Vermont farmer crushes 7 police cars with tractor over pot arrest

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****UPDATE PERTAINING TO ROGER PION BAIL SET AT 50K*****
NEWPORT, Vt. (AP) — A Vermont man who authorities said used a large farm tractor like a monster truck and drove over seven police vehicles, then tried to run over two officers who pursued him, was ordered held on $50,000 bail Friday.

Orleans County sheriffs said Roger Pion, 34, of Newport, was angry over a recent arrest for resisting arrest and marijuana possession when he drove the tractor into the parking lot of the sheriff's department and rolled it multiple times across cruisers and a transport van parked in the lot. No one was injured in Thursday's incident.

Sworn police statements filed at the court said Pion would face 14 charges. The most serious one, felony aggravated assault on a police officer, carries a penalty of up to 16 years in prison.

Sheriffs said that after Pion left their lot, they were unable to pursue him because they had no intact vehicles. When two Newport City officers chased him, he suddenly started backing the tractor toward them.

"I backed up in fear of our safety about ten to fifteen feet before bumping into another vehicle," wrote Newport Officer Tanner Jacobs, adding that "at this point the tractor was still backing up." He said he and his partner then left their vehicle to avoid getting run over.

Converging city and state police and county sheriffs then surrounded Pion and ordered him from the tractor at gunpoint. He was found to be carrying a loaded pistol, authorities said. Sheriff's deputies got there in a borrowed civilian vehicle.

Defense attorney David Sleigh said he would seek to have the aggravated assault charge dismissed.

"There was no actual contact. He never came into threatening proximity of anyone," Sleigh said. "I understand if these deputies were annoyed, and there may be a personal measure of retribution" reflected in the aggravated assault charge. "But that does not equate to proof."

After Pion's court appearance Friday, sheriff's deputies and fire and rescue crews in neighboring Derby, where the sheriff's department is located, were trying to salvage what they could from the crushed cruisers. They were using tools usually used to extract crash victims from crushed vehicles to pry open the cruisers' trunks.

Chief Deputy Philip Brooks marveled that the rifle, shotgun and other items stored in his cruiser's trunk were unharmed. "Even my hat held its shape," he said.

Brooks said the department moved into the former bank building in December. There was no video surveillance of the ungated parking lot. "I'm certain the security issues will be revisited," he said.

Several other sheriffs' departments around Vermont offered to lend cruisers to Orleans County. State police offered cars they were preparing for auction.

Sheriff Kirk Martin said in an interview at the county courthouse that he was in Boston, preparing to attend a Red Sox game on Law Enforcement Appreciation Day at Fenway Park, when he got word of the vehicular carnage back home. He hurried back north, with New Hampshire and Vermont State Police escorting him.

Martin missed the game, in which Boston lost to the Minnesota Twins, 5-0. "Even watching them lose yesterday would have been better" than what he came home to, he said.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/08/02...
A Vermont farmer used his tractor to crush seven Orleans County Sheriff's Department squad cars on Thursday because he was angry about being arrested on marijuana charges last month.

"It's more than half our fleet," Chief Deputy Sheriff Phil Brooks explained to the Burlington Free Press. "We have 11 cars."

Roger Pion, 34, allegedly flattened five marked cruisers and two unmarked vehicles, including a van used for transporting prisoners. A car belonging the the department's bookkeeper was also damaged as the tractor pushed it to clear a path to the squad cars.

"It was a massive tractor," Newport Express Publisher Ken Wells told the Free Press. "It has four six-foot tandem wheels on the back. It was red. It must be at least a 15-ton tractor."

"It's pretty much the biggest tractor you can get," Police Chief Seth DiSanto agreed.

The suspect ditched the tractor about two miles from the crime scene and then fled on foot before being apprehended, according to WCAX. He has been turned over to the Vermont State Police.

Pion was previously arrested on July 3 for marijuana possession and resisting arrest. His court date had been set for next Tuesday.

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[DackIsBack]

Serves them right for fucking with farmers... leave farmers the fuck alone, they grow our food for fuck sake!

[Ívar Heimisson]

Good job man good job, this guy is a hero.

[B1gHeadBison]

And on his farm he had some _____! E..I E..I O..

[ginette laliberte]

love this man. good job



[Michael Laverty]

We can't get down the freckin thruway without being molested by multi flavors of Law enforcement and are held to stringent standards 24/7 but if your a Big Corporation you can Tax evade pollute waterways and our air and Rob us blind without so much as a fucking care in the world . But these pricks act like we made the world stops spinning for growing some weed smoking weed oh hell anything they can see wrong just as long as it's the Town folk..Anybody else they are stone cold brain dead..

[Michael Laverty]

Dear Law enforcement ossifers.. If I didn't know any better I'd say it's a pretty good idea to afford the Little people some of that infamous world class legal discretion like you guys seem to have NO PROBLEM dishing out by the truck load to the 1%ers down on Wall Street or in Corporate any town USA ... what do you say there guys ? You let the scumbags walk who plunder our nation into poverty and defraud us in every sector of the Defense industry and let's not forget the major polluters.

[famousmonster88]

had a similar incident here, a farmer who lost his drivers license like 20 years ago, had to drive 200 meters of public road to get to his field, neighbors set him up for the cops and when they tried to arrest him he just lost it and trashed 6 or 7 police cars before they could get a hold of him ^^

[mplsguy3379]

We pay for the vehicles anyway, So tech, he damaged our vehicles. Thats legal right?

[Bareimus]

долго ему теперь сидеть, ох долго.....

[REDZOEU]

I love how the cop cars got destroyed...

Guess the 9 dislikers are cops...

HIT EM!

[rubythesheep2]

lmfao

[Itsmeeman1]

When questioned by the Police, the Farmer said,

"Sorry guys, I must have been all high and shit. I thought they were giant Rhinos attacking me." lol

Reminds me of a farmer in the UK that got shafted by his local bank so he took his tractor and mechanical muck-spreader down to the town and covered the entire bank's outside walls with manure... over and over again. LOL