Category: crime

Former N.Y. resident cited for 'luring' a 15-year-old boy

Posted on March 14, 2013 |

• Vergennes
• crime

By Andy Kirkaldy

MIDDLEBURY — A 21-year-old man living in Waltham pleaded not guilty on Monday in Addison County court to two charges of trying to sexually exploit a 15-year-old boy and sending explicit photos to the boy via a cell phone.

Robert Ritchey, a former Potsdam, N.Y., resident who had been renting a room in a Waltham home, faces up to five years and a fine of $10,000 on the first charge of sexual exploitation/luring a child, and another year and a $1,000 fine for sending indecent material to a minor.

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Addison crime forum draws a big crowd, gets news of major busts

Posted on February 14, 2013 |

• Addison County
• Addison
• crime
• Featured

By Andy Kirkaldy

ADDISON — Organizers of a Feb. 7 community forum devoted to concerns about the recent wave of home break-ins in Addison and surrounding towns said 156 local residents showed up to listen to law enforcement officials, who detailed patrols and several recent arrests.

Crime forum organizer Don Jochum said earlier this week about 50 residents who showed up last week at the Addison Central School forum also expressed interest in forming a neighborhood watch group, and that he is working on scheduling a follow-up organizational meeting.

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Some area residents nervous after a rash of home burglaries

Posted on January 31, 2013 |

• Addison County
• crime
• Featured

By John S. McCright

Editor’s note: This is the first of a two-part series on the increase of burglaries in Addison County. The second part will focus on the state police’s new crime fighting tool.

ADDISON COUNTY — A Weybridge homeowner left her residence for an hour and locked every door in the house. She’d heard about area break-ins and her family was taking precautions.

“We were really locking our doors for the first time after 25 years in Vermont,” she recalled.

“We got hit anyway.”

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Vergennes police, VSP make heroin bust in Leicester

Posted on December 20, 2012 |

• Vergennes
• crime
• drug crime
• Leicester

By Andy Kirkaldy

VERGENNES/LEICESTER — Vergennes police on Tuesday — with a major assist from Vermont State Police — arrested three people in Leicester and charged them with selling heroin after finding more than 350 bags of the drug, $3,670 of cash, marijuana, and a stolen firearm at a Fern Lake Road home.

Police said the street value of each bag ranged from $20 to $30 per bag, meaning the street value of the drug seized by police on Wednesday ranged from $7,000 to $10,500.

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