The allegations against Roel Y. Diaz, 32, of Brooklyn New York, who resigned in August 2017,
were uncovered during a new background investigation by state police after he recently sought to rejoin the law enforcement agency.
As part of that background check, according to court records made public Friday, his former longtime girlfriend was interviewed by a state police detective, and she told him that Diaz had assaulted her in February 2017.
“She was so terrified by the thought that this defendant was back in the state that she was willing to speak about this,” Windham County State’s Attorney Tracy Kelly Shriver said in court Friday.
At the time of the incident, a police affidavit stated the woman told a state police detective last month, she did not call 911 — in part, because she was afraid it would be his colleagues who would be responding.
Diaz entered not guilty pleas Friday in Windham County criminal court in Brattleboro to five offenses.
The charges include a felony count of first-degree aggravated domestic assault, and four misdemeanors: two counts of domestic assault, and single charges of interference with access to emergency services, and stalking.
Diaz was arrested by state police Wednesday and held in jail without bail over the Fourth of July holiday pending his arraignment on the charges Friday afternoon.
Judge John Treadwell granted a prosecutor’s request Friday to continue to hold Diaz without bail pending a hearing on the strength of the evidence in the case.
Joanne Baltz, a public defender representing Diaz, had asked the judge to consider releasing her client, adding that he had no prior criminal record.
She said the allegations against Diaz are more than two years old, and he has not renewed contact with the woman he is charged with assaulting since he left the state two years ago when he resigned from the state police.
Baltz also told the judge that she worried for her client’s safety if he were to remain jailed.
“I’m quite concerned about where he’s going to be housed if he’s held without bail given his former employment,” she said, adding Diaz was willing to stay out of the state of Vermont if released.
A public defender application submitted by Diaz stated that he was employed by “Uber,” and that his monthly income was $1,000, while his expenses were more than $2,000.
Shriver, the prosecutor, called the evidence against Diaz strong, despite the incident occurring more than two years ago.
“There’s a recording of the event and there are also photographs,” Shriver said.
After the arraignment, the prosecutor said that the state Department of Corrections has systems in place to protect Diaz in jail.
“We encounter similar situations when confidential informants or co-defendants are in jail together,” Shriver said. “The Department of Corrections has procedures in place to keep people safe in jail.”
Diaz, according to state police, was hired as a trooper in July 2015 and resigned in August 2017 citing personal reasons. During his time of the force he worked out of the barracks in Brattleboro and Westminster.
This year, when he tried to rejoin the force a re-employment background check was started by a detective in the St. Johnsbury barracks.
State Police Detective Sgt. Denis Girouard wrote in an affidavit filed in the case Friday that as part of his background check he interviewed Diaz’s former girlfriend, meeting with her on June 26.
The woman told the detective she had been dating Diaz for more than seven years and they had been engaged for more than a year when he assaulted her at a residence they shared in Putney on Feb. 25, 2017, according to the affidavit.
“She told me she had proof in the form of an audio recording as well as photographs,” Girouard wrote.
The woman said she had gone out with some friends on the evening of Feb. 24, 2017, and Diaz was working the late shift.
She said when he returned home at around 1:30 a.m. on Feb. 25, 2017, he began accusing her of cheating on him and swearing and yelling at her, the affidavit stated.
“(The woman) said she activated her phone recorder when Diaz started getting a little out of control,” the detective wrote. “She said she recorded it because she was scared and was afraid he was going to kill her.”
She said the phone she used to record the incident was in a pocket. She called it her second phone because Diaz had taken her regular phone and would not give it back, the affidavit stated.
The woman said Diaz struck her at least twice on her face and pointed a gun at her and himself, the detective wrote.
“(The woman) said she did not report the event for fear that no one would believe her,” the affidavit stated. “She was aware if she called 911 it would be Diaz’s co-workers who would hear the call.”
The woman said she had a picture of Diaz with a gun pointed toward his head. The detective wrote that she provided him a copy of that photo that showed Diaz holding a handgun in his left hand pointed at an upward angle in the “general direction” of the left side of his head.
The woman said the pointing of the gun was not captured on the audio recording, according to the affidavit.
The detective wrote that the woman did provide him with two audio recordings and three images. During a recording the woman said was taken after Diaz returned home on Feb. 25, 2017, the detective wrote he could hear the two of them talking.
Diaz also could then be heard “swearing and berating” the woman during argument, the detective wrote, adding, “The recording also captures what sounds to physical hitting or slapping sounds while Diaz is swearing at the woman.”
The woman said she went to work later that morning, the affidavit stated. She told the detective Diaz also went to where she worked and stayed there all day and kept her phone until the end of the workday, according to the affidavit.
The woman said her last contact with Diaz was on July 14, 2017, the detective wrote.
“She said Diaz called her and told her she cost him his job and could not believe that she did that and could not believe she would do that to him,” according to the affidavit.
“(The woman) said Diaz told her he had to quit because of her and could not live here if she was with someone else,” the detective added. “When asked if he threatened her at all she said not since the day she was assaulted.”
State police said this week that they have no information “at this time” to indicate that anyone in law enforcement was aware of the assault allegations when they occurred, or that the woman made any previous reports to authorities.
Several members of Diaz’s family attended his arraignment Friday in Brattleboro, but declined comment as they left the courthouse. Baltz also declined comment following the arraignment.
