Man Charged With Three Felonies In Nighttime Sex Assault 

By Andrew Gorosko

Based on DNA evidence, police have arrested a 41-year-old man who allegedly burglarized a Georges Hill Road home one night in January, brutally beat and sexually assaulted a middle-aged woman, and then fled before police arrived in response to the woman’s calls for help.

Police said they arrested Kenneth Martin Sells, formerly of Stratford and currently of no known address, on a Danbury Superior Court warrant at 7 pm on March 18 in Stratford, charging Sells with three felonies — first degree sexual assault, second degree assault, and first degree burglary.

Sells was being held this week on $200,000 bail at the Bridgeport Correctional Center, following his March 21 arraignment on the charges in Danbury Superior Court. Sells is represented by a private criminal defense attorney.

A conviction on such charges would result in a lengthy prison sentence.

A judge’s issuance of the arrest warrant followed a lengthy investigation into the incident by detectives from town and state police.

At about 2:50 am on Saturday, January 15, police responded to the crime scene after two emergency 911 calls were placed to them by the victim. On arriving, police found the seriously injured woman in the aftermath of the attack. Police did not identify the victim.

No one spoke during those 911 calls. But when such calls are received at the police station, the call’s point of origin is displayed on a computer monitor. As a matter of course, police then respond to the location from which such calls are placed to check for possible emergencies.

“The victim received serious injury to the face consisting of bruises and abrasions…Police discovered that the suspect had just fled the area prior to their arrival,” police said in a statement. The woman was home alone at the time of the attack.

Ambulance staffers transported the injured woman to Danbury Hospital where she was treated for her injuries and then released.

During the day of January 15, town police and state police detectives gathered forensic evidence at the crime scene.

Georges Hill Road connects Butterfield Road to Pond Brook Road, near the Brookfield town line. The crime occurred at a home on the lower section of Georges Hill Road, nearer Pond Brook Road.

During their investigation, police executed several search and seizure warrants for Sells, for an automobile, and for cellular telephone records.

In their probe, police submitted many pieces of evidence to the state police’s forensics laboratory in Meriden for scientific testing, police said. The results of DNA evidence testing recently were received, after which police applied for an arrest warrant for Sells. A judge issued that warrant on March 15. Because it is a sexual assault case, the warrant is sealed by the court.

“The accused is believed to have delivered an appliance to the victim’s residence on or about January 7, 2005, from a department store,” police said.

“We’re treating this [crime] as very serious,” said Detective Sergeant Robert Tvardzik, who headed the investigation for town police.

Unless the woman had resisted Sells’ attack, she could have been injured even more seriously, Det Sgt Tvardzik said. The victim has been recovering from her physical injuries, he said.

“If not for the victim’s action of dialing 911 and confronting her attacker, this could have been a very grave situation,” the detective sergeant said.

“We’ve had very few nighttime entries into residences in the past ten years,” Det Sgt Tvardzik noted.