[T]roopers found Jeremy Sarault last week when they pulled up to his Troy residence a few hours after Vermont State Police said he terrorized his girlfriend on a nearby road.
State police from the Derby Barracks had been there before — in April, when troopers received a warrant for his arrest after they said Sarault choked that same woman.
More than two months went by without an arrest. Until Wednesday, that is, when troopers said the 42-year-old drove an SUV past his girlfriend and steered the side mirror into her arm, then chased her down, put her in a headlock and dragged her by the neck into the vehicle.
Why couldn’t troopers find Sarault before then?
Capt. Garry Scott told VTDigger that troopers had gone to the home several times back in April to arrest the man, but the alleged victim became uncooperative and wouldn’t let them inside. Scott said she recanted her story and then disappeared. Family members told investigators that the two had moved to another state, Scott said, and troopers saw no signs of them in the area.
“This is unfortunate with domestic-violence cases,” Scott said. “This sort of cycle of intimidation … makes these cases so complicated to work on.”
Leaving is the most dangerous time for an abused person, said Amanda Cochrane, executive director of Umbrella, a St. Johnsbury–based organization that provides services for survivors of domestic and sexual violence.
That’s when violence can escalate. Housing and financial concerns are also a common factor, as is the toll of emotional abuse.
“People believe that they can’t do anything on their own … when they hear it from a loved one,” Cochrane said.
The criminal justice system can work well for some survivors of abuse, but other times “survivors might feel that it’s not the best thing for them,” Cochrane said, especially when it may deprive a child of a parent.
“They might also fear more,” Cochrane said of survivors, because the abuser may decide to escalate their violence after being arrested.
Sarault now faces 10 charges stemming from the two incidents, including aggravated domestic assault, aggravated domestic assault with a weapon, unlawful restraint and interference with access to emergency services, according to court records.
Both episodes happened in Troy. Troopers provided this account of the incident on Wednesday:
The woman, 34, called 911 at about 5:45 p.m. and said she was in the backseat of an SUV that a man was driving “erratically, trying to kill them,” on Loop Road. She later identified the driver as Sarault.
Dispatchers told troopers that they believed they had heard Sarault tell the woman he’d kill her if she gave any more information, according to the affidavit.
Troopers found the woman sitting on the side of the road outside a home on Loop Road, “hysterically crying” and “hyperventilating.”
The woman said she and Sarault had been drinking beer earlier that day before ending up at the home on Loop Road. The two left in a 2002 Buick Rendezvous to go to the store but got into an argument, she said. Sarault slowed the SUV and she jumped out, she said.
As she ran away, Sarault pulled up next to her, hitting her right arm with the driver’s side mirror, and drove away, she told troopers.
But then Sarault stopped and sprinted toward her, she said. He caught her, grabbed her by the neck from behind and picked her up with her toes “dragging along the pavement,” according to the affidavit. The woman told troopers that Sarault dragged her to the vehicle and threw her in the backseat, according to the affidavit.
Sarault drove them back to the Loop Road home before taking her cell phone and car keys and fleeing at the sound of sirens, according to the affidavit.
The woman had bruises on her chin, nose and face, as well as a cut on her hand, troopers said. According to the affidavit, the woman said she had caused several of the injuries to herself “out of frustration with Sarault.” But she said that Sarault had caused the bruises on her chin by smacking and grabbing her the night before.
Witnesses at the residence told troopers that they found Sarault and the woman screaming in the driveway. Each downplayed the situation. “I don’t think it’s as bad as what she’s saying,” one said.
Another witness down the road told troopers that she saw a woman who appeared to be trying to get away from a man following her in a vehicle and yelling for help, according to an affidavit.
A K-9 search turned up nothing, but at about 11:40 that night, troopers found Sarault at his home on nearby Sarault Drive with the woman. He denied wrongdoing, said the woman is suicidal and said he had not forced her back into the SUV.
After Sarault was arrested, the woman told troopers she and Sarault had decided to talk through their problems. She said she had called 911 earlier because she needed help in the moment but no longer wanted to press charges and wanted to get Sarault help instead, troopers said.
Sarault was taken to Northern State Correctional Facility in Newport and held on $25,000 bail.
On Thursday, Judge Scot Kline denied a prosecutor’s request to hold Sarault without bail but raised the bail amount to $40,000 and ordered a strict set of release conditions.
One factor in the prosecutor’s request had been the incident on April 5, in which state police said Sarault choked the woman at their home, prevented her from leaving several times and took her phone, according to an affidavit.
