NJ police chief assaulted, restrained woman in Boston hotel room, prosecutors say
A New Jersey police chief assaulted and restrained a woman he was dating in a Boston hotel room after attending a Red Sox game in September, according to prosecutors.
Totowa Police Chief Carmen Veneziano , 47, pleaded not guilty to the kidnapping charge and three counts of domestic assault and battery he is facing in connection with the incident during his arraignment in Suffolk County Superior Court on Monday. The judge ordered him held on $25,000 cash bail and set conditions of release.
The police chief is suspended from his position without pay until the criminal case against him concludes.
The allegations against Veneziano
On Sept. 14, Veneziano and a woman he was dating attended a Red Sox game together in Boston, Suffolk County Assistant District Attorney Ian Polumbaum said during the arraignment. Their connection began to sour as the night went on, and an argument ensued at the Back Bay hotel where they were staying.
Veneziano left the hotel room late that night and was gone for several hours, Polumbaum said. He returned around 3 a.m. and found that the woman had locked him out of the room using the door's deadbolt.
For approximately a half-hour, Veneziano remained in the hallway outside the hotel room demanding to be let in, Polumbaum said. Eventually, hotel security was called, and the woman "relented" and allowed him back into the room.
Veneziano then became "physically abusive" with the woman "by headbutting her, by dragging her by her legs, by holding her down on the bed, preventing her from leaving the room or even leaving the bed," Polumbaum said. He also applied painful "pressure points" to her body and threw water on her.
How police became involved
The abuse ceased when the woman managed to call the hotel's front desk to ask if she could rent a separate room, Polumbaum said. Hotel security responded to the room again and overheard the woman saying "you hurt me" to Veneziano, prompting them to call police.
At the time, the woman did not disclose the abuse to Boston police, and the two drove back to New Jersey together, Polumbaum said. Veneziano and the woman have been separated since that time, but have exchanged texts.
"She confronted him by text about him having been physically abusive, and his response was not to directly acknowledge or deny it, but just make some sarcastic comments," Polumbaum said.
A few days after the incident, the woman called Boston police and hesitantly told them "she wanted to talk about what actually happened," the assistant district attorney said. A grand jury investigation into the incident ultimately returned indictments for the four charges on Dec. 18, and Veneziano was taken into custody without incident the following day.
How Veneziano's community has responded
Totowa Mayor John Coiro suspended Veneziano on Friday after consulting with two members of the borough's Public Safety Committee, according to a press release issued Sunday .
During Veneziano's arraignment, his defense attorney, Paulo Corso, said his client's criminal history consists of a singular operating under the influence conviction from earlier this year.
"He certainly has community ties back in New Jersey and is a pillar in that community," Corso said. "He has members and friends of that community that traveled up from New Jersey today to support him, and they describe him as a role model and a community leader in the town of Totowa."
Veneziano only learned of the criminal charges against him on Friday, but responded by waiving extradition proceedings, his attorney said. This allowed for his quick transport to Massachusetts and arraignment on the charges.
"He evidently denies the allegations against him, and he looks forward to addressing these charges here in court," Corso said.
Veneziano's conditions of release include that he have no contact with the victim or witnesses in the case, stay out of the town in which the victim lives and wear a GPS location-monitoring bracelet. He is due back in court for a pretrial conference on Feb. 10, 2026.
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