By Michael Donoghue
Vermont News First

BURLINGTON — A University of Vermont senior is facing criminal stalking charges in both federal and Vermont courts just days after a state judge rejected a relief from abuse order requested by his ex-girlfriend, who said she was in fear for her life, that the suspect was carrying a knife and that he had secretly attached a listening surveillance device to her cellphone for more than a year, court records indicate.

Brandon P. Fields, 24, of Cumming, Ga., was back in U.S. District Court in Burlington on Monday afternoon, fighting a request by federal prosecutors that he be detained pending trial as a danger to the community.

However, Federal Magistrate Judge Kevin J. Doyle agreed Fields could be released with the understanding he would be driven back to Georgia by his father, Scott, who attended the federal court hearing, and that the defendant would remain under house arrest at the family residence. His father is a lawyer.

Doyle also imposed a $5,000 cash bail and ordered that all guns in the Fields residence be removed before they arrived back home. Doyle also ordered Fields to refrain from any new crimes and from any drug use, including marijuana. He is also prohibited from using any electronic devices without permission from the U.S. Probation Office.

The judge told Fields his conduct will be monitored by a federal probation officer out of Atlanta.

Doyle set a probable cause hearing for Nov. 20.

Brandon Fields is charged in a federal criminal complaint with charges of cyberstalking and possession of cocaine with intent to distribute. No plea is requested in federal court until arraignment.

Doyle noted that Fields suffered in the past from multiple mental health issues and that he stopped taking his medication about the time he moved to Vermont in 2020 and began working for UPS in Williston.

Fields, who lives locally in an apartment on Chase Lane, bragged to individuals that he had hacked her phone when she was visiting his family in Georgia in June 2024, and he has continued to listen to the calls she received or made, police said in court records.

Police said he was able to text his former girlfriend and tell her he knew what she was saying and that police were present.

Assistant Federal Defender Barclay T. Johnson argued that a state judge had found the woman lacked credibility. He said the lack of credibility found by a state judge should lead the federal court to release his client on conditions.

Johnson also disputed that the computer app his client reportedly installed on her phone was capable of monitoring her conversations from afar. He said the Burlington Police never checked to see if it was possible.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Corrine Smith said phone records showed Fields had gained access to control her phone.

Fields and his former girlfriend, after she broke off a 2 ½ year relationship with him on Oct. 7, both subsequently went to family court independently to obtain relief from abuse orders against each other, court records show.

The woman maintained Fields had assaulted her in the past and that on a 1 to 10 scale she said her fear that he would hold a knife or gun to her was a 10, police said.

Judge Kate T. Gallagher, who was appointed to the state bench last year, heard both claims for permanent restraining orders on Oct. 16 and sided with Fields and rejected the woman’s request, records show. Gallagher’s order expires in October 2026.

Judge Gallagher said she did not find the woman credible and ordered her to stay 300 feet away from Fields.

An hour after getting the final court order for his ex-girlfriend to stay away from him, Fields drove by her residence in Burlington to further intimidate her, Burlington Police said. He was in a black Chevy Malibu with Florida license plates and was rented by his father, who attended the state court hearing, police said.

Fields reportedly said, “I love you and I forgive you” before driving off, police said. She reported Fields also showed up the next night at her job at the end of her work shift when she was alone, police said. He monitored as she walked to her car, police said.

Fields pleaded not guilty last week in state court to aggravated stalking her while carrying a deadly weapon between June 1, 2024, and Oct. 23, 2025. He also denied charges of domestic assault by pushing her down on a bed multiple times while carrying a knife on Oct. 7 and for criminal threatening on Oct. 23.

He also denied a charge of possession of cocaine that police said was found in his apartment during a court-ordered search last week, records show.

During his state court arraignment on Oct. 27, Fields was released by Judge Robert Katims on conditions including nearly a 24/7 curfew, except when he was going to classes at UVM or in the custody of Christopher Reed, court records said.

Katims placed Fields into the custody of Reed and was told to live with him at 64 Grant Street, a few blocks from the woman’s apartment, records show. The woman is also a UVM student.

A request by the state to have Fields held without bail was rejected by Judge Katims last Tuesday, records show.

That is when federal authorities stepped in and had him arrested on Wednesday. A Burlington police detective assigned to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s Task Force filed a criminal complaint covering both the cocaine case and the stalking investigation, records show.

Judge Doyle made sure during a hearing last Thursday that Fields was aware of the two felony charges against him and his constitutional rights. Doyle agreed to a request to hold the detention hearing on Monday afternoon.

Burlington Police reported the woman indicated she had heard that Fields had withdrawn from UVM due to a separate issue.

UVM has not responded to a request for comment since last week.

Police also reported on Oct. 23 that the woman indicated that a roommate of Fields had alerted her because he was concerned for her safety. The roommate claimed Fields was “making threats to send someone into her work tomorrow to impersonate a legal authority and then when she leaves work (Fields) is going to wait in her car with a knife or gun to ambush her,” court records note. Fields knows the access code to her car, police said.

Fields reportedly called 13 friends before he could find one that was willing to help him with his plan, she told police. As it turned out, one of the friends was given a script by Fields, who turned it over to the woman, who provided it to police, records show.

The roommate, when interviewed by Burlington Detective Cpl. Zachary Beal of the Major Crimes Unit, reported he knew Fields “had a plan” and that he had been “targeting” her member for a week after the relief from abuse hearing in state court, records show. The roommate also reported hearing Fields indicate that he planned to bring weapons with him when he went to confront her, police said. Fields said it was in an attempt to reignite their romantic relationship, the roommate said.

The roommate said he was unaware if Fields had a firearm, but told police he could easily obtain one because he was a pot dealer, who could trade for a gun, Beal said in his court affidavit.

The roommate also said that when Fields was on the phone with friends that they appeared to be egging him on to follow through on his plan. Police said the roommate reported some of the phone calls were video recorded on the security system for the apartment at 6C Chase Lane.

After the roommate came forward, Burlington Police reached back out to the woman and set up an interview at a public site outside of Burlington. The two detectives met with her at the food court at the University Mall

According to Beal’s affidavit, the woman outlined for police the following sequence of events:

—Oct. 7 she broke up with Fields and told him repeatedly not to contact her and blocking his number. He left her apartment and called from a new phone number.

—Oct. 8, she met with two Burlington Police officers and turned out he was watching from her parking lot. He texted her and she told him to back away again, only to have him threaten legal action.

—Oct. 14, Fields applies for a temporary restraining order after the woman had successfully obtained a temporary order against him.

—Oct. 16, Judge Kate Gallagher hears both final requests for restraining orders and grants Fields, while rejecting the woman’s. The woman indicated Fields lied under oath during the hearing and was able to get two veteran police officers to explain the events of Oct. 7 that he used to weaponize against her.

—Oct. 17, She finds Fields waiting outside her job, follows her vehicle and approaches it to suggest that he was going to enter it against her will.

—Oct. 18, She is made aware by a friend that Fields was watching her Burlington apartment from the side of the road.

—Oct. 23, She is approached by the roommate of Fields about the video recordings from inside his apartment that indicate Fields was soliciting help from others to ultimately lay in wait for the woman in her vehicle with a knife and/or a firearm.

—Oct. 24, A friend provides the woman a copy of the “script” that Fields is trying to get a friend to use to approach her.

—Oct. 24, A state search warrant was executed at 9:44 p.m. at the Chase Lane apartment for Fields as part of the aggravated stalking investigation. Fields is arrested on charges of stalking, domestic assault and criminal threatening. Bail is set at $10,000 by Judge Kevin Griffin and he is lodged at the prison in St. Albans.

A drug possession charge was added at arraignment when the police search uncovered more than 13 grams, including packaging of crack cocaine in his bedroom, records show. 

The drugs, along with $700 in cash were found in a safe lock box disguised as a book entitled, “The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.” Police said they also found a rolled up $5 bill with a white powdery substance consistent with the suspected cocaine found on the suspect’s digital scale.