Despite a court order to turn himself in last week, Daniel Banyai remains a free and wanted man.
The owner of Slate Ridge, an unpermitted and now shuttered gun fighting training facility in West Pawlet, is one of about 5,200 people facing some kind of active warrant in Vermont, according to Vermont State Police spokesperson Adam Silverman.
Earlier this month, Environmental Court Judge Thomas Durkin issued an arrest warrant for Banyai directing state police and the Rutland County Sheriff’s Department to bring the Pawlet property owner into custody. Durkin’s ruling also gave Banyai a Dec. 22 deadline to turn himself in to the Vermont Department of Corrections at Marble Valley Regional Correctional Facility in Rutland.
Despite the judge’s directive, authorities won’t say much about their efforts to arrest Banyai.
“We are working on executing the warrant in accordance with the court’s orders,” Silverman wrote in an email. ”Because of the sensitivity of law-enforcement operations, we are unable to comment further.”
David Fox, Rutland County’s sheriff, did not respond to questions this week about his department’s efforts to arrest Banyai. Banyai’s attorney, Robert Kaplan, similarly did not return a request for comment.
A corrections spokesperson confirmed Friday afternoon that Banyai is not in the department’s custody.
Banyai’s years-long legal saga with the town of Pawlet over zoning violations on his property has garnered attention nationwide.
Finding the Slate Ridge owner in contempt of court for failing to take down unpermitted structures, Durkin issued an initial arrest warrant earlier this year, but that warrant expired without any action taken.
As Durkin considered renewing the warrant, attorneys for Pawlet and Banyai agreed to a last-minute deal that allowed town officials to inspect Slate Ridge to determine the property’s compliance.
“Certain structures have been moved, repainted, and modified, presumably to give the appearance that they have been removed and replaced with a different structure,” Merrill Bent, Pawlet’s attorney, wrote in a memo to the court following the inspection. “The Town does not find credible that Defendant has dismantled or removed these structures and then erected near-identical structures on the Property.”
Durkin sided with the town. Days after the inspection, he reissued a warrant for Banyai.
“The threat of incarceration is the only remaining tool at the Court’s disposal to encourage compliance,” Durkin wrote in a court filing.
Banyai returned to the national spotlight last week when the New Yorker published a detailed account of his battle with neighbors and the town. The publication reported that David Brodsky, who owns land near Banyai and comes from a wealthy real estate developing family on Long Island, has financially supported Banyai’s lawsuits.
As part of Durkin’s court orders, state police and the Rutland County sheriff must submit a statement about their efforts to execute the warrant every 30 days. The first of those 30-day deadlines is next week.
Clarification: The location of Brodsky’s property has been clarified.
