it ain’t what it seems
Considering the public outcry over the drug-related murder of Carlos Vasquez this spring, complete with a U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee meeting in Rutland, it is curious that a similar incident involving local men provoked no such outcry. In November of 2005 four Fair Haven men took a gun to Burlington with the intent to rob [...]
Following drug related violence in Rutland, much of it associated with out of state drug dealers, the knee-jerk reaction by Governor Douglas and Sen. Kevin Mullin was a call to increase criminal penalties, but no one is apparently looking at what’s happening with the penalties already on the books. A case in point is the [...]
The recent roundup of alleged drug dealers in Central Vermont was the supposed pushback to drug related violence – particularly the fatal shooting of Carlos Vasquez in an apartment near the Rutland Middle School. According to one account Ramel Ramos and Vasquez intended to put rival drug dealer Javon Shelton out of business. Shelton was [...]
A couple of weeks ago law enforcement responded to recent drug-related violence by rounding up over three dozen people in the Rutland region. Newspaper accounts have some prosecuted by state or local authorities, and others by the federal government, but no explanation has been given as to why all were not prosecuted by the same [...]
Due to strict firearms laws, few Japanese possess them. However, the lack of guns hasn’t prevented either murder or mayhem; it’s just changed the weapons of choice. Tomohiro Kato recently ran down a crowd of shoppers with a two-ton rented truck, and then began stabbing the victims and people in the crowd of onlookers, leaving [...]
Roger Bean, 61, of West Palm Beach was a retired denture maker from Texas who tried to help his neighbors by supplying inexpensive dentures. Following an anonymous tip, police raided Bean’s garage and confiscated his equipment. Although he had been licensed in Texas, Florida had no similar program and dentures had to be obtained through [...]
The Vermont Supreme Court vacated the convictions of Michael Brillon due the nearly three years it took to bring him to trial. In that time, Brillon went through six attorneys for various reasons. Now, Vermont’s most notorious murder suspects, Christopher Williams and Brian Rooney are asking for new lawyers, prompting expressions of grave concern from [...]
The Vermont Supreme Court has presided over a steady erosion of privacy rights including astounding decisions in State v. Eckhardt (private driveway part of highway system for purposes of enforcement of motor vehicle laws) and State v. Costin (no warrant required to install video surveillance equipment on private property). Finally it seems the court has had enough, [...]
The Vermont Supreme Court recently threw out the conviction of Michael Brillon (State v. Brillon) producing howls of outrage from both the governor and various members of the legislature. Brillon had been in jail nearly 3 years without trial, which the court found to be a violation of his constitutional right to a speedy trial. [...]
haven’t we been down this road before? In response to recent drug-related in violence in Rutland, Sen. Kevin Mullin (R-Rutland) has come up with a novel solution: increased penalties for possession of heroin and cocaine. It’s difficult to imagine where Sen. Mullin might have been for the last 20 years. The federal war on drugs [...]