In Essex, boy demands cellphones, attacks woman with baseball bat, is released with conditions

By Guy Page

A 14-year-old Essex boy was cited and released Sunday, July 10, after Essex police say that on Friday, July 8, he threatened adults on a bike path with a baseball bat, demanding their cellphones and passcodes. He struck a woman with the bat after she didn’t immediately comply.

In a July 10 press release, Essex police didn’t say why the youth was using a deadly weapon to steal cellphones. But they did provide details of the thefts, arrest, and citation.

On Friday July 8, at 6:51 pm the Essex Police responded to the area of Old Colchester Road near the Tree Farm along the bicycle path for a report from a male Essex resident (51) who advised he had been approached by a juvenile male holding a baseball bat. The juvenile threatened the male with the baseball bat and demanded he give him his cell phone and to provide him with the passcode.

Essex Police Department

A 14-year-old Essex boy was cited and released Sunday, July 10, after Essex police say that on Friday, July 8, he threatened adults on a bike path with a baseball bat, demanding their cellphones and passcodes.

The juvenile fled on foot without the male’s cell phone and police were unable to locate him at this time after conducting a search of the area.

Essex Police then received a separate call at 8:32 pm from a female Essex resident (25) who reported she had been assaulted by a juvenile male in the area of the Tree Farm on Old Colchester Road.

The woman reported she had been approached by the juvenile with a baseball bat. The juvenile demanded for her to give him her cell phone and provide the passcode. When she did not immediately hand over the phone, the juvenile struck her with the baseball bat.

The juvenile stole her phone and fled the area on foot. The woman was able to seek assistance at a nearby residence where a call was made to police. The woman later went to the UVM Medical Center Emergency Department for treatment of injuries sustained during the attack.

Both parties provided very similar descriptions of the juvenile male. From the descriptions provided, Essex Police narrowed the search and located a subject at a nearby residence who was responsible for the assault and robbery. Police recovered the stolen property and returned it to the owner.

At 9:26 pm the Essex resident and male juvenile (14) was taken into custody and transported to the Essex Police Department for processing. The juvenile was released to his guardian with court ordered conditions of release.

The juvenile was issued a flash citation to appear at Vermont Superior Court – Chittenden County Criminal Division to answer the charge of Assault and Robbery on Monday, July 11. By state law, juvenile court proceedings are sealed from the public and press.

Essex Police will be increasing patrols in the area, the Essex PD statement concluded.

Comments on the Essex PD Facebook page reflect a citizenry concerned about public safety, police response, and citation and release of a young man who had bludgeoned a woman with a baseball bat.

  • “How about we turn the lights back on at Woodside [Juvenile Detention Facility]. No reason this kid should be released until his court appearance tomorrow.”
  • “Just an opinion, this is a failure by our judicial system. This suspect should not have been released, and consequently the people of Essex Junction are vulnerable. At the very least he needed to be held for psychiatric evaluation.”
  • “I am struggling how someone was able to threaten one person and successfully assault another community member with a weapon in nearly the same location within an hour and forty minutes after the Police were called. I am starting to think the two officers and one supervisor staffing is not enough if we can literally allow a community member to walk into that kind of situation within 2 hours of the first event.”
  • “That’s actually scary. I was in that area recently and a teenage boy was in the middle of the road, smoking, and yelling at me. The way he looked at me was actually pretty scary.”

Thieves steal cellphones to (among other reasons) access the owner’s online financial accounts, blackmail the owner with personal information, and/or hold the phone as ransom. With both the cellphones and the passwords, thieves can perform unauthorized transactions before the owner can notify police, banks, and others.

Guy Page is publisher of the Vermont Daily Chronicle. Reprinted with permission.

Image courtesy of Essex Police Department

10 thoughts on “In Essex, boy demands cellphones, attacks woman with baseball bat, is released with conditions

  1. ok two officers and one supervisor staffing??? … If the kid is old enough to threaten someone with a baseball bat and then use it, then the SOB is old enough to be put in jail till he faces the judge, yet if the judge is a liberal the kid will walk away with a slap on the wrist… They aren’t held responsible anymore. When I was young kids answered to the judge, the victim then your father and you wouldn’t be able to sit for a week afterward.
    Spare the rod spoil the child.

  2. LOL,,,,keep coddling ’em,,,,they get better as life goes on, a bat today a knife tomorrow and a big scary black assault rifle next week,,,,that boy needs attention,,,next time, maybe he’ll get it,,,,might not like it when he confronts the wrong people / person,,,but keep coddling em

  3. Well we are in 2022, back in my younger days I had a few interactions with law enforcement
    as a teen, and was held accountable for my actions, not so much by the police but by the real
    force ” My Father ” Ouch, in today’s world he would be in trouble himself, for me it was a real
    learning experience that I carry to this day, think about what you’re doing or going to do, my
    father’s favorite line was ” you play with fire, you’ll eventually get burned “.

    This teen is truly troubled, probably no interaction with others, just watching the video games
    showing all sorts of hate and discontent, or being forced-feed are you a boy or a girl or all the
    other nonsense in today’s troubled world for kids, kids being used as pawns.

    As a juvenile, he needs a little community service ” work ” and reparation needs to be made for those he attacked……Hard Work or lock him up, his choice.

    For what it’s worth, I would have stuck that bat with the sun doesn’t shine, a real education for
    him, and another interaction for me sixty years later with the police…….

    Oh well, steer them straight now, before it is too late !!!

  4. he’ll be moving on to more productive weapons in the future and all we’ll hear is how he posted on fb, told a friend or 2, and “everybody knew something wasnt quite right”…….right now there is a chance to prevent that from happening…..if the dumb a..es would take responsibility to do the right thing…….
    and then……..what will be blamed; oh sure the gun..i repeat “dumb a..es”

  5. This right here is a situation to take very darn seriously Vermonters.
    Did you all see this unbelievably *horrible* case that just happened in Philadelphia?
    A band of truly evil “teens” beat an elderly gentleman to death.. beat him to death With A Traffic Cone!! (Do you gun grabbers see this?? are you going to ban traffic cones now?)
    https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/boy-14-charged-with-murder-in-deadly-philly-traffic-cone-beating/3297509/

    THIS is where going soft on crime leads to, this is where defunding the police goes to,
    THIS is what sending out the message ‘that you can get away with anything now!” leads too..
    What is going on right now IN VERMONT will fester and grow and lead to a situation just like it did in Philadelphia.. this stuff is going on all over the country now and it will happen in Vermont as well if you don’t change the course you are on.

    God Bless that poor man that died brutally and the hands of actual FERALS.

  6. No wonder so many people are getting bopped about by this guy. There is no description. Can’t say what he looks like. Might offend somebody. So people get hurt.

  7. A baseball bat is a deadly weapon. I would have shot the bastard in self defense. But in Vermont, especially if he was a person of color, I’m sure I would be prosecuted and charged with a racial hate crime for defending myself.

  8. While liberal politicians demand more “common sense gun laws” and pretend to want more comprehensive background checks, they maintain privacy policies for serious “juvenile” offenders which keep them from being placed on a status which would, according to REAL common sense, prevent them from lawfully purchasing a gun in the future. Liberal public officials, including our long-serving Attorney General Donovan have been on a campaign to EXPUNGE criminal records. Old-timers will remember having teachers point their long, bony fingers at you and tell you if you get into trouble that “it will end up on your permanent record”. Well, in this enlightened age of no personal responsibility, blaming “root causes” and expunging past offenses there is no “permanent record”.
    Assault with a baseball bat should be treated as an adult crime, no matter the age of the perpetrator. This little twerp is the mass shooter of the future. RE-OPEN WOODSIDE, or better yet WEEKS SCHOOL/ Vermont Industrial School (look it up).

    • Agree Rich..

      They should be looking at this kids “intent”, which is pretty clear.

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