VERGENNES — Vergennes police on Monday, Jan. 23, cited a 23-year-old former city resident with sexual assault on a female under the age of 16, a charge Chief George Merkel said was filed after a long investigation largely conducted by Officer Jason Ouellette.
Cited to appear in Addison District Court on March 5 to answer the charge was Christopher J. Edwards, who police described as now transient, but once a resident of Green Street.
The case dates back almost two years, Merkel said, and Edwards’ alleged assault on a girl, then 15, occurred in March 2009.
In other recent action, Vergennes police:
•  On Jan. 16 spoke to the mother of a habitually truant Vergennes Union Elementary School student about the legal consequences of not making sure he attended school.
•  On Jan. 16 helped Vermont State Police execute a search warrant in Monkton, and then aided VSP in the unsuccessful attempt to catch a man after he fled the home being searched.
•  On Jan. 16 went to Scovel Lane and mediated a civil dispute between a father and daughter.
•  On Jan. 17 heard from a Second Street resident that a man was threatening a member of the household about the alleged theft of an iPod. Because the iPod was stolen from a Lincoln home, the theft was referred to VSP, and city police told the caller not to make further contact with the city residents.
•  On Jan. 17 served a relief-from-abuse order to a New Haven Road resident.
•  On Jan. 17 were told that a woman’s family member was drawing more money than allowed out of an ATM account; police are investigating.
•  On Jan. 17, after a traffic stop on West Main Street for defective equipment, arrested Thomas Popke, 31, of Addison for driving with a criminally suspended license and for an outstanding Chittenden County warrant for driving with a suspended license. Popke was jailed at the Chittenden County Correctional Center.
•  On Jan. 18 took two truant Vergennes Union High School students to school; police picked up the same two students on Jan. 20.
•  On Jan. 18 went to a New Haven Road home to look into a complaint that a woman had violated a no-trespass order, but learned a man at the home had given the woman permission to enter the property. Police also while there investigated an ownership dispute about a car on the property.
•  On Jan. 18 helped VSP make a drug arrest after the trooper stopped a car on Main Street.
•  On Jan. 19 performed drug-awareness training at Vergennes Area Rescue Squad headquarters.
•  On Jan. 20 ticketed three cars that were violating the city’s ban on overnight on-street parking.
•  On Jan. 20 cited Richard Ambrose, 40, of Vergennes for possession of marijuana after noticing him in a car with an open container while responding to a false alarm on North Green Street. Police said they saw a bag of marijuana that allegedly contained 4.8 grams when they spoke to Ambrose.
•  On Jan. 20 called a woman on behalf of her father and asked her to come to a North Street residence to retrieve a cell phone and other belongings.
•  On Jan. 21 found a car running on South Street with its door open and no one around. Police checked the ownership when no one showed up and discovered it was registered to a driver with a suspended license. Police took the keys and locked the car, ticketed it for violating the winter parking ban, and plan to issue a further ticket for abandoning a vehicle when its owner shows up to claim it.
•  On Jan. 21 helped a motorist get into a locked car on School Street.
•  On Jan. 21 looked for but couldn’t find a man walking on Panton Road who was said to be cursing and urinating.
•  On Jan. 21 cited a woman for failing to register her vehicle when she reported it had been bumped by a hit-and-run driver in a Main Street parking lot.
•  On Jan. 21 returned a cell phone to its owner after it had been found in the Small City Market parking lot.
•  On Jan. 21 referred to the Ferrisburgh dog officer a driver who picked up two loose dogs on Route 7.
•  On Jan. 21 went to Route 7 in Ferrisburgh to help VSP with an accident in which after the car had flipped over the driver left the vehicle and called police, but failed to mention her two children were trapped in the car. VSP are handling the case.
•  On Jan. 22 ticketed a car on West Main Street for violating the winter parking ban; police said they have previously ticketed the same car.
•  On Jan. 22 took a report that a purse was stolen from a parked car.