Man accused of stranding operator on lift / Hotel guest won’t leave
The Vermont State Police have identified a Derby man who was dropped off at a Newport hospital early Sunday with multiple gunshot wounds.
Burton S. Jacobs Jr., 59, remains hospitalized at the University of Vermont Medical Center in Burlington, where his condition was listed as stable Monday, police said.
The investigation began at about 2:05 AM Sunday, Aug. 23, when Jacobs was dropped off at North Country Hospital in Newport suffering from multiple gunshot wounds. He was treated for serious injuries before being airlifted to UVMMC.
Police still have not disclosed where the shooting occurred.
According to VSP, Jacobs and other people interviewed by investigators have not provided significant details about what happened, including the location where Jacobs was shot.
The investigation remains active and involves members of the Vermont State Police Major Crime Unit, Bureau of Criminal Investigations and Field Force Division.
Police are asking anyone with information about the shooting to contact the Derby Barracks at 802-334-8881. Anonymous tips also may be submitted through the Vermont State Police website.
In other police news, a Westfield man is accused of disabling a boom lift and temporarily trapping a construction worker in an elevated basket before later being linked to a Troy property where a sugarhouse caught fire, Vermont State Police said.
Ryan Bathalon, 40, of Westfield was arrested Aug. 20 and charged with violation of conditions of release, unlawful restraint and unlawful trespass.
Police said they received a report at about 11:10 AM from a construction site on VT Route 100 in Westfield that Bathalon had disabled a boom lift while an operator was inside the elevated basket. Other workers and the operator were able to re-engage the lift after several minutes and free the worker.
Bathalon had left before police arrived. Troopers determined he was under court-ordered conditions of release prohibiting him from contacting or harassing the lift operator, police said.
As troopers searched for Bathalon, the Troy, Lowell and Jay fire departments were called at about 2:15 PM to a structure fire at a sugarhouse on Carter Road in Troy. According to police, the property owner reported that video showed Bathalon at the property before the fire. Police said Bathalon previously had been trespassed from the property.
State police did not accuse Bathalon of setting the fire. The blaze remains under investigation by the Vermont State Police Fire and Explosion Investigation Unit.
Troopers later located Bathalon in Westfield and took him into custody. He was processed at the Derby Barracks and held at Northern State Correctional Facility on $2,500 bail.
Bathalon was arraigned Aug. 21 in Orleans Criminal Court on charges including violation of conditions of release, unlawful trespass and unlawful restraint.
Hotel guest won’t leave – A 55-year-old Rutland man was jailed after police say he threatened to shoot employees at a Mendon hotel when they tried to get him to leave his room after checkout time.
Vermont State Police said troopers responded to the Best Western Place in Mendon at about 10:51 AM Saturday, Aug. 22, after receiving a report that a guest was refusing to leave his room and had threatened to shoot staff members if they attempted to remove him.
Police identified the man as Dennis McLaughlin, 55, of Rutland. Investigators said McLaughlin made criminal threats against hotel employees and had been consuming alcohol in violation of court-ordered conditions of release.
McLaughlin was arrested on suspicion of criminal threatening and violating conditions of release. He was lodged at Marble Valley Regional Correctional Facility for lack of $5,000 bail.
He was scheduled for arraignment Monday, Aug. 24, in Rutland County Superior Court.