BRATTLEBORO — A Vermont Superior Court judge has ruled there is no probable cause to charge two state troopers with simple assault in connection with firing a bean bag at an uncontrollable man, who had caused damage at a Newfane home last summer, records show.
Judge Katherine Hayes said there was a lack of evidence to charge Sgt. Ryan Wood and Trooper Zachary Trocki in the case involving Marshall Dean, who eventually fell off a roof after refusing to follow police commands.
“The court is unable to find probable cause for the charge. The affidavit fails to establish that the shooting of the beanbag caused Mr. Dean’s fall and injury,” Hayes wrote.
Hayes did find there was reason to file charges of reckless endangerment against the two troopers, who are due for arraignment next Tuesday in Brattleboro.
Detective Sgt. Sam Truex wrote a 10-page affidavit outlining the details of the incident on Vermont 30 in Newfane during the early morning hours of June 17, 2022.
State police reported that troopers received two E-911 calls from residents on Loop Road indicating somebody was calling for help about 2:12 a.m. A homeowner subsequently called to report his home was being destroyed by “Todd Dean” and that “he just lost it.”
A fourth person called a few minutes later reporting somebody was calling for help.
Wood and Trocki, who were both off-duty, were called out and found Dean on the roof of someone else’s home, police said. Dean, who was armed with a sickle-style saw, was asked repeatedly to drop it, but didn’t before Trocki fired the beanbag.
After being struck with the bean bag, Dean went to his knees and crawled to the edge of the roof where he fell out of camera view, Truex said.