Restraining order details complaint about Arroyo

Former firefighter still hospitalized

When former Boston firefighter Albert Arroyo allegedly showed up outside his former girlfriend's home Sunday night, she called Boston police, hoping to force an end to what she said has been six years of harassment.

"He constantly calls me at work harassing, at home, my parents, my siblings, and my children," the woman wrote in an affidavit when she got a restraining order barring Arroyo from coming near her Jamaica Plain home or Boston workplace. "I am a nervous wreck and need protection. I no longer can live in fear."

As a result, Arroyo, 46, was arrested Sunday on a charge of violating the restraining order.

The woman, whom the Globe declined to identify, could not be reached for comment yesterday. In her application for the restraining order, filed Oct. 28 in West Roxbury Municipal Court, she said Arroyo has been harassing her for six years.

"He follows me everywhere," she wrote. "For that reason, I am in fear of leaving my house. I keep my doors locked. I close my curtains because he looks up to my window."

Arroyo was fired from the Fire Department earlier this year after failing to convince officials he was permanently disabled with a back injury despite competing in a body-building contest.

His attorney, Neil Osborne, said yesterday the firing is the subject of a grievance filed by Arroyo's firefighters union, Local 718, with City Hall. Osborne said he does not represent Arroyo in connection with his arrest on the domestic violence charges.

According to a police report filed in court, police went to the woman's home around 7:51 p.m. on Sunday after she reported seeing Arroyo lurking behind her home. Officers did not find Arroyo at the scene.

Police located Arroyo in the emergency room at Faulkner Hospital in Jamaica Plain. They arrested him there, but when he said he was feeling ill, the hospital admitted him as a patient, according to the report.

Arroyo told an officer that "he was suffering from depression," according to the report.

Initially, Arroyo was expected to be arraigned yesterday on the domestic violence charges in West Roxbury Municipal Court. However, he remained hospitalized, but is expected to be released in time for arraignment today, police and prosecutors said.

Arroyo applied to the Boston Retirement Board for a disability pension after reporting that he slipped on a staircase March 21. John Mahoney, a Dorchester neurologist, said in a report to the board that Arroyo was "totally and permanently disabled."

Despite the alleged injuries, Arroyo finished eighth at the 2008 Pro Natural American Championships on May 3. After the Globe published a picture of him during the competition, Fire Department officials ordered him to return to work. When he refused, he was dismissed.

John Ellement can be reached at ellement@globe.com.