BENNINGTON — A group of youths knocked on windows and banged doors at the home of Rep. Kiah Morris and at least one neighbor over three days last week, prompting concern and a temporary move from the family that has been targeted with racially motivated threats and online harassment.
Bennington police said their investigation, which led to seven teenagers being taken into custody, found no evidence that the incidents were racially motivated or specifically targeted Morris or her family. Police said the teens, all of whom were issued no-trespassing citations, apparently were unaware who lived at the Morgan Street address.
Morris, who is African-American, dropped her re-election bid in August and resigned her position earlier this week, citing ongoing racial harassment.
Morris’ husband, James Lawton, said this week that, although he heard no racial slurs when youths pounded on their door and then ran away, he has no doubt the house was targeted. He said he called police on Sept. 19, after he observed some youths sitting on a stone wall across the street from his home and taking photos of the residence with their phones.
Lawton said the anxiety and stress that followed the youths pounding on his door Thursday resulted in him being transported later to Southwestern Vermont Medical Center with spiking blood-pressure and other symptoms likely related to triple bypass heart surgery. He underwent the operation on Sept. 11 and was released from the hospital just prior to the incidents.
“That could have killed me,” Lawton said.
The incident also prompted Morris and Lawton to leave their home and stay in a local inn.
‘Hate-motivated’ harassment
Attorney Robert Appel, who represents the couple, said in an email on Tuesday: “Bennington Police have identified seven juveniles who have engaged in a series of unlawful incidents targeted at Kiah Morris, an outspoken African American woman and very effective legislator, and her husband James Lawton. These youths reported conduct includes behaviors that constitute, at least in my opinion, a number of crimes including disorderly conduct, unlawful mischief and criminal stalking.”
Appel added, “These criminal acts are far more than ‘kids just being kids,’ but rather constitute a campaign of harassment, intimidation and terror designed to drive these law abiding residents from their homes and to make each and every member of their family fear for their well-being. No one should have to tolerate this level of hate-motivated abuse and harassment.”
Lawton said the police were called again on Sept. 20 after youths banged on his door that evening. Officers responded but could not immediately find the youths, Lawton said, and during that search of the area, some youths came back when police were out of sight and banged on his door again.
The owner of the Safford Mills Inn on Main Street offered the family a room so they could leave the house, Lawton said, but he couldn’t stop thinking about the incidents and became anxious and stressful around 3:30 a.m. Friday. He said he called for an ambulance and spent the next five or six hours in the hospital until his condition had stabilized.
Seven youths
According to Bennington police incident reports, officers were called to side-by-side Morgan Street residences at around 10:30 p.m. on both Thursday and Friday and again just after midnight on Saturday morning, Sept. 22. Morgan Street residents, including the Morris family’s next door neighbor Ericca Benoit, reported someone knocking on doors or windows and youths running away.
The latter reports focused on the house where Benoit lives with her children.
Following an investigation that included posting an officer in the nearby Bennington Village Cemetery, interviews with several teens, family members and witnesses, and extra police patrols along Morgan Street, seven teenagers were identified and taken into custody.
No criminal charges were filed against the juveniles as a result of the incidents, but no-trespassing notices were issued and their parents were informed.
Police Chief Paul Doucette said police talked to the parents of the teens, ranging from 12 to 16 years old. As a result, he said, “I don’t see this behavior continuing.”
Doucette said the police response was significant in light of past threats to Morris, who withdrew from her re-election campaign on Aug. 24, citing harassment that began in 2016 and had resumed over the summer.
Morris announced Tuesday night that she would resign her House seat immediately, but Lawton said that decision was made previously and was not related to the incidents involving the teens last week.
Children frightened
What police concluded, Doucette said, was that the incidents on Morgan Street were prank behavior by local teens playing Ding Dong Ditch, in which they knocked on doors and windows and then ran into the large cemetery across the street, which borders on Main and Morgan streets.
“I don’t see criminal intent,” he said. “This was kids fooling around.”
Significantly, Doucette added, the teens did not know who resided at the residences. “I’m confident in saying that no one was singled out in this matter,” he said.
But he added, “I think this was a prank and people chose to do it in the wrong neighborhood.”
While the Morris family stayed at the inn late last week and no one was at the home, Benoit’s house apparently was targeted.
According to the police incident reports for Sept. 21, Benoit called at 10:28 p.m. to report multiple youths were banging on windows and yelling at her, and said she told them to leave. She told police they shouted obscenities and ran into the cemetery across the street.
There was also a report around that time that residents of Beach Court to the south could hear gunshots and an argument in the area of Morgan Street and the cemetery.
Officers then reported searching for the youths in the rambling hillside cemetery and at both a former Stewart’s Shop location on Main Street and in the new Stewart’s parking lot further west on the street. A Sheriff’s Department deputy also assisted in the search.
On Saturday, Sept. 22, according to reports, police talked to a youth at his residence with his parents present, and the teen “reluctantly shared that he had been part of a group that had played ‘Ding Dong Ditch’” at two houses on Morgan Street.
The youth also “advised that no one knew who lived in the [Morris] house but explained that [the teens] thought it was funny,” according to the incident report.
The youth said the teens went to the Morris house again but found no one was home, and then went to the neighboring house instead to play the prank.
According to the police report, a youth also told police that a woman at that house “came outside with a gun and yelled at the boys,” and she said, “‘I’ll shoot you,’ and shot two shots into the air, pointed in the direction of the cemetery where the boys were hiding.”
The youth said the woman was holding a long gun or rifle and that there was a flash from the muzzle when it was fired, according to the report.
The report stated that officers spoke with Benoit and were told she owns only BB guns and she produced a pellet gun in a long rifle style and a black BB pistol.
She admitted to police shooting a BB gun once into the air, “but was clear that she did not want to hit the individuals and aimed in the air above them,” according to the reports.
Benoit told police someone was “very aggressively banging on her windows” and she “stood on the porch yelling at the individuals to stay off her property.”
Three days after her Aug. 24 withdrawal from race for a Bennington 2-2 House seat, Attorney General TJ Donovan opened an investigation into the racial harassment and threats complaints Morris has filed. He said Vermont State Police computer investigations resources would assist the probe.
Read the story on VTDigger here: Pranking teens hit Kiah Morris residence, prompting move to inn.