Vandals paint over City Hall Park surveillance camera solar panels
A new police surveillance camera trailer placed in Burlington’s Hall Park was vandalized just days after it arrived, according to a WCAX report.
The trailer was installed Thursday as part of a Burlington Police Department effort to deter illegal activity in the downtown park. Over the weekend, someone covered the trailer’s solar panels with white paint and painted a heart on them.
The camera system relies entirely on solar power.
Police have said officers can remotely move and zoom the cameras to investigate suspicious activity. The trailer can also broadcast music and recorded messages.
Hartford man, 62, identified as victim of vehicle fire
A 62-year-old Hartford man died from thermal injuries in a Sept. 9 vehicle fire at 807 Maple Street, Hartford Police said.
The Vermont Office of the Chief Medical Examiner confirmed the victim’s identity following an autopsy. Police are withholding his name.
The manner of death remains under investigation. Police said investigators believe the fire was an isolated incident and there is no danger to the public.
Killington man gets 90 months for producing morphed child sexual abuse image
CSAM producer sentenced
A 68-year-old Killington man with previous federal convictions involving child sexual abuse material was sentenced Sept. 15 to 90 months in prison for producing a morphed CSAM image.
U.S. District Judge Mary Kay Lanthier also sentenced Russell Biathrow to lifetime supervised release and imposed a $10,000 fine.
According to federal court records, Biathrow pleaded guilty to producing an image in March 2025 by combining or altering images involving an identifiable minor and sexually explicit material. Prosecutors said he intended to distribute the resulting image.
Biathrow was convicted of CSAM-related offenses in North Carolina in 2008 and sentenced to 100 months in prison and lifetime supervised release. A 2019 supervised-release violation for possessing CSAM resulted in another 78-month prison sentence. He was on federal supervised release when the latest offense occurred.
Man charged after child found on second-story windowsill
A 24-year-old Fair Haven man faces a cruelty-to-a-child charge after Vermont State Police said they found a young child sitting in a second-story window with a broken screen Thursday evening.
Troopers responded to River Street at about 6:05 PM Sept. 17 after receiving a report of a child hanging out of a second-story window.
Police said troopers found the child sitting on the windowsill and tried to persuade the child to return inside while attempting to contact adults in the apartment. The child was eventually picked up from the windowsill and brought inside.
Police said Dawson Parker, 24, was in the apartment and was the child’s primary caregiver at the time. Parker was arrested, processed at the Rutland Barracks and released on conditions.
He was cited to appear Sept. 18 in Rutland Criminal Division.