A Leicester man has pleaded not guilty to a slew of criminal charges after police said he threatened to kill two adults and two children who were related to his ex-girlfriend, and then recklessly drove after them at Moosalamoo Campground in Salisbury over Memorial Day weekend.
Leon Forrest, 41, was on furlough on unrelated charges at the time of the encounter and is being held at Marble Valley Regional Correctional Facility in Rutland, said Mark Furlan, the attorney who represented Forrest at Tuesday’s arraignment in Rutland County superior court.
According to court documents, Forrest was charged with two counts of aggravated stalking of a person under age 16, two counts of stalking, one count of reckless endangerment, one count of disorderly conduct, one count of criminal threatening, one count of grossly negligent operation of a vehicle and one of driving under the influence.
Bail was set at $5,000.
Police were alerted to the episode around 1 a.m. Sunday. Forrest claimed to be at the Addison County campground looking for his ex-girlfriend, whose parents were staying there with two children, ages 5 and 10, police said.
Forrest asked the parents — who are in their 50s and live in Port Henry, New York — where his ex-girlfriend was, according to court documents. When they wouldn’t tell him, he allegedly screamed and threatened to kill them and the two young children at their campsite.
Forrest later followed the adults and children in a Jeep while driving “in a grossly negligent manner,” according to a Vermont State Police press release. The family described being tailgated by Forrest on a dirt road “at over 50 mph.”
The adults told police that Forrest “caused them to fear for their lives, and for the lives of their children on a scale of ten out of ten,” police wrote in a court filing.
After Forrest lost sight of them, police said, he searched several campsites and woke up other campers in an attempt to locate them.
Police said they detected signs of impairment when speaking to Forrest, and he refused field sobriety tests. He was arrested and lodged at Marble Valley Regional Correctional Facility.
In court documents, police also noted that Forrest “used racist and homophobic slurs” throughout the incident.
It was not immediately clear why Forrest was on furlough conditions at the time of his arrest. Vermont’s furlough system allows people convicted of crimes to serve a portion of their sentence in the community, rather than in prison, if they abide by certain rules.
Read the story on VTDigger here: Leicester man allegedly threatened to kill 2 adults, 2 children at campground over Memorial Day weekend.