VERGENNES — Vergennes police on Saturday night issued several traffic tickets to a man they described as an undocumented worker, actions taken following a traffic stop at the intersection of School and South Maple streets.
Police said the man driving a car with three other undocumented workers was extremely intoxicated. The officer could not communicate with the driver because he spoke no English and police could not arrange for a translator at the late hour, about 10:30 p.m.
Because police could not explain alcohol testing, they said they could not charge him with driving under the influence of alcohol according to state law.
Police stopped the car for being driven erratically, including rolling backward in the intersection and then traveling on the wrong side of the road. They ticketed the driver for several violations, including driving with alcohol, failing to yield at a stop sign and driving without a license.
The four men were released to their employer, who police said did not speak English, either.
In other incidents between March 30 and April 5, Vergennes police:
•  On March 30 at the request of South Burlington police went to Northlands Job Corps because a rental company alleged a Northlands student had failed to return a car. Police found no student registered by the name given by the company, nor did they find the car.
•  On March 30 found the door of a West Main Street home open, checked the property and closed the door.
•  On March 30 backed up Bristol police at an East Street family fight.
•  On March 31 helped Vermont State Police evaluate whether a motorist had been driving under the influence of drugs. The city department’s Drug Recognition Expert aided VSP in that task at the city police station and determined the motorist was in fact driving under the influence, police said.
•  On March 31 stood by while a man retrieved his belongings from a Main Street apartment.
•  On March 31 deployed the department’s K9 unit in Monkton to help VSP.
•  On April 1 helped the Vergennes Area Rescue Squad at a High Street call.
•  On April 2 checked out a suspicious van near the National Bank of Middlebury on Green Street, but found no problem.
•  On April 2 responded to a report of someone wielding a flashlight in the bushes near the intersection of Main and South Maple streets and found an elderly couple walking a dog.
•  On April 3 were told a suspicious car had pulled into a Green Street driveway and left when the resident’s dog started barking.
•  On April 3 accepted for safekeeping a makeup bag with meds in it that had been left in a Green Street office.
•  On April 3 heard a report of a suspicious job listing on Craigslist.
•  On April 3 backed up VSP at a domestic dispute on Plank Road that city police said involved a half-dozen people. Vergennes police said VSP arrested one woman and charged her with domestic assault and took another woman to detox.
•  On April 3 were told a dog had gotten loose from a Sunset Drive home.
•  On April 4 helped a motorist get into a locked car on the Northlands campus.
•  On April 4 served an abuse prevention order to a man at a Creekview Apartment on Hillside Drive.
•  On April 4 cited Anthony J. Rochon, 23, of Bristol for refusing to take a blood-alcohol test and violating conditions of release, actions taken after stopping his car for failing to honor a stop sign at the intersection of South Maple and School streets.
•  On April 4 responded to a report of a couple fighting near the City Limits nightclub, who were gone when police arrived.
•  On April 4 helped VSP by responding to a two-car accident at the intersection of Monkton Road and Route 7.
•  On April 4 were told a window of a car parked at St. Peter’s Church had been broken.
•  On April 4 ticketed a driver of a car on Monkton Road for driving with an open container of an alcoholic beverage. Police took that action after they were told by an off-duty officer that the motorist, who had stopped to offer a ride to a man who had fallen off a bicycle on Monkton Road, had the container and smelled of alcohol. The off-duty officer had also stopped to help the man.
•  On April 4 took a report of fraudulent activity on the Facebook account of a Creekview apartment resident, an incident that remains under investigation.