Conviction carries prison sentence of up to a year
by Guy Page
Vermont Attorney General Charity Clark’s office has directed the Vermont State Police to cite two of their own for simple assault and reckless endangerment following a 2022 non-lethal beanbag shooting of a disturbed man, the VSP said Monday.
In July 2022, the Vermont State Police completed its investigation into the June 17 use-of-force incident that resulted in significant injuries to Marshall Dean in Newfane. VSP treated the matter as an officer-involved shooting. Per standard protocol in such cases, state police turned over the full investigative file to the Vermont Attorney General’s Office for review.
The Attorney General’s Office has concluded its review and Monday directed the Vermont State Police to cite Sgt. Ryan Wood and Trooper Zachary Trocki of the Westminster Barracks on charges of misdemeanor simple assault and misdemeanor reckless endangerment. The Attorney General’s Office determined the use of force was not justified given the circumstances of the incident.
Trocki and Wood are scheduled to appear for arraignment at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday, May 30, in the Criminal Division of Vermont Superior Court in Brattleboro.
Following routine procedure when a use of force is under review by prosecutors, Trocki and Wood have been on paid administrative duty at the barracks since the incident. They have now been suspended, and will be off payroll following arraignment.
Sgt. Wood was hired as a trooper in 2012 and upon graduation from the Vermont Police Academy was assigned to the Rockingham Barracks. In 2016 he was assigned to VSP’s Narcotics Investigation Unit, and the following year was promoted to sergeant and transferred to the Westminster Barracks.
Trooper Trocki was hired in fall 2021 and assigned to the Westminster Barracks following his graduation from the academy in spring 2022. He is the trooper who deployed the bean-bag round in the course of this incident.
Wood and Trocki were the only troopers on scene at the time of the incident.
O’Neil, reached by phone, said the VTA leadership along with veteran defense lawyers David Sleigh on behalf of Wood and Robert Sussman on behalf of Trocki are “outraged” by the decision by Attorney General Charity Clark.
Clark has ordered state police to issue citations to Wood and Trocki for reckless endangerment and simple assault, O’Neil said.
Vermont Troopers Association Executive Director Michael O’Neil said last week there is a strong objection to what he called “the criminalization of a split-second public safety decision” by Clark’s office. He said the issue should be dealt with internally through policies and procedures, Mike Donoghue of Vermont News First reported.
Under Vermont law, a person is guilty of simple assault if he or she:
(1) attempts to cause or purposely, knowingly, or recklessly causes bodily injury to another; or
(2) negligently causes bodily injury to another with a deadly weapon; or
(3) attempts by physical menace to put another in fear of imminent serious bodily injury.
State law says reckless endangerment occurs when “a person who recklessly engages in conduct which places or may place another person in danger of death or serious bodily injury….Recklessness and danger shall be presumed where a person knowingly points a firearm at or in the direction of another, whether or not the actor believed the firearm to be loaded, and whether or not the firearm actually was loaded.”
A person who is convicted of either simple assault or reckless endangerment shall be imprisoned for not more than one year or fined not more than $1,000.00, or both, unless the offense is committed in a fight or scuffle entered into by mutual consent, in which case a person convicted of simple assault shall be imprisoned not more than 60 days or fined not more than $500.00, or both.
It is unclear whether conviction of misdemeanor simple assault or reckless endangerment conducted in the line of duty would qualify for decertification as a Vermont police officer. State law lists as a “Class A” decertification offense “a misdemeanor that is committed while on duty and did not involve the legitimate performance of duty.”
Decertified police officers are no longer eligible to work as police in Vermont.