Tuesday, May 10, 2016
A Burlington police officer’s decision to shoot a knife-wielding mentally ill man in March was legally justified, authorities said Tuesday.
Ralph “Phil” Grenon, 76, who was killed, suffered from paranoid schizophrenia and had stopped taking his medication. Police and his family questioned how treatment providers allowed him to deteriorate without being hospitalized in the months before he was killed.
Police were called to his apartment on College Street on March 2. Grenon was yelling and threatening people. After five hours of attempted negotiations, Grenon approached a team of heavily armed officers inside his apartment swinging two large knives, and was shot.
Tags: Burlington police , Ralph Grenon , T.J. Donovan , Bill Sorrell , Image , Web Only
Friday, May 6, 2016
House negotiators won concessions from their Senate counterparts for new guidelines governing how motorists and bicyclists interact on roads. The House had proposed new rules for sharing the road following four cyclist fatalities last year, but the Senate preferred to rely on education to improve safety.
Tags: bicycle safety , cannabis related , driver interlock , Lamoille Valley Rail Trail , transportation , Vermont legislature , Image , Web Only
Thursday, May 5, 2016
In morning talks on the transportation project bill, negotiators went back and forth over the new restrictions that the House wanted to add to improve safety for bicycle riders. “That is a huge issue for the House side,” Rep. Tim Corcoran (D-Bennington) told the senators across the table.
Senators countered that bikers and motorists need to share the road. “I’m reluctant to put all the responsibility on the motorists,” said Sen. Peg Flory (R-Rutland).
Neither side was ready to budge at this stage in their talks.
Tags: Rep. Tim Corcoran , Sen. Dick Sears , Sen. Peg Flory , Rep. Chip Conquest , Sen. Alice Nitka , license suspension , Vermont legislature , Image , Web Only
Monday, May 2, 2016
The senators led a panel featuring Gov. Peter Shumlin, Chittenden County State’s Attorney T.J. Donovan, U.S. Attorney Eric Miller, Burlington Police Chief Brandon del Pozo, Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger and others.
Booker, a former mayor of Newark and a darling of the left, introduced a bill last year that would reexamine federal sentencing laws and reduce mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent offenders. Leahy cosponsored the bill.
“If you really look at the data of who we imprison, we are painfully moving away from our values,” Booker said. “We are a nation that treats you better if you are rich and guilty than poor and innocent. Our prison population is overwhelmingly poor ... It is overwhelmingly addicted … It is overwhelmingly mentally ill, and [it includes] victims of trauma and sexual abuse. And it is disproportionately minority.”
Tags: Patrick Leahy , Peter Shumlin , Cory Booker , Eric Miller , T.J. Donovan , criminal justice , Brandon del Pozo , police , drugs , Image , Web Only
Thursday, April 28, 2016
The legislation sets guidelines for how and when the police may use drones, and it reauthorizes police use of cameras that capture photos of license plates and establishes the procedures that law enforcement agencies must follow to gain access to electronic communications.
“What is important is the balance between protecting individual privacy and enhancing public safety,” said Rep. Maxine Grad (D-Moretown), chair of the committee.
Tags: ACLU of Vermont , drones , Vermont Police Association , House Judiciary Committee , Rep. Maxine Grad , Rep , Willem Jewett , Rep. Gary Viens , Rep. Vicki Strong , Image , Web Only
Monday, April 25, 2016
Bernard Savage pleaded guilty to conspiring to distribute powder cocaine and oxycodone between 2014 and June 2015, when his home was raided by investigators. Savage, who faces a maximum of 20 years in prison, will be sentenced at a later date.
After his July arrest, Savage told Seven Days that he had no intentions of resigning his seat on the Alburgh Selectboard, even after fellow board members pressured him to step down. He resigned in October.
Tags: Alburgh , Bernard Savage , cannabis related , drugs , Image , Web Only
Friday, April 22, 2016
Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents detained a Mexican farmworker and prominent migrant rights activist in Vermont Thursday, according to a friend who was with him at the time.
Victor Diaz was about to enter Green Goddess Cafe in Stowe for a Mexican food event when two officers in plainclothes asked for his name. After he complied, they apprehended him, said Enrique Balcazar, a fellow organizer also from Mexico.
ICE released a statement late Friday saying that 24-year-old Diaz became an “enforcement priority” after he was convicted for a DUI last November. It described him as a citizen of Mexico and noted that he “will remain in ICE custody pending removal proceedings.”
Balcazar said the agents, who showed badges, did not question him.
On Friday, members of the group Migrant Justice and other supporters crowded into the foyer of Sen. Patrick Leahy’s Burlington office, demanding that he intervene on Diaz’s behalf.
Tags: Immigration and Customs Enforcement , Migrant Justice , Patrick Leahy , Victor Diaz , Image , Web Only
Tuesday, April 19, 2016
The Vermont Department of Corrections' contract to house overflow inmates in a private prison in Michigan could be in jeopardy.
A plan gaining momentum in the Michigan Senate would see that state's DOC close two of its oldest prisons, and send inmates to North Lake Correctional Facility in Baldwin, Mich., which is privately owned by The GEO Group. The state of Michigan would lease the entire prison and run North Lake as a state facility, according to various media reports.
Currently, 230 Vermont inmates are held in North Lake under a two-year, $30 million contract inked by the Vermont DOC and GEO last year. That contract allows either party to void it with five months notice.
Tags: Vermont DOC , North Lake , Michigan , The GEO Group , Image , Web Only
Friday, April 15, 2016
In 2010, Pomerleau, one of Vermont’s leading developers, had agreed to sell Newport’s prime Waterfront Plaza, a shopping center on Lake Memphremagog, to Stenger, who said he planned to build a hotel and marina there using the same EB-5 investor program he used to transform Jay Peak Resort and launch other projects in the NEK.
Tags: Pomerleau , Bill Stenger , Ariel Quiros , EB-5 , Jay Peak , development , Image , Web Only
Monday, April 11, 2016
After studying four years of traffic-stop data in Burlington, University of Vermont economics professor Stephanie Seguino has concluded that there’s evidence of police officers targeting black drivers.
Seguino, who conducted the analysis with Cornell professor Nancy Brooks based on data recorded by officers from 2012 through 2015, presented findings to the city council Monday night.
Among them: Black drivers were more likely than their white counterparts to get pulled over in Burlington, and, once stopped, they were less likely to get off with just a warning. White drivers got warnings 69.4 percent of the time, whereas black drivers got warnings only 61.6 percent of the time.
Black drivers were more likely to be searched after being stopped: 3.3 percent of the time, compared to 1.1 percent of the time for white drivers.
But searches of black motorists turned up contraband only 46.2 percent of the time, whereas searches of white drivers produced illegal items 63.5 percent of the time. That could mean white drivers were getting under-searched or black drivers were getting over-searched, Seguino suggested. The difference in arrest rates between races, she noted, was not statistically significant.
Tags: Burlington Police Department , Brandon del Pozo , Burlington City Council , Image , Web Only