O'Lakes jail. The motive: "I'm going to kill you," Constantino told Bernhardt, while brandishing the board, the report said, "for thinking about sleeping with my girlfriend."

HOLIDAY

Man accusedof dragging wife

A man was arrested Thursday after his wife told authorities he had dragged her by the hair about 50 feet down a street. The woman had contusions and bruising on her forehead, right ear and shoulder blade, as well as a sprained pinkie finger, a sheriff's report said. Michael V. Russo, 37, of 2030 Cemetery Road, Holiday, was arrested, charged with domestic battery and held without bail at the Land O'Lakes jail. A report said he told a deputy that his wife had fallen on the front porch, and that he told one of their children to give the same story.

Charges against mother dropped

The state has dropped its case against a woman who was accused of tying her 9-year-old son to a kitchen chair and making him sleep there, her attorney, Kenneth Foote, said Friday. Patricia Caban was arrested last year on a charge of child abuse after her son told authorities he'd been bound. But sheriff's records suggest Caban was doing her best to protect the boy's younger brothers from him: he had put sand spurs in one brother's diaper and tipped over a dresser on another. "There really was no crime," Foote said. The boy, now almost 11, is in foster care, Foote said. State prosecutors could not be reached for comment on Friday.

[Last modified September 28, 2007, 23:17:27]