Friday, August 25, 2017
Michael Reynolds was arrested Saturday after he allegedly punched a Burlington restaurant owner in the chest. Reynolds is a familiar face to law enforcement: the altercation at East West Café was Reynolds's 861st documented incident with police since 2011. The 40-year-old transient appeared in court and was back on the street this week.
Police publicized Reynolds' lengthy criminal record in a press release emailed to local media Wednesday with the subject line, "DRUNKEN MAN ASSAULTS BUSINESS OWNER." But the release left out the fact that Reynolds, who's been arrested 117 times, is schizophrenic, according to a relative who lives out of state.
Tags: Brandon del Pozo , Mark Redmond , Michael Reynolds , Adam Roof , Kurt Wright , mental health services , Image , Web Only
Wednesday, August 23, 2017
Michael Reynolds, 40, was arrested on a charge of simple assault after the incident Saturday at the East West Café at North Winooski Avenue and Pearl Street.
Reynolds also allegedly threatened to kill responding police officers and correctional officers at the Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility, Burlington police said in a news release.
Police have made contact with Reynolds nearly 900 times since 2011, including 117 arrests — eight for felony crimes — resulting in 31 criminal convictions. He's also been issued dozens of tickets for infractions such as public urination, trespassing and carrying an open container, according to police.
Burlington Police Chief Brandon del Pozo told Seven Days in a story published Wednesday that Reynolds owes the city nearly $12,000 in fines. The article examines a proposal to create a criminal penalty for those who repeatedly commit civil "quality of life" offenses such as "public drunkenness, fighting and public urination." Unpaid violations affect an individual's credit score — which is little deterrent for those with no income or assets.
"The lack of consequences is a root cause of what is an unfair burden on the rest of the community," del Pozo told Seven Days' Katie Jickling.
According to police, Reynolds was arraigned on the most recent charge and released on pre-trial conditions.
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Tuesday, August 8, 2017
Vermont Public Safety Commissioner Tom Anderson said that the "startling" spate of fatal wrecks demonstrates the dangers of distracted driving and failing to wear a seatbelt.
Seven of the nine people killed were not wearing a seatbelt, officials said, including four young people who died Monday morning on Route 22A in Bridport. Officials said their Volkswagen Beetle crossed the centerline and slammed head-on into a pickup truck.
Tags: Tom Anderson , Jennifer Morrison , Vermont State Police , fatalities , highway safety , Image , Web Only
Friday, July 28, 2017
Judge Mary Miles Teachout's ruling is the latest development in a long-running dispute between the industry-funded Energy & Environment Legal Institute and state attorneys general investigating ExxonMobil.
E&E Legal sued the Vermont Attorney General's Office in June 2016 after then-AG Bill Sorrell categorically refused to hand over any documents related to the multistate climate-change investigation. Sorrell's successor, Attorney General T.J. Donovan, inherited the case. In March, his staff argued in court that because the office represents the state, it could invoke attorney-client privilege and only release documents when doing so is in the state's interest.
While such an argument could have broad implications for the state's public records law, Donovan and his deputies later insisted to Seven Days that their office would honor most public records requests.
Tags: Bill Sorrell , TJ Donovan , Energy & Environment Legal Institute , public records act , Vermont Superior Court , Image , Web Only
Tuesday, July 18, 2017
The Vermont Department of Motor Vehicles' facial recognition program violates state law and should remain suspended, Attorney General T.J. Donovan said Tuesday.
Donovan said the program, which includes 2.7 million images of license applicants and has previously been shared with police, violates a 2004 law barring the DMV from using "biometric identifiers" in granting identification cards.
The DMV suspended use of facial recognition in May after Seven Days, using documents uncovered by the American Civil Liberties Union of Vermont, published a story on the program.
The DMV should not restart the program unless it gets legislative approval, Donovan said.
"This is about balancing public safety with the privacy rights of Vermonters," Donovan said.
Tags: T.J. Donovan , Vermont DMV , facial recognition database , facial recognition program , Image , Web Only
Friday, July 14, 2017
Former state senator Norm McAllister took the witness stand in his own defense on Friday morning and said the woman who has accused him of sexual assault cajoled him into a months-long consensual relationship.
He was the final witness, and faced tough questions during cross-examination. Jurors began deliberating the case around 5:30 p.m.
McAllister forcefully denied ever coercing or assaulting the alleged victim during testimony in Franklin Superior Court. He claimed that she initiated a sexual relationship in January 2014, several months after she had come to live and work at his farm.
At the time, McAllister said, he was grieving the loss of his wife, who died of cancer in September 2013, only two months after she was diagnosed. Meanwhile, the victim had lost her children to the Department for Children and Families, and took the job in hopes of getting them back.
Tags: Norm McAllister , Bob Katims , John Lavoie , Franklin County , Image , Image , Web Only
Thursday, July 13, 2017
The alleged victim in the sexual assault trial of former state senator Norm McAllister took the witness stand Thursday morning and said she agreed to a sex-for-rent scheme with him out of desperation.
Back in 2012, the woman testified, the Department for Children and Families had taken her children. She was living in a homeless shelter in St. Albans. To have any chance to get her kids back, she needed a job and a place to live, she testified. She answered a Craigslist ad for someone willing to live and work on a Highgate farm.
McAllister, who had taken out the ad, told her he had other applicants with more experience, she recalled.
She recounted the following conversation while on the witness stand in Franklin Superior Court: To land the job, she told McAllister she would be willing to do anything, including household chores, cooking meals or running errands.
Tags: Norm McAllister , Bob Katims , John Lavoie , Franklin County , Image , Web Only
Wednesday, July 12, 2017
Deputy Franklin County State's Attorney John Lavoie said that McAllister targeted a woman who was desperate to live in a dilapidated trailer he owned and to work on his Highgate farm. She allowed him to take advantage of her for years, Lavoie said.
"Rape is not about sex," Lavoie told jurors in Franklin Superior Court. "It's about the rapist using sex to exercise power and control."
Lavoie devoted most of his opening argument to unveiling a 30-minute recording of McAllister speaking on the telephone with the alleged victim. On the recording, McAllister discusses, in often graphic detail, some of their sexual encounters.
Tags: Norm McAllister , Bob Katims , John Lavoie , Franklin County , legislature , Image , Web Only
Authorities on Wednesday afternoon recovered the body of an 11-year-old boy who slipped and fell into the Winooski River on Tuesday evening.
Ali Muhina had been playing on the riverbank with friends when he slipped and fell into the water, friends and relatives told Seven Days. The other boys ran home to get help after they were unable to pull their friend back to safety. Witnesses on the other side of the river, just below the hydroelectric dam, called police.
Colchester Technical Rescue, the Winooski Fire Department and the Winooski Police Department started searching for the boy around 7 p.m. and ended for the night about three hours later. "It got too dangerous for the rescue team to recover anybody in the dark," said Winooski police chief Rick Hebert.
Tags: Ali Muhina , Winooski River , Winooski drowning , Christian Kibabu , Image , Web Only
Tuesday, July 11, 2017
Attorneys continue to question prospective jurors individually. But of approximately 100 people summoned for the jury pool, 70 have been sent home for a variety of reasons: they've formed an opinion about the case, they have a personal connection to someone involved in the case or they have a personal connection to a sexual assault victim.
Deputy Franklin County State's Attorney John Lavoie and McAllister's attorney, Bob Katims, have each used three of their six allotted challenges. Judge Martin Maley said he wants to select four alternates to the 12-person jury.
Tags: Norm McAllister , Franklin County , John Lavoie , Bob Katims , Martin Maley , legislature , Image , Web Only