A Fort Worth police officer who was arrested Monday on charges that he assaulted his wife last month at their Arlington home said in a recorded tirade that she needed to be “cut by a razor, set on fire, beat half to death and left to die,” police said.
Cpl. Lawrence Blanchard, 51, was booked into the Tarrant County jail on misdemeanor charges of assault and making a terroristic threat. He was immediately released on bond.
According to an Arlington police arrest affidavit, the incident occurred May 20 when the couple got in an argument over their children.
During the confrontation, which happened in front of four children under the age of five, Blanchard told his 4-year-old son that his mother was “a prostitute, a b****, and not really the child’s mother,” the affidavit said.
Blanchard grabbed his baton from his police duty belt and expanded it, police said.
“She (his wife) stepped out of his way and he went into the living room and struck the coffee table with the baton before putting it down on a chair,” a detective wrote in the arrest warrant.
He also got his gun from the bedroom, unloaded it on the kitchen table, and told her “I’ll kill you,” the warrant said.
When she tried to stop him from leaving with one of their children, he twisted her wrist and told her he could break it, according to the court document.
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The couple is getting divorced and his wife obtained a two-year protective order against him, the affidavit said.
CONFRONTATION RECORDED
Police said Blanchard’s wife recorded the confrontation.
In the first recording, which is about 30 minutes, the Arlington detective said he could hear Blanchard telling his wife that “when she dies he is not going to have a funeral for her” and described “throwing (her) into the woods so the maggots could have her.”
Blanchard then asked the couple’s 4-year-old son to tell his mother, “Shut up you stupid b****, you f*g*** bitch.”
The boy repeated the statement.
In the second recording, which is about nine minutes long, he said something about his wife “needing to be cut by a razor, set on fire, beat half to death and left to die,” the detective said.
He then told the same 4-year-old boy to tell his mother, “B**** I’ll cut your f****** throat.”
The boy repeated the statement to his mother, the affidavit said.
Blanchard also was recorded threatening to break some of the children’s throats if they said anything about what had happened to his other children, police said.
BLANCHARD DENIES ASSAULT
In an interview May 28 with an Arlington detective, Blanchard was advised of his rights and gave a statement admitting that he and his wife had argued over their children. But he denied that he grabbed his wife’s wrist or threatened to kill her.
He claimed he got hit gun because he was trying to get his "valuable police items so (his wife) would not hide or damage the items,” according to the affidavit.
He admitted spitting in her face because “she was in his face,” the detective said.
Blanchard agreed to take a lie-detector test but later withdrew the offer, police said.
He also said he had filed paperwork to retire from the Fort Worth department.
Blanchard could not be reached for comment following his arrest.
PREVIOUS ARREST
Blanchard was also arrested by Arlington police in a separate domestic violence incident in 2011.
Officers were dispatched to a residential alarm call when they found Blanchard, wearing his Fort Worth police uniform. He told them he was in the process of moving out, according to Arlington police.
A short time later, two of his adult sons arrived at the location. Blanchard and one of his sons became involved in a fight in front of the Arlington officers, police said. Both Blanchard and his son were arrested on misdemeanor charges of offensive physical contact.
Each man’s bond was set at $566.
About three years later, those charges are still pending at Arlington Municipal Court.
Sgt. Ray Bush, a Fort Worth police spokesman, said Blanchard continued work after his 2011 arrest but was put on restricted duty after the department learned of last month's incident.
