A Vermont State Police trooper has been ordered by Windsor Superior family court to stay away from a woman and her child after finding that the trooper abused the woman in February and remains a threat to her safety.
On Feb. 24, the court issued a final relief-from-abuse order to Zachary Gauthier of Springfield. Gauthier, 31, had been serving as a detective trooper at the state police’s Westminster Barracks but has since been suspended, said Maj. Dan Trudeau.
The court issued several directives, including that Gauthier stay at least 300 feet away from the woman and her child, not contact the woman and not do anything that would make the woman fear bodily injury to herself or her child. The child is younger than 10, court records show.
The order, issued after a relief-from-abuse hearing on Feb. 24, is to remain in effect until February 2023, according to court documents. VTDigger generally does not identify victims of domestic violence.
The woman had filed a complaint on Feb. 10, alleging that Gauthier had placed her and her child in fear of imminent, serious physical harm and that she faced the danger of further abuse.
In an accompanying statement, the woman said that on the evening of Feb. 9, Gauthier threatened to remove her and her child from the house in which they lived, even if they had no other place to stay.
“He claimed he did not care if we had a place to go or not,” the woman’s statement reads. She’d described Gauthier as angry and drinking.
She said that in a previous incident, Gauthier punched her pet dog on the head and broke his knuckle. She said he had to seek medical help and lied about the cause of his injury.
“He continues to tell me, ‘It is easy to hurt someone and hide a body with my job,’” according to the woman’s statement. “I lock my door at night because I am scared … I do not feel safe for my daughter or I.”
She said Gauthier has asked other people to observe her comings and goings. “He uses his job as a trooper as leverage to get what he wants from all,” she said.
In the relief-from-abuse order, the family court agreed that Gauthier had abused the woman, placed her in fear of harm and posed a danger of additional abuse.
She said Gauthier has several weapons at home, including his state-issued gun. In her complaint, she asked the court to order Gauthier not to possess any firearms while the relief-from-abuse order was in place and to surrender all his firearms. However, the court did not grant those particular requests.
The woman said she once filed a claim against him with the Vermont State Police, but he was not disciplined after he allegedly told his employer that she had lied. Court records do not provide details on the claim she filed.
Trudeau, the state police major, said Gauthier has been suspended from the force since the relief-from-abuse order was issued. He said the agency is conducting an internal investigation on Gauthier, and it’s not clear when the probe would be concluded.
Trudeau declined to comment on the woman’s allegations that Gauthier’s threats against her included invoking his position as a state trooper and that she had previously filed a claim against him with Vermont State Police.
Attorney Richard Bowen, Gauthier’s legal counsel in the court case, did not immediately return messages asking for comment on Friday.
