ADDISON COUNTY — A Bridport young man on Monday pleaded innocent in Chittenden Superior Court, criminal division, to a charge of aggravated domestic assault, after he allegedly threatened to harm two minors with a knife if they did not stop making noise in his family’s home.
Marshall J. Atkins, 20, was released with conditions following his Monday arraignment.
It was at around 6 p.m. on Friday, June 12, that Vermont State Police Trooper Kyle Young received a call about an alleged assault that had occurred at a Crown Point Road home in Bridport, according to court records. Young said he was asked to meet one of the alleged victims and his mother at a location in Shoreham.
In his court affidavit, Young reveals that both alleged victims were foster children living at the Crown Point Road home at the time of the alleged assault. The older of the two foster children, age 13, claimed that he and the other foster child (age 10) were wrestling around in their bedroom when they noticed Atkins standing in the doorway with a large knife in his hand, according to court records.
“Marshall approached them and told them to keep the noise down or he would stick the knife up (their rear ends),” Young’s affidavit reads. The older juvenile alleged that while Atkins made the threat, “he had the large knife pointed in their direction and near their faces.”
Young reported that the older juvenile said he was in fear for his life and that of his younger foster brother.
Both of the alleged victims fled the Crown Point Road residence after the incident, according to court records. The older boy contacted his biological mother, while the younger boy took off on his bike, according to Young’s affidavit.
Young said he interviewed Atkins at the Crown Point Road home that evening. Atkins at that time allegedly admitted to the trooper that he had indeed been brandishing a large knife while telling the two boys to “keep the noise down or he would shove the knife up their (rear ends),” according to court records. “Marshall advised that he put the knife as close as a foot away from their faces in order to get his point across for them to keep it down.”
Police at this point arrested Atkins, and Addison County Superior Court Judge Robert Mello ordered him held without bail at the Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility, pending his arraignment on Monday.
The Vermont Department of Children & Families also participated in the investigation, according to court records.
In other recent Vermont State Police activity, troopers:
• On June 10 received a report from a passerby who reported something that looked like a body floating in the New Haven River in the area of Bartlett Falls in Bristol at round 5 p.m. State police, Bristol police and Bristol fire personnel conducted a thorough search of the area that evening and the next day but no body or abandoned vehicles. Capt. David Notte said in a press release on June 11 that at this point there is no reason to believe there is a body in the river, but police would respond as new information cropped up.
• On June 14 at 2:16 a.m. stopped a motor vehicle driven by Thistle T. Carson, 42, of Mineville, N.Y., on Route 125 in Cornwall for a traffic infraction. The trooper said a preliminary test of Carson’s breath showed her blood alcohol level was 0.158 percent; the legal limit for driving is 0.08. Police cited Carson for driving under the influence.
Vermont State Police were busy last week and into the first part of this week in the hunt for two prisoners who escaped from a prison outside Plattsburgh, N.Y. Troopers reached out to residents along Lake Champlain, including going door-to-door with flyers, using saturation patrols, and alerting them of the on-going situation with the prison escapees. Troopers from the New Haven barracks were among the state police deployed for marine patrols in Lake Champlain.
Anyone who sees anything unusual is encouraged to call 911 immediately, including break-ins at seasonal camps or nighttime lights in unexpected places. As of early this week there was no evidence or information that the two escapees are in Vermont or ever came to Vermont.