Orleans

NEWPORT — Randall Swartz, 59, of Orleans, was sentenced yesterday in United States District Court in Rutland to 48 months of imprisonment following his guilty plea to a charge of mail fraud.

Chief Judge Geoffrey Crawford also ordered that Swartz serve three years of supervised release following completion of his prison term and pay restitution in the amount of $452,558.

According to the charging information to which Swartz pleaded guilty, until January 2017 when he was fired, Swartz was employed as the maintenance manager at Agri-Mark’s cheese-making plant in Cabot.

As maintenance manager, Swartz was responsible for maintaining, repairing and replacing all machinery and equipment at the Cabot site.

The maintenance budget amounted to several hundred thousand dollars each month.

Swartz also owned a side-business, Kingdom RO, which sold reverse osmosis systems that were used by producers of maple syrup to concentrate and purify maple sap.

Agri-Mark also employed reverse osmosis technology at its Cabot facility.

The information charged that beginning no later than 2010 and continuing up to the time of his termination, Swartz defrauded Agri-Mark by causing the company to order reverse osmosis equipment that was too small for Agri-Mark to use in its cheese-making processes.

Instead, Swartz stole the equipment and installed it in smaller RO systems he sold to clients of Kingdom RO.

Swartz further defrauded Agri-Mark by using company employees, on company time, to assemble and install these RO systems.

At yesterday’s sentencing hearing, Judge Crawford found that Swartz caused a loss to Agri-Mark of not less than $452,558.

The Government had contended the loss actually was about $1.2 million.

Swartz is currently in the custody of the Vermont Department of Corrections, where he has been held without bail since May 2018 while awaiting trial for murdering his wife.

In his sentence today, Judge Crawford ordered that Swartz’s federal sentence run concurrently with any sentence that may be imposed on the homicide charge.

ORLEANS — The Orleans village bridge along Vermont Route 58 and Water Street are now both open to two-way traffic.

According to VTrans, pedestrians may cross the bridge on the upstream side near the Senior Center.

The bridge rail will be installed in the coming weeks before the final winter shutdown.

ORLEANS — A 31-year-old Westfield man was killed in a single-vehicle crash in Orleans last night.

Police responded to the crash on Willoughby Avenue at around 7:11 p.m.

The driver was identified as Shaun Greene.

Police say Greene was traveling east and failed to negotiate a right-hand corner, traveling off the road and hitting a tree.

The passenger in the vehicle was transported to North Country Hospital with what police describe as “serious injuries.”

Police are still investigating the crash.

ORLEANS — Route 58 over the Barton River in Orleans is scheduled to reopen to one-way alternating traffic across the new bridge on Monday

The bridge is located approximately 0.4 miles east of the intersection of VT Route 58 and US Route 5.

The sidewalk at the location of the bridge has been closed and pedestrians will still be required to use the signed pedestrian detour.

The contractor says the granite curb will be set Wednesday and Thursday next week and sidewalk work will follow.

The full project completion is scheduled for June of 2020.

NEWPORT — A 32-year-old woman from Newport is scheduled to appear in court today after she was arrested following an incident involving a vehicle and a pedestrian in the Waterfront Plaza area on Monday.

Police are saying that Monica Donofrio is facing a charge of “grossly negligently operating a motor vehicle with serious injury resulting.”

Yesterday, at approximately 7:45 p.m., police responded to the scene of the incident and say they found a 35-year-old Orleans woman on the ground behind a van.

She was conscious and alert but had suffered serious injuries.

The victim was taken by ambulance to the hospital and later airlifted to Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center in New Hampshire.

According to police, the victim was in serious but stable condition this morning.

After a preliminary investigation, police say that the driver of the vehicle, identified as Donofrio, had been confronted by the victim and another woman, who had become concerned when they observed that she had left her four children inside the van while she went into a store.

Prior to the crash, the two women were in the process of calling the police.

Donofrio was booked and is expected to be arraigned in court today.

According to police, her children were taken into the custody of a family member after the incident, and the Department of Children and Families was notified.

ORLEANS — A 39-year-old man from Orleans was arrested on Monday in Newport.

Erik Polite is facing charges of burglary, possession of stolen property, and violation of conditions of release.

Police say they were notified at around 1:00 a.m. of a burglary that took place at a residence on Maple Street in Orleans.

A State trooper and a Newport Police Department Officer located the vehicle and parties of interest on Third Street in Newport.

The vehicle was stopped in the Maplefields parking lot.

Police allege Polite entered the residence without the right to do so and while inside he committed a felony.

According to the report, a search warrant was sought for both the vehicle and Polite’s clothing.

The execution of the search warrants resulted in the location of evidence of the crime, police say.

Polite was lodged on the charges.

ORLEANS — Police were called to Orleans this afternoon after a report that gunshots were fired into a parked vehicle.

At around 1:30 p.m. police arrived at the scene on First Avenue.

According to a statement issued by police, there was a family disturbance at the time of the incident.

Nobody was inside the vehicle, and nobody was harmed.

The suspect, Craig Daniels, 30, of Orleans, was not there when police arrived but he was located shortly afterward.

Police allege Daniels shot a firearm into the parked vehicle and in doing so recklessly engaged in conduct which placed another person in danger of death or serious bodily injury.

Daniels also damaged the vehicle which was not his.

He was placed under arrest for reckless endangerment and unlawful mischief and taken to Derby for processing.

Daniels was cited into court and released into the care of Northeast Kingdom Human Services.

ORLEANS — A 24-year-old man from Orleans who was on escape status with the Department of Corrections, led police on a high-speed chase on Sunday.

Police say Christopher Conley is facing multiple charges following the incident.

At around 3:50 p.m., a trooper was monitoring traffic on I-91 north when he clocked a white Subaru doing 111 mph in the 65 mph zone.

The trooper attempted to initiate a traffic stop, but the vehicle failed to yield and got off the interstate at exit 27.

Police say Conley was identified as the driver, and he accelerated to 80 mph in the 35 mph zone, traveling west on Schuler Road towards Hinman Settler Road.

The pursuit continued down Hinman Settler Road through Brownington and ultimately into Barton.

According to police, Conley at times hit speeds of 100 mph on the dirt roadway.

He ultimately failed to negotiate a turn, leaving the road on Churchill Road just north of Route 58.

The vehicle overturned, striking a tree.

Conley had a passenger in the car with him and both were transported to North Country Hospital and treated for injuries.

Police say Conley was found to be on escape status and was transported to the Northern State Correctional Facility and returned to DOC custody.

He will face charges for felony eluding a police officer with gross negligence, grossly negligent operation, recklessly endangering another person, excessive speed, as well as DUI.

ORLEANS — A pair of car thefts in Orleans has police warning residents to be on the lookout.

According to the report, a 26-year-old woman on High Street stated that sometime overnight yesterday her vehicle was taken without her consent.

The vehicle, a white, 2012 Ford Focus with Vermont plates, had been parked in her driveway when it was stolen.

Police say it was returned back prior to her leaving for work this morning, but was missing items inside and covered in mud.

The incident may be related to the theft of another vehicle that occurred this morning at around 1:40 a.m. on South Avenue in Orleans.

The vehicle was in a parking lot when it was stolen.

It is a green, 2001 GMC Yukon, and is still reported missing.

Police are reminding everyone to lock their vehicles and not to leave keys inside.

NEWPORT – Randall Swartz, the suspect in the May 15 homicide of his wife in the town of Orleans, was discharged Friday from Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, New Hampshire, and is due to be arraigned next week in Newport.

Swartz, 58, was arraigned by video May 23 on a fugitive warrant and waived extradition to Vermont.

Upon discharge from the hospital, he was transported by the Windham County Sheriff’s Department to the Southern State Correctional Facility in Springfield.

He had been undergoing treatment at Dartmouth-Hitchcock for a gunshot wound to his torso.

He is scheduled to be arraigned at 1 p.m. Monday, June 4, in Vermont Superior Court, Criminal Division, in Newport.

He is scheduled to be arraigned at 1 p.m. Monday, June 4, in Vermont Superior Court, Criminal Division, in Newport on a charge of second-degree murder related to the fatal shooting of 54-year-old Thea Swartz at their residence in Orleans.

ORLEANS — A 58-year-old Orleans man is facing a murder charge following the death of his wife, 54-year-old Thea Swartz, on Tuesday night.

On Wednesday, an arrest warrant was issued for Randall Swartz, 58, on suspicion of second-degree murder.

Following an autopsy Thursday morning on the body of Thea Swartz at the Chief Medical Examiner’s Office in Burlington, the cause of death has been determined to be a single gunshot wound to the chest, and the manner of death has been classified as a homicide.

Randall Swartz was located by police at the crime scene lying on the floor with an apparent wound to his torso.

He is reported to be stable at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, New Hampshire, and is expected to survive.

Thea Swartz was located deceased on the floor in the same room.

The shootings took place at the couple’s home on Irasburg Street.

Police report getting a call from Thea Swartz prior to the shooting, claiming her husband was drinking and aiming a gun at her.

ORLEANS — A 68-year-old man from Orleans was arrested after police say they received several complaints over the last month about his conduct around juvenile females in the area.

Raymond Benson was picked up on Sunday for violation of an order against stalking, and felony aggravated stalking/person under 16.

Police say for the past month they have received several complaints regarding Benson’s conduct around juvenile females in Orleans, particularly the area of School Street.

During this time a protection order against stalking was issued on behalf of one such juvenile female.

On Sunday troopers again received a complaint that Benson had approached a number of juvenile females, one being the protected person.

Police say an investigation led to the development of probable cause and the arrest of Benson for suspicion of aggravated stalking and the order violation.

Benson was processed in Derby, and upon order of a judge, released on personal recognizance with conditions of release.

Police are reminding parents and guardians to educate their children on how to respond if approached or solicited by a stranger, and are encouraged to supervise their children in the area of Orleans Village.

Anyone with information regarding this case or who may have observed a white camper van with green markings in the Orleans Village area around 6:00 p.m. on Sunday, is encouraged to call police at 802-334-8881.

ORLEANS — Police are looking for two suspects who robbed the Subway restaurant in Orleans at knife-point last night.

At around 7:30 p.m. two individuals entered the restaurant, located at 25 Railroad Avenue, and demanded money.

One of the individuals then displayed a knife.

Police say the two left the scene on foot with an undisclosed amount of money.

They were last seen traveling east towards the Ethan Allan Plant.

The suspects are described as being approximately six feet tall with a stocky build.

Police say no injuries to restaurant employees were reported during the robbery.

Anyone with information is asked to contact the State Police at 748-3111.