Editor’s note: This article by Bob Audette was published in the Brattleboro Reformer on March 6, 2017.
BRATTLEBORO — Five Brattleboro residents and one Bellows Falls resident were among nine people named on March 3 after a multi-month investigation into the distribution of heroin and cocaine in Windham County.
Reginald Derisme, 26, Delmas Ortiz, 23, Dana Ott, 23, Victoria “Tori” Pease, 28, and John T. Copeland, 38, all of Brattleboro, were cited with various charges, including knowingly and intentionally distributing heroin and cocaine. In addition, Melissa Atwood, 25, of Bellows Falls, was cited with two counts of selling cocaine.
Three men from Connecticut — Earl Brown, 39, Kaysone Walters, 31, and Reginald Woodard, 30, were cited with several crimes, including selling heroin and cocaine base.
Gov. Phil Scott issued a statement on Monday, thanking the Southern Vermont Drug Task Force for “another successful operation that resulted in nine arrests for the sale and trafficking of heroin and cocaine in Windham County this weekend.”
He also thanked the Vermont State Police out of the Westminster field station and the Brattleboro Police Department for assisting the task force with these latest arrests. “My Administration remains committed to addressing our opiate epidemic through prevention, treatment and enforcement efforts such as these, and I appreciate the continued efforts of law enforcement, as well as our public safety, health, mental health, education and community partners throughout the state. We must continue to fight this battle together.”
Brown recently received a federal indictment for knowingly and intentionally distributing heroin and cocaine base. He has been in custody since Feb. 15 when he was spotted at a gas station in Putney by a Vermont State Police trooper who later stopped Brown’s vehicle on Interstate 91. During an interview with detectives, Brown admitted to using and selling both heroin and crack cocaine in the past, but said he had stopped selling those drugs. At the time, Brown was living in a house on Deer Run Road in Westminster. When troopers searched his home, they found drug paraphernalia, a large amount of cash, “and, most significantly, two handguns,” stated a memorandum in support of detention file in the U.S. District Court for the District of Vermont. “One handgun — found in the closet of Brown’s bedroom in the vicinity of paperwork bearing his name — was loaded. The other gun was found hidden behind a kitchen drawer.” However, noted the filing, no crack cocaine was found in the house.
Brown is also suspected of being a member of a distribution ring that included Robull Bryant, of Putney, Jason Bunch, of Brooklyn, N.Y., Elijah Ealey, of Brattleboro, Alfred Spellman, of Putney, Heather Cheeney, of Brattleboro, Jason Robison, of Bellows Falls, and Christopher Shafer, of Brattleboro.
Bryant and Bunch had been under investigation since 2015, suspected of trafficking heroin, powder cocaine, and crack cocaine in Windham County. They were arrested last year after state troopers responded to gunfire on Hi Lo Biddy Road on Aug. 26, 2016. According to police, Robison shot at Bryant and Spellman who returned fire after arguing over a $30 drug debt. No one was hurt during the incident.
According to an affidavit filed with the federal court on March 2, the task force was assisted by a confidential informant referred to by the pseudonym “Chicopee.”
According to the affidavit, Chicopee provided specific information regarding the narcotics trade in Brattleboro. Chicopee agreed to work with the task force in exchange for consideration on pending driving with license suspended charge. Chicopee is a recovering addict who is currently taking methadone, noted the affidavit.
On Jan. 5, in a controlled buy monitored by the task force, Chicopee bought $100 worth of heroin from Pease, not the first time he bought the drug from her, he told investigators.
“The VDTF is familiar with Tori Pease’s appearance and knows her to be a distributor of heroin,” noted the affidavit. “Before January 5, 2017, the VDTF made to separate controlled buys of narcotics from Pease and she admitted in an interview with a VDTF detective that she is a seller of heroin.”
In October 2015, Derisme was cited with felony heroin possession and conspiracy to deliver heroin. That arrest came following a multi-month investigation conducted by the Vermont State Police and the Randolph Police Department into the activities of Donna Colson-Robinson, 33, of Randolph. On Oct. 17, 2015, police executed a search warrant on a residence on Pinnacle Road in Randolph. The state police seized 31 bags of heroin and $2,010, the proceeds from the sale of up to 134 bags of heroin.
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