Residents Join Together to Talk About Burglaries
by Gail Callahan

To hear some Charlotte residents say it, life for them changed dramatically after the night of August 4 and the morning of August 5. That’s when 14 automobile and house burglaries took place, robbing some townspeople of peace of mind and sparking concern about how the cases are handled.
A forum last week at the Charlotte Town Hall brought together about a dozen residents and Chittenden County State’s Attorney T.J. Donovan to discuss the manner in which the cases are being handled. Donovan was contacted by Charlotte resident Brady Toensing, an attorney, whose house wasn’t burglarized, but knew some of the residents who did experience thefts. In addition to the residents and Donovan, four of the town’s selectboard members attended the meeting.
“I found this type of forum very helpful,” said Donovan. “The public has the right to know what’s going on with these cases.”
Charlotte Selectboard Vice Chairman Jennifer Cole said the break-ins served as a wake-up call for residents, who may have felt isolated from other crime. “The town needs to realize that these types of things can happen,” Cole said.  “I know people who had their homes broken into, and it’s something to be concerned about.”
Residents already knew that the Vermont State Police made three arrests in the case in early August. Kyle Evans, 19, was taken into custody August 7. He is being held in the Chittdenden County Regional Correctional Facility with bail set at $20,000, according to Donovan. He was in the Shelburne Police’s database and was linked to the incidents after a fingerprint found on a can and said to be from Evans, was identified.
After his arrest, Evans implicated two other people, Gillian Junger, believed to be from Shelburne, and Sean Leach, who has no permanent address. Leach and Junger appeared in Vermont District Court in Burlington on Monday, September 29.
Donovan pointed out that the Chittenden County State’s Attorney’s Office has 14 people to work on 9,000 crimes, with much of the period in the last few months devoted to three murder cases.
In the months following the break-ins, some residents expressed concern about the response time from the Vermont State Police following initial 9-1-1 calls to the emergency services. Charlotte has no police protection of its own and relies on the Vermont State Police for police coverage. About one month after the burgalries, it was announced that the Shelburne Police Department would step up the patrols of Charlotte’s roads.
According to the Vermont State Police in Williston, the trooper, Tara Cricket, responded in 37 minutes after to the 9-1-1 calls were logged. Vermont State Police State Senior Trooper Gary Scott, who led the investigation of the burgalries, pointed out that the agency doesn’t provide 24-hour coverage for areas. Cricket was at home in Richmond, asleep when alerted about the break-ins during the overnight period between August 4 and 5. Scott went on to note that the Vermont State Police made three arrests only days after the incidents occurred, he said.
“I’m surprised to hear that people were upset,” Scott said late last week. “We made three arrests in two days.”  
Williston State Police barracks Cmdr. Lt. Dee Barbic said representatives from the state police weren’t informed about last week’s meeting. She also pointed out that any release for official transcripts of the 9-1-1 calls has to come through a subpeona.
When asked if his office would look into concerns about the Vermont State Police’s response time, Donovan said he couldn’t comment and noted that he was “impressed” with the agency’s handling of the cases.
Charlotte resident Kevin McGarghan, whose house was the last to be targarted during the break-ins, has no quarrel with the Vermont State Police’s response time. “People think that the Vermont State Police respond to calls in the same manner as municipal police do,” said McGarghan, a former Burlington police officer. “That doesn’t happen.”
He called the meeting “helpful” and noted that it was important for people to hear about how the criminal cases were proceeding. He did, however, ask why Leach and Junger have been allowed to remain free while awaiting their court appearances.

Note: Two of the three people arrested for a string of burglaries in Charlotte in early August pled not guilty and were released on conditions according to a report in the September 30 Burlington Free Press. Gillian Junger, 20, of Shelburne and Sean Leach, 23, of Burlington joined 19-year-old Kyle Evans, also of Burlington, as suspects in the Greenbush Road robberies.