Police are launching one of the largest drug arrest sweeps in Vermont Wednesday. Police will be on the lookout for 36 defendants for the distribution and sale of illicit drugs.
Over 100 state, local, and federal agencies will be making arrests across Windsor County.
A press conference at the Springfield Fire Department will be held Wednesday afternoon to outline the progress of the arrests.

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By Michele Fields
Special To The Standard
Some Woodstock police officers are sporting more than just the new dark uniforms.
“I implemented the new assault weapon program,” Chief Robbie Blish told Trustees this week. “It is all voluntary if they want to carry it.”
Blish informed the Trustees that in a recent Upper Valley arrest of some people who had been in trouble in our area as well, an AK-47 was found among their belongings.
“I am not an alarmist, but I think we have to be ready,” he said in regards to the new program.
Officers who choose to carry assault weapons carry them in a locked case in the trunk of the car, according to Blish.
Officers have also recently completed a new fire arms training program.

Killington Town Manager Seth Webb confirmed in a email that there was a theft at the club house at Green Mountain National Golf Course some time shortly after 10 p.m. Sunday, August 12. The loss was $4,362.10. At 10:04 p.m an alarm was activated and state police as well as GMN staff were notified, Webb said in his email.

Additionally, Webb said, the town’s Transfer Station was broken into sometime between August 6 and 11 and $40 was stolen from the cash box.

Holly O’Brien, owner along with husband Nick of the South Woodstock Country Store, confirmed that the store was broken into either last night or early this morning. O’Brien said that when she arrived at the store this morning, she noticed that cigarettes and lighters were taken.
“We were fortunate,” O’Brien said, “because they didn’t take a lot.”
Woodstock Police are investigating.

Police say a Ludlow man totaled his truck yesterday at about 3:55 a.m. In Plymouth.
Vermont State Police received several calls about a motor vehicle accident on Scout Camp Road in Plymouth, and upon arriving they found that Austin Strong-Lawson, 20, of Ludlow had crashed his truck and rolled down over a bank and into a tree. Police observed empty beer cans at the scene.
Strong-Lawson was transported to the hospital for minor injuries and a sample of blood was obtained from Strong-Lawson for suspicion of DUI.

State Police report that Shawn Currier, 24, of Bridgewater Vermont has been charged with burglary, petit larceny and false information to a law enforcement officer after DNA collected at a theft at Cobb Hill Farm in Hartland on July 7 of last year was matched with Currier’s, after it was analyzed at the state laboratory.
Currier is currently incarcerated on other charges.

State Police report that Steven Buckley of Reading has been charged with Felony Marijuana Cultivation after an investigation into allegations that his son, Ryan Buckley, had violated a restraining order by coming into contact with an ex-girlfriend.
The girlfriend claimed that the younger Buckley had threatened her in person also threatened suicide. He was charged with one count of violating an Abuse Prevention Order and six counts of Violating Conditions of Release.
The elder Buckley’s marijuana cultivation operation, which police say included 73 plants, was allegedly discovered as police were searching for Steven Buckley.

Appreciating Our Emergency Services
Community members gathered at the Emergency Services Building for the annual appreciation day on Sunday.
Rick Russell Photos

A portion of these photo first appeared in the May 24th, 2012 print edition of the Vermont Standard.

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The attorney of a Bridgewater man who struck a Woodstock woman in a fatal accident in October has asked the court that charges against his client be dropped.
Richmond Maxham of Bridgewater was handed a charge of negligent operation, which could mean up to a year in jail and a $1,000 fine.
However, Maxham’s attorney says that the original Woodstock police findings determined that no criminal charge was warranted.
The report submitted to the court in January, after a detailed investigation, did indicate that a criminal charge was appropriate.
For more on the story, see this week’s Vermont Standard.

State Police investigated a reported break-in at a home on Old Mount Hunger Road in Barnard Friday.
Two screen doors were torn with a sharp object and a door in the rear of the residence pulled open. The homeowner reports that that an old 1940s or 50s -era AM radio and new Frigidaire dehumidifier were taken from the residence. If anyone has any information regarding these items or the burglary, please contact the State Police at the Royalton Barracks at 802-234-9933.

The former treasurer of the Meccawe fishing club in Bridgewater changed his plea to guilty in a charge of wire fraud at the District Court of Vermont today.
Bruce McAllister of Post Mills, Vermont, was the subject of a federal probe that began in May of last year, after two civil suits were brought against him by organizations claiming that he embezzled funds from them.
The Meccawe fishing club accused McAllister of misappropriating $123,000, and Dartmouth fraternity Alpha Theta said that $230,000 was missing from the funds that McAllister oversaw for them.
See next week’s Standard for more.

Photos by Nick Goldsmith – NKGphoto.com
Frank Tracy, first on scene keeps fire from spreading to nearby residences.

Troopers from the Royalton Barracks responded to numerous 911 calls of an erratic operator in the Woodstock area early Sunday afternoon. While responding, Troopers received updated information advising that the vehicle was now in Pomfret and that it was stuck in a ditch and on fire. Troopers located the vehicle and operator on Sessions Road in Pomfret. The driver made it safely from the vehicle. Investigation revealed that Kyle Zenlea, 29, of Bethel was driving under the influence, and Zenlea was taken into custody for the offense.

Subsequently, the fire from the crash caused a brush fire and the Teago Fire Department responded to drench the fire.

By Eric Francis
Standard Correspondent

WHITE RIVER JUNCTION – New details were revealed this week in paperwork filed at the courthouse in White River Junction surrounding the death of Dr. Hasse Halley, the pedestrian who was struck and killed October 1st on Woodstock Village’s Rec Center Bridge.
The affidavit summarizing the Woodstock Police Department’s investigation, which resulted in a single misdemeanor charge of careless or negligent operation of a motor vehicle being filed against 72-year-old Richmond Maxham of Bridgewater Corners, revealed a painstaking review of a dozen seemingly minor circumstances surrounding the collision between a school teacher crossing Route 4 and the cargo pickup truck that hit her.
Maxham made his way to the defense table on Tuesday morning in White River where he stood silently as his defense attorney, Wayne Young, entered an innocent plea on Maxham’s behalf before Maxham was released on personal recognizance conditions pending an eventual trial.

For more information, look inside this Thursday’s Vermont Standard.

Two men involved in area burglaries last year were sentenced Friday at Windsor District Court.
Dale Coughlin, 22, of Bridgewater was sentenced to 2 to 7 years for his role in last fall’s rash of jewelry burglaries, including his role in a burglary at Bridgewater Mill Mall.
Charles Bowen, 24, of Woodstock received a 2 to 4 year sentence on Friday. See this week’s Vermont Standard for more information.

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From State Police:
On March 17, 2012 at approximately 0939 hours, the Vermont State Police responded to 137 Baker Hill Road in Bridgewater, for a welfare check. While at the residence State Police could smell the odor of marijuana coming from inside the residence. State Police obtained consent from the homeowner. Approximately nine lbs of processed marijuana was located in the residence along with 99 Marijuana plants consisting of 58 large mature plants, 11 small 4″-6″ plants and 30 2″ starter plants. John Keough, Jr. was arrested and issued a criminal citation ordering him to appear in Windsor Superior Court Criminal Division on April 24, 2012.

This article first appeared in the February 16th, 2012 edition of the Vermont Standard.

By Eric Francis
Standard Correspondent
WHITE RIVER JUNCTION – A North Hartland man found himself in newspapers across the country this week after he was charged with swiping and then selling a cache of just over a dozen cards and letters written by the beloved New England poet Robert Frost after a Hanover man inadvertently left the papers in the drawer of a desk that he’d donated to a charitable organization.
Timothy Bernaby, 42, pleaded innocent to a single felony count of grand larceny in connection with the tangled case that allegedly began late last summer at the LISTEN furniture outlet in White River Junction in the building that for decades was the landmark “25,000 Gifts and Woolens” store.
A witness who helped carry the desk into LISTEN’s furniture showroom later told police that he saw Bernaby open the drawers and take out some Christmas cards and then exclaimed that they were signed ‘Robert Frost’ before adding, “Oh these are fake,” before nonetheless putting them underneath the cash register.
The very much genuine Frost papers did not come to police attention until August after Plainfield Police Chief Paul Roberts, who happens to be an antiques appraiser, was approached by one of his local residents, Thomas Cady, who showed him the items, claiming to have paid $25,000 for them after Bernaby found them in the trash at the LISTEN store and realized they were valuable.
Suspicious of both the circumstances and of Cady’s claim to have shelled out that much himself for the Frost items, Roberts described the papers and the situation to detectives in Hartford and Hanover who eventually tracked down the donor of the desk, Kendal at Hanover resident Hewette Joyce who confirmed the Frost ephemera were his and that he had not intended to give them away when he donated the desk.
Although Bernaby did not technically steal the papers from Mr. Joyce since he’d accidentally let them out of his possession, detectives also contacted LISTEN Center Director Merilynn Bourne who told them that all LISTEN employees sign a contract saying that anything donated, intentionally or not, to LISTEN is LISTEN’s property and that the organization always makes a great effort to return any inadvertently transferred valuables they discover amongst donations back to their proper owner. Based on that, Hartford Detective Michael Tkac put together a case charging Bernaby with theft – albeit from LISTEN, where he’d already lost his job as a result of the incident coming to light, rather than theft from Joyce.
As part of his investigation, Detective Tkac asked Dartmouth College’s noted archivist Jay Satterfield about the worth of the items which Satterfield pegged at approximately $2,500, which would amount to just one-tenth of what Cady said he paid for them.
Asked what he thought of the apparent discrepancies in the valuations of the small Frost collection, Windsor County State’s Attorney Robert Sand wryly channeled the iconic poet’s style as he told a half-dozen print, radio, and television reports who converged on the Windsor County Courthouse to cover Bernaby’s arraignment Monday afternoon, saying, “How much they’re worth, I think I know. A jury decides that question though.”
Although it is Bernaby who faces a potential maximum penalty of up to 10 years in prison and/or a fine of up to $5,000 if he were to be convicted of grand larceny for squirreling away Frost’s writings, questions surrounding Cady’s status in the wake of the filing of the charge against Bernaby have also arisen, especially since to date Cady has reportedly refused to turn the disputed Frost papers over to investigators.
Sand noted that Cady, who would essentially be relinquishing items that Cady at least feels are worth $25,000, was perhaps reluctant to do so without compensation for the large expenditure he claims to have made. According to court documents, Cady has retained a lawyer who advised him against handing anything back until the question of ownership is established.
Sand said that talks between authorities on both sides of the Connecticut River are continuing and he said the question of whether Cady could eventually be subject to a possession of stolen property charge if he continued to refuse to surrender the items was something of a gray area since prosecutors would have to prove that he knew the items were stolen in order to make such a charge stick.
The question of how Cady came to be in possession of the documents and how much he actually paid to obtain them is, according to the police affidavit, another grey area and one which may never really be resolved unless Cady got a receipt for the transaction. On the other hand, as Frost himself once said, “Nobody was ever meant, to remember or invent, what he did with every cent.”

Gordon Sayers, 32, of Quechee, is now facing multiple charges that could carry up to life in prison following what prosecutors called a “horrific ordeal” that he allegedly inflicted on his long-time girlfriend at her residence on Twilight Court during the pre-dawn hours of Sunday morning. 
Sayers, who is from the Newport area where he racked up four previous felony convictions, is currently on probation for a domestic assault involving the same alleged victim who ran in a nightgown to a neighbor’s home early Sunday and had them call Hartford Police. 
Beth Colburn told police that she had argued with Sayers because he’d showed up drunk the previous evening only to have him allegedly threaten to rape and kill her before she said he repeatedly put her in a headlock and choked her to the point things became “fuzzy” and she said she thought she was going to die. 
Colburn described locking herself in a bathroom while Sayers punched his first through the door twice before he eventually passed out and she made a run for it.  Police said when they entered the house to arrest Sayers they found him asleep with an “extremely realistic” looking B.B. gun next to him that the initially thought was an automatic handgun. 
Sayers was ordered held without bail Monday afternoon after he entered a denial to the probation violation and pleaded innocent to four new felony counts of aggravated domestic assault, which could carry enhanced sentencing penalties under the state’s habitual offender law.

Woodstock Man Charged With Possession
Ryan Buckley, 23, of Woodstock, pleaded innocent to two misdemeanor counts of violating court-ordered conditions of pre-trial release and to another misdemeanor charge for possession of marijuana. 
Buckley, who is currently residing in Reading, has previously pleaded innocent to a felony count of burglary of an occupied dwelling alongside another suspect in the rash of jewelry burglaries that swept the area last fall.  Vermont State Police Troopers Christopher Blais and Nick Rinaldi showed up unannounced on January 11 at the apartment in West Woodstock where Buckley was staying to do a spot check of his compliance with his conditions of release and “immediately smelled the strong odor of burnt marijuana” when Buckley’s girlfriend opened her door, according to their affidavit.  After Buckley came to speak with the troopers, they told him they could plainly see a pot pipe sitting on the coffee table in the living room and they seized the “still warm” item along with a less than a gram of marijuana.

Woodstock Man In Pond Charged With DUI
Jacob Webb, 35, of Woodstock pleaded innocent to drunk driving – second offense – and was released on pre-trial conditions, including a court-order that he not possess nor consume any alcohol while his case is pending.  Woodstock Police Officer Joseph Swanson responded to the base of Church Hill Road in South Woodstock on the evening of January 13 and found Webb’s mini van about 100 feet out into a snowy field next to the pond behind the Kedron Valley Inn.  Swanson said Webb was “leaning against the side of his vehicle (and) covered in snow and mud from head to toe” apparently having difficulty standing.  Webb initially denied having had anything to drink and refused to take a breath test, according to Swanson, who said that after another officer arrived and they briefly conferred they went to talk to Webb again only to find that he had fled the scene on foot.  Following a trial of footprints in the falling snow, Swanson caught up to Webb on Cowdrey Path and arrested him for DUI.  Swanson said at that point Webb was holding a Twisted Tea and was found to have two more in his pants pockets.

This article first appeared in the February 2nd, 2012 edition of the Vermont Standard.

By Eric Francis
Standard Correspondent
WOODSTOCK – More drug dealing charges have been filed against a former Woodstock woman who is currently incarcerated in New Hampshire awaiting trial on nine felony counts in that state.
Lura Pratson, who turned 22 this month, is being held for lack of bail at the Sullivan County House of Corrections in Claremont.  Pratson’s detention across the river caused her to miss an arraignment earlier this month in White River Junction where prosecutors have filed two additional felony charges against her for sales of heroin that allegedly took place in August outside a gas station in White River and at the White Cottage snack bar in West Woodstock. 
Pratson, a 2008 graduate of Woodstock Union High School where she was a member of the National Honor Society, was arrested by Lebanon Police on the evening of November 7 in the company of Charles “Chuck” Bowen, 24, of Quechee, who is one of the suspects who have been charged in connection with last fall’s rash of jewelry burglaries across the region.
At the time of that arrest, Bowen had come to the attention of police officers who were parked in the lot outside the Miracle Mile Plaza talking during the evening hours when they noticed Bowen driving his Chevy Blazer out of a wooded area with Pratson in the passenger seat.  Spotting fresh “track marks” on Bowen’s arms from needle injections, the officers said Bowen quickly acknowledged he had just been shooting up heroin and he claimed he had been purchasing it from Pratson “several times in the previous few days,” according to the police report.
 A subsequent search of the Blazer turned up a stolen jewelry box that police said linked Bowen to a break-in at a residence on High Pastures Road near the Quechee-Woodstock town line.
Pratson was arrested that night after police found what they said was a “large amount” of cash and heroin in her purse.
 Bowen later told Woodstock Police Sgt. Peter Mantello and Vermont State Police Sgt. Barbara Zonay during an interview at the Springfield Jail, where Bowen is currently being held pending trial, that on the morning of November 7th he’d kicked in the doors of two separate homes just off Rose Hill in Woodstock and taken jewelry because, “He was going to sell it to Lura Pratson for heroin,” Mantello wrote in his transcript of the interview.
 The November arrest is one of four separate episodes of alleged drug sales in New Hampshire that resulted in the nine individual felony counts that Pratson is currently facing there.
  “I arraigned her and we also had a probable cause hearing at the Lebanon District Court as well,” Lebanon Police prosecutor Lt. Matthew Isham explained this week, noting, “She’s also under indictment from the Grafton County Attorney’s Office for several charges as well.”
The two newest charges that were just filed against Pratson in Vermont carry a maximum potential of up to ten years in prison. 
 Those charges, which were filed by the Vermont Attorney General’s Office, came as the result of an undercover operation begun in Woodstock by the Southern Vermont Drug Task Force that was conducted with the help of cooperating individuals.
Detectives said they set up two “buys” from Pratson early in the month of August.  During the first operation, detectives tailed Pratson from her residence in West Lebanon to the parking lot of the L.L. Bean store at the Powerhouse Mall where they said she appeared to pick up drugs from a supplier’s car that was waiting there before continuing on to a gas station in White River Junction.
At the gas station, detectives said they watched as Pratson and a friend of hers, Molly Smith, 19, of Lebanon, allegedly sold ten heroin baggies to a cooperating individual for $180.
Police said the wax baggies the informant turned over to them immediately after the purchase were all stamped with the street trademark “60 Minutes,” which is consistent with drug gang’s longstanding habit of “branding” each shipment of heroin as a way of assuring their customers of the quality.
 “The confidential informant said the heroin was ‘60s’ and these were the good ones,” Detective Dennis Coughin wrote in his affidavit.
 The second sting operation targeting Pratson occurred a few days later at the White Cottage snack bar in West Woodstock where detectives said they gave a cooperating individual $600 in cash to purchase what was supposed to be four “bundles” (a total of 40 individual wax baggies) of heroin. 
Detective Coughlin said the surveillance team watched as an unidentified black male pulled up to the White Cottage shortly before the transaction was supposed to take place and gave something to Pratson who was hanging out there with Molly Smith and three other individuals.  A short time later the informant drove up and detectives said they recorded Pratson saying she was actually going to give them five bundles instead of four after which she handed over a package “the size of a small cell phone” that appeared to have been made out of pages torn from a magazine with clear tape on both ends.
As Pratson and her friends drove away, Detective Coughlin said that he “immediately contacted the cooperating individual who indicated to me that the package Pratson just gave them did not feel right and there did not appear to be four bundles inside of it.”
When Coughlin opened the package he discovered it contained only five of the small wax heroin baggies, all stamped with the brand name “Money Face” with a picture of money on them.  The rest of the package was filled with folded paper towels, according to the police report.
In trying to figure out why their informant had apparently been ripped off, detectives said the cooperating individual explained that Pratson might have been mad at them because they had a previous “drug debt” of 14 bags of heroin outstanding with Pratson’s boyfriend at the time, Jordan Stacey of Windsor.
After conferring about the situation, the detectives had the informant continue to reach out to Pratson to try to resolve the discrepancy and they said a few days later Pratson arranged to have the cooperating individual come by the insurance agency where Pratson was working in Lebanon.  They said Pratson asked the informant to make an appointment to get an insurance quote in an apparent effort to make their visit with her appear work related.  That visit was handled by detectives from New Hampshire who said that the informant was allegedly able to recover another bundle of heroin from Pratson at her office, a transaction which forms the basis of one of the charges now facing Pratson in the Granite State.
 

Phil Camp Photo

Adam Jenks, 39, of Woodstock has been charged with first-degree aggravated domestic assault with a deadly weapon after a fight near the bottom of Hartland Hill Monday afternoon.
The fight left Airell Jenks, 70, with several large lacerations to his face and the top of his head. The elder Jenks drove himself to the Woodstock Police Department after the incident, and his son arrived at Maplefield’s, where alarmed staff noticed him walking into the store with bloodied hands and acting disoriented.
When questioned, Adam Jenks initially said he couldn’t recall why he had attacked his father. Airell Jenks told police that the attack was completely unprovoked and that his son suffers from mental illness. The younger Jenks is now being taken for an in-patient mental health evaluation.
Officials at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center said that Jenks was not on the list of patients that they are able to comment on.

The following article first appeared in the February 2nd, 2012 edition of the Vermont Standard.
By Eric Francis
Standard Correspondent
WOODSTOCK – A Woodstock man with a history of schizophrenia has been charged with beating and repeatedly slicing his father in the head with a military-style combat knife Monday afternoon in what police said appeared to have been a completely unprovoked attack.
“Pretty much the long and the short of it is he just snapped,” Woodstock Police Chief Robbie Blish said of Adam Jenks, 39, who was arrested at Maplefields just minutes after the assault took place outside Jenks’ residence nearby. “He never had any previous history of this (kind of violence) from what we understand,” Blish noted.
Airell Jenks, 70, a long-time Woodstock resident and a member of the local Rotary Club was transported Monday afternoon to the Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center for treatment of a possible broken arm and what were described as several large, but not life-threatening, lacerations to his face and head.
Chief Blish said that Airell Jenks was able to tell him that his son suffered from mental illness but things had been calm in the minutes leading up to the assault. 
“They were waiting for a tow truck to come pick up his son’s car.  I don’t know what the deal with the car was,” Blish said, noting that he hadn’t been yet able to re-interview Jenks after he got to the hospital.  “There’s not a lot to it.  It is what it is, unfortunately,” Blish said, adding, “He sustained some pretty severe lacerations.”
Adam Jenks was arrested and taken to Mount Ascutney Hospital where he was treated for a laceration to the palm of his right hand before spending the night at the Springfield jail.  On Tuesday afternoon, a defense attorney entered a pro forma innocent plea on behalf of Adam Jenks to a single felony count of first degree aggravated domestic assault with a deadly weapon.
Adam Jenks was held and immediately ordered to undergo an in-patient psychiatric examination to determine his competency to stand trial; although, court officials did not know Tuesday afternoon exactly where and when that will take place since the state hospital in Waterbury is still out of commission as the result of flooding from Tropical Storm Irene.
Woodstock Police received their first call about the incident at 1:20 p.m. Monday from a passerby who reported that two men appeared to be fighting near the bottom of Hartland Hill road by the intersection with Route 4. 
Chief Blish had no sooner pulled out of the police station to respond when he was radioed an update that one of the men had just driven away from “the fight” in a black SUV.  “Just as this information was dispatched, I observed an SUV matching the description pull into the front parking lot of the emergency services building,” Blish recalled in an affidavit filed with the court.
Making a U-turn back to the building, Blish said he watched as Airell Jenks got out of the SUV “covered in blood and bleeding profusely from the head and face” and headed into the lobby. As Woodstock Ambulance Paramedic Patricia Cassidy arrived to help Jenks, he explained to the chief that his son has attacked him out of the blue while he had been standing in his son’s driveway waiting for the tow truck to arrive.
Told that the last place Adam Jenks had been seen was heading for Maplefields, both Chief Blish and Woodstock Police Sgt. Peter Mantello responded over to the convenience store where they found the “disoriented” Jenks still inside.
Staff and patrons of the store had already been alarmed by the sudden appearance of the younger Jenks who’d run down Hartland Hill screaming, “They tried to kill me!” according to a witness who said people in the store were in the process of helping Jenks clean the blood from his hands and trying to figure out if he was drunk or if something was really going on when police arrived and took him away without further incident.
Chief Blish wrote that when he brought Adam Jenks to the police department for an interview Jenks initially stated that he didn’t remember anything about what had happened but then later said he recalled hitting his father “a lot” with a knife which he described as a “CRKT M16-14” combat knife.
“Suspect Jenks could not remember why he had attacked the victim,” Blish wrote, adding that Sgt. Mantello went to the driveway and was able to find the knife and take pictures of the scene where the assault apparently occurred.
Although police records include a standing warning to officers that Jenks is “Schizophrenic – medicated and independent,” he does not have any criminal convictions on his record and will only stand trial on the current felony charge if a judge determines he is competent and sane.
Chief Blish said that Adam Jenks was “cooperative” once he was taken into custody but could not elaborate on the circumstances that led up to the attack.

By Eric Francis
Standard Correspondent
WOODSTOCK – Two new burglary charges have been lodged against a Quechee man who was already part of a rapidly widening investigation into the rash of jewelry thefts that swept the area early last month.
Charles “Chuck” Bowen, 24, pleaded innocent on Tuesday to the pair of felony counts in Windsor Criminal Court in downtown White River Junction. Afterward he was returned to the Springfield Jail, where he’s been held since his most recent arrest on November 7 in Lebanon.
Lebanon Police picked up on Bowen after they spotted him that evening in a white Chevy Blazer with Lura Pratson, 21, of Lebanon who police said had a large amount of cash and heroin in her purse at the time. Police searched the Blazer and found a jewelry box that they used to implicate Bowen in a burglary that had taken place earlier that week on High Pastures Road near where the Pomfret, Woodstock, and Hartford town lines meet.
As reported last month in the Standard, police believe Bowen and Ryan Buckley, 23, of Woodstock entered that residence on High Pastures and stole jewelry, apparently not realizing that the homeowner and her daughter were asleep in their bedrooms as they were being pilfered.
This week’s new charges against Bowen allege that on the morning of November 7, before his arrest in Lebanon that evening, Bowen kicked in the door of two separate homes just off Rose Hill in Woodstock – one on Willow Brook Road and on French Road – and took jewelry boxes from the Russell and Brian residences.
Woodstock Police Sgt. Peter Mantello wrote in an affidavit filed with the court that several days after Bowen and Pratson were stopped in Lebanon, the victims of the Woodstock break-ins were able to identify numerous pieces of jewelry found in the Blazer as theirs.
Mantello and Vermont State Police Sgt. Barbara Zonay traveled down to the Springfield Jail to interview Bowen whom they said admitted to have stolen the jewelry from a pair of houses near Rose Hill. Bowen added, “He was going to sell it to Lura Pratson for heroin,” Mantello wrote.
On the bottom of a sworn statement given to police at the jail in which he said he was the sole person responsible for the Rose Hill burglaries, Bowen added a personal note, which began, “I, Charles Bowen, have been clean from heroin since I’ve been here, even though it’s here. I can’t tell you how sorry I am for what I did but I cannot take it back.”

This article first appeared in the December 15th edition of the Vermont Standard.