At his July 5 wedding, Keith Maynard made an unusual toast.
He raised his glass and thanked the gym buddies of his new wife, Ida Maria Maynard.
Their daily workouts gave Ida Marie the strength to survive a brutal attack just four days before the wedding, he told guests.
Maynard left out one detail — he was the man who attacked her, according to police.
Now the 32-year-old bride has a different view of her husband.
“He’s truly an evil person,” Ida Marie said outside his arraignment Thursday.
Maynard, 42, a member of the Board of Aldermen for 10 years, was charged Thursday with first-degree unlawful restraint, second-degree assault and first-degree reckless endangerment. He is free on a $50,000 bond, and was ordered to have no contact with Ida Marie and to stay away from their house at 8 Cook St.
Phone calls seeking comment were left on his cell phone and home phone.
Maynard submitted a two-sentence letter of resignation to Mayor James Della Volpe at 4 p.m. Wednesday. Story continues after letter.
Maynard, a lifelong city resident, represented the Fourth Ward and is well respected in town.
The bizarre case has officials and friends scratching their heads — particularly the way Maynard continued with the wedding and marriage after the attack.
The Attack
On the morning of July 1, Ida Marie left the house at about 9 a.m. for her daily gym ritual. She returned home, as usual, about two hours later.
But when she entered the house she shared with Maynard on Cook Street at about 11:15 a.m., there was someone waiting for her behind the front door.
Police said that person was Maynard. According to the arrest warrant, Maynard originally denied it, but later admitted to the attack.
“As I walked through the door, I saw a hand pass in front of me and slam the door closed,” Ida Marie later told police. “He grabbed me and tackled me to the ground and then flipped me over onto my stomach.”
Then he covered her with a blanket, pinched her nose and tried to stuff a portion of the blanket in her mouth, Ida Marie said, according to the warrant. She was hoping the attacker would go away if she pretended she was unconscious, but when he let go, she gasped for air.
Ida Marie said Maynard then hit her in the back of the head with a baseball bat that was lying nearby.
While Maynard admits to the attack, he denies using a baseball bat, according to the warrant.
Ida Marie said she was repeatedly hit with the bat while she tried to get away. She was able to unlock the front door and get away from his grasp.
Although Maynard tried to hold Ida Marie, the police report said, she was able to run outside and shout for help.
Maynard fled out the back door, climbed a fence in the back yard and ran up O’Neils Court toward Clifton Avenue. He ran past the Three Saints Greek Orthodox Church and through a parking lot to Addison Street, where his truck was parked.
The Arrest Warrant:
Maynard Warrant
After composing himself for a few minutes, Maynard drove south on Route 8 and then I‑95 toward Wesport, where he works for the Department of Transportation. He is currently on paid administrative leave from his position as a supervisor.
Along the way, Maynard threw a red T‑shirt he had used to cover his face out of the window onto the highway, according to his statement to police.
Meanwhile, back in Ansonia, the police searched the area with canine units, stopping a few other men who fit Maynard’s description.
The Arrest
Neighbors interviewed after the assault told police they had seen Maynard walking down Cook Street toward his home prior to the attack.
But when police interviewed him that afternoon, Maynard said he had been at work at the time. He told police he only left Westport when Ida Marie called him about the attack.
The conflicting reports led police to check Maynard’s cell phone records from that day.
Not only did they find that he was making calls from the Derby area at the time he claimed to be in southern Fairfield County, but he also made phone calls to another
woman immediately after talking to Ida Marie.
During a follow-up interview with police on Aug. 13, Maynard described his relationship with the woman as “more than just a friendship,” according to the arrest warrant.
That woman declined to comment when reached on her cell phone Thursday afternoon.
After the second police interview, Maynard hired New Haven attorney John Kelly to represent him.
Maynard and Kelly arranged a meeting for Aug. 18 with Ida Marie and her sister, attorney Jennifer Lucarelli, where Maynard told Ida Marie he was the attacker, the warrant states. Police were not present at this meeting.
At the end of the meeting, Maynard scheduled another follow-up meeting with police to admit to the attack.
After his confession, police applied for an arrest warrant, and Maynard turned himself in at Ansonia Police Department Thursday morning.
When asked if there was any reason for the assault, all Maynard said to police was: “No idea why I did it.”
“Stunned and Shocked”
News of Maynard’s role in the attack rippled through Ansonia Thursday.
“I’m stunned and I’m shocked,” said Mayor James Della Volpe, who coached Maynard when he was a freshman basketball and football player at Ansonia High School in 1982.
“I’ve known him,” Della Volpe said. “He was a good public servant. But I certainly don’t condone domestic violence…Obviously this is a sad day for our community.”
Maynard was a supervisor for the state Department of Transportation. He has been on the Board of Alderman for 10 years, and had been nominated by the Democratic Town Committee to run for another term.
Board of Alderman President Stephen Blume said Maynard was an “excellent Alderman” who took all of his responsibilities seriously.
“I’m shocked by the news. I feel sorry for the woman who had to go through this,” Blume said.
Blume said nothing in Maynard’s personality indicated he was capable of any kind of violence.
“Even if we argued, he never raised his voice. Here’s a guy who is just a nice, quiet individual who just did his job,” Blume said. “I don’t know what to say. I’m speechless, and I’m never speechless.”
Maynard resigned from the Board of Alderman Wednesday night. The board is expected to accept the resignation at its next meeting.
Police Chief Kevin Hale said he was also saddened by the news, but said it was an example of how the police department doggedly investigates domestic violence matters.
Even Ida Marie, who had dated Maynard for six years before their wedding, said she had trouble believing he was her assailant.
“I loved my husband more than anything,” Ida Marie said. “To know that days before the wedding he could beat me and then still go through with the wedding and wait until six weeks after that … I was surprised.”
Quiet Suspicions
Friends of Ida Marie admitted to quietly speculating about the possibility it was Maynard.
“Someone would say, ‘Could it be Keith?’ And then all of a sudden, someone would be like, ‘It can’t be. That’s ridiculous,’” said friend Julia Romano.
Romano was at the wedding, and was surprised by Maynard’s speech, which mentioned Ida Marie’s attack.
Romano said family and friends had agreed not to talk about the attack, to avoid putting a damper on the day.
“I will say personally, I did feel, after he made that statement, it made me uneasy,” Romano said.
Otherwise, there was no indication anything was wrong, Romano said. The wedding was beautiful and the couple appeared happy.
“It was a beautiful wedding, really,” said Romano. “I didn’t feel it was weird or awkward or anything like that.”
“A Sad Day”
As Judge Eddie Rodriguez Jr. quietly read the arrest summary in court Thursday, a long silence fell over the courtroom. Maynard stood still before the judge, often putting his head down.
Soft sounds of sobbing came from the front row, where Ida Marie, her family and friends sat.
“It’s a sad day that someone I loved with all my heart could beat me brutally like that,” Ida Marie said outside the courthouse.
But Ida Marie said she’ll get past the physical and emotional pain.
“I just hope the justice system works,” she said.
