Cape Cod on Line

STAFF WRITER

March 02, 2010

HYANNIS — A newlywed couple's honeymoon got off to a rocky start Monday when they were forced to spend their first night as husband and wife in separate jail cells.

The bride, Marissa Ann Putignano-Keene, 22, of 77 Winter St., Hyannis, was charged with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon — a car — after she allegedly tried to run over another woman and that woman's son. The other woman later told police that she had previously been in an intermittent intimate relationship with the groom. The groom, Timothy Keene, 37, also of 77 Winter St., was charged with disorderly conduct and taken into protective custody. Keene is a Level 2 registered sex offender and was convicted of lewd and lascivious behavior in 2000.

Putignano-Keene was also charged with disorderly conduct and injury to property — a fence — and taken into protective custody.

Police said the couple was intoxicated.

According to the Barnstable police, the incident took place Monday evening in the parking lot near the intersection of North Street and Barnstable Road. Patrol Officer David Foley was driving in the area when he spotted what appeared to be a disturbance in the parking lot with a crowd starting to gather and traffic slowing as drivers and passengers turned to watch.

Patrolmen John Pass and Jason Sturgis arrived and the three officers separated the people involved. According to the police report, Putignano-Keene and Keene told police they were married at Barnstable Town Hall and afterward split a bottle of champagne.

Later as Putignano-Keene drove through the North Street parking lot she spotted a woman familiar to her husband.

That woman told police she had just left work and was cutting through the parking lot, accompanied by her son, when the newlywed couple drove by. The woman told police Putignano-Keene rolled down the driver's side window and began swearing and using sexually-charged language.

The woman said she and her son were walking away when she heard the car engine roar and saw the car heading directly towards them, causing them to jump out of the way. She said Putignano-Keene then backed the car up, turned and in the process crashed into a fence behind Alberto's Ristorante, which backs onto the parking lot.

Police charged Putignano-Keene and took her and her new husband into protective custody. They spent the night in separate cells at the Barnstable police station and were released Tuesday.