VERGENNES — Vergennes police on Saturday arrested a 16-year-old New York City resident and Northlands Job Corps student and charged him with aggravated assault after the student allegedly cut another male student with a knife.
Police said the assault stemmed from an apparent hazing incident in which the alleged assailant — Ronald Medina, who is being charged as an adult — repeatedly asked the victim, a new student on the campus, to clean up dishes and pick up trash in a Northlands dormitory.
According to the victim’s testimony, police said the victim refused, and Medina pulled a knife and started threatening the victim’s head and face. When the victim tried to push the knife away, the alleged assailant cut his hand deeply enough to require stitches, according to police.
The victim contacted police from Porter Hospital to report the early-morning incident, police said. Medina was lodged at the Chittenden County Correctional Center.
In other action between Oct. 10 and 16, Vergennes police:
•  On Oct. 10 told a woman to stop harassing another woman, a New Haven Road resident.
•  On Oct. 10 dealt with a case of a driver leaving the Small City Market without paying for gas.
•  On Oct. 10 told youths not to target-shoot in the woods near Comfort Hill, an action taken after a resident saw them heading into the trees with a rifle.
•  On Oct. 11 directed traffic for the Vergennes Union High School senior class walk-a-thon.
•  On Oct. 11 dealt with a complaint from a Hillside Drive resident that a man had parked on her property and cut a haybale and taken hay; police said the man was dropping off his daughter at the Eaglewood Apartments complex, and they are working with the man to return the hay.
•  On Oct. 11 checked a report of noisy kids behind a Main Street apartment building, but found no one.
•  On Oct. 12 stood by while Vermont State Police searched a car at a Main Street traffic stop.
•  On Oct. 12 spoke with a tenant who could not access an apartment because its locks had been changed; police advised the tenant not to break in and to speak with his landlord about lease issues.
•  On Oct. 12 calmed an arguing couple at a South Maple Street home.
•  On Oct. 12 cited Thomas Popke, 32, of Addison for a criminal count of driving with a suspended license and for misusing license plates at a West Main Street traffic stop.
•  On Oct. 13 were told by a man who had been a guest at a Main Street apartment for the night that someone there had stolen his wallet.
•  On Oct. 13 were told by Vergennes Union Elementary School personnel that a staff member found an unfired bullet on school property.
•  On Oct. 13 accepted a wallet found by a citizen and returned it to its owner.
•  On Oct. 13 cited a driver going 53 mph in a 30 mph zone on Hopkins Road for excessive speed, driving an unregistered car and defective equipment.
•  On Oct. 14 helped a motorist get into a locked car on Main Street.
•  On Oct. 14 handled a three-car accident on Main Street that hospitalized two drivers. Police said a car driven by Albert Cox, 67, of Ferrisburgh pulled onto Main Street from Monkton Road and headed downtown, and then crossed into the other lane and hit two other cars. His vehicle hit one car a glancing blow on the driver’s side, and then a second car head-on. Cox suffered what police said were serious injuries, and he was taken to Fletcher Allen Health Care. The driver of the third car was also injured and was taken to Porter Hospital. Police are investigating the accident and said charges are possible.
•  On Oct. 14 helped firefighters at a fire at the National Guard armory on Monkton Road. Police said the fire was probably electrical in nature and destroyed some electrical equipment inside the armory, but was not a major blaze.
•  On Oct. 14 stopped a car being driven erratically on New Haven Road that cut off a city police cruiser. Police said the driver appeared to be under the influence of a substance and that they saw him try to hide something under the seat. Police found pills in the car and empty bottles with residue, and both were sent for testing. Pending those results, charges for the driver are possible, they said.
•  On Oct. 14 helped Vergennes Area Rescue Squad personnel at a Main Street apartment.
•  On Oct. 15 called fire personnel to help a Union Street resident enter his locked house with a child inside; police were tied up at that point investigating the Northlands assault.
•  On Oct. 15 helped VARS at a Green Street residence.
•  On Oct. 15 cited a Burlington man for DLS, civil offense, after responding to Green Street, where he had driven a fifth-wheel camper unit into a ditch.
•  On Oct. 15 handled a Main Street barking dog complaint.
•  On Oct. 15 helped VARS with a woman who had apparently taken an overdose of pills near the intersection of School and South Maple streets.
•  On Oct. 16 handled a report of one man allegedly threatening another with a shotgun on North Street. Police said the weapon was neither functional or loaded, and accounts conflict on whether it was brandished in a discussion over money one man owed the other. An investigation is ongoing and charges remain possible, police said.
•  On Oct. 16 began investigation of allegations filed by a Hillside Drive apartment resident that a woman’s ex-boyfriend had taken her daughter’s medication and given them to the man’s other ex-girlfriend. The other ex-girlfriend is also accusing the first woman of touching her son inappropriately, police said. Charges are possible once and if the stories are sorted out, police said.