By Michael Bielaski

A North Troy man who has recently pleaded not guilty in Orleans County Superior Court on March 12 to a cocaine sale and firearm violation has in his criminal history the destruction of seven police vehicles back in the summer of 2012.

Roger Pion, 47, was released by Judge Rory Thibault on conditions after his arraignment for felony charges regarding his latest troubles. The State Police affidavit indicates that Pion was arrested following a Vermont Drug Task Force investigation that began back in February of this year.

Court records indicate that police performed a search warrant at a North Troy residence on March 11, where they found money, cocaine, and a handgun. Investigators were told by family members that Pion – contrary to what he told police – would often go to the apartment in question.

Pion was also ordered by a court not to have a gun due to an extreme risk protection order against him.

It also says that while police were searching the premises, Pion referenced another incident when he used a tractor to destroy multiple Orleans County Sheriff’s Department cruisers.

The infamous tractor rampage

A decade plus earlier, Pion was in the news for running over multiple police cruisers with a tractor and then driving away without a chase. The bewildered police eventually had to unretire an old cruiser from a local repair shop just to catch him.

“Police said Roger Pion, 34, of Newport, Vt., flattened seven marked police cruisers and one unmarked personal vehicle at the Orleans County Sheriff’s Department in Derby, Vt., around 12:40 p.m. Thursday,” NBC News reported in 2012, with two photos of the destruction. It goes on that seven vehicles in all were run over by the tractor in an “apparent revenge scheme”.

The WCAX report on the destruction can be viewed here, with footage of all seven destroyed vehicles. The reporter Gina Bullard says “We have cruisers here that are just completely pummeled. …These seven vehicles are more than half of the entire New Orleans County fleet, so it really is quite the impact here.”