Prosecutors Seeking First-Degree Assault in Plantsville Fight

Attorneys are seeking a conviction for first-degree assault against a Plantsville man arrested earlier this month in a bar fight outside the Hydeaway Café that left another local resident hospitalized with considerable injuries.

Prosecutors at Bristol Superior Court earlier this month upgraded charges against Michael C. Gustafson, of 119 W. Main St. in Plantsville, to second-degree breach of peace and first-degree assault using aid from others stemming from a June 2 incident outside the bar.

Gustafson, 26, is also facing charges of intimidating a witness and a second charge of second-degree breach of peace after police served a warrant on him last week for an incident that happened following his June 2 arrest.  

A police report said the separate arrests occurred following two incidents at the Hydeaway Café, 115 W. Main St., in which multiple witnesses reported that Gustafson and two other men started a fight with a local resident and proceeded to beat him, leaving him in the roadway severely injured.

The victim, whose name was not released, was taken to St. Mary’s Hospital following the incident.

Witnesses told police that Gustafson was known at the café and had been banned for causing trouble a few days beforehand. On the night of the incident, he and two others who have not been identified beat the victim and Gustafson proceeded to kick him in the head and the neck after he was lying in the street, according to a police report.

Gustafson and the other two men fled the scene, but he was located a short time later and taken into custody. He was released after posting bond and returned to the café to threaten a bartender, telling her “I’m coming to get you for this.”

Police applied for a warrant and arrested on June 13 during an appearance in Bristol Superior Court.

Gustafson remains in custody in lieu of $300,000 in bonds, according to records available on the state’s judicial website. He is due back in Bristol Superior Court on July 6.