By Patrick Mcardle
RUTLAND HERALD
BENNINGTON — A Library Avenue man is being held in jail after police said he assaulted a woman he knew in Mendon on Friday.
Shane T. Goodrich, 34, pleaded not guilty on Monday in Bennington criminal court to a felony charge of first-degree aggravated domestic assault.
Goodrich was ordered to post 10% of a $5,000 appearance bond in order to be released from custody, but according to the Vermont Department of Corrections online inmate locator, as of Tuesday afternoon, Goodrich had not posted the $500 and was still being held in the Rutland jail.
While Goodrich’s case was arraigned in the Bennington court, the case will be prosecuted in Rutland County.
The charge against Goodrich is based on an affidavit written by Trooper Christopher Loyzelle, of the Vermont State Police, who said he was dispatched around 10:15 p.m. Friday to respond to a reported family fight at the Pico Motor Inn on Route 4 in Mendon.
A woman at the motel had called police because Goodrich was allegedly “intimidating her and getting into her face.” She said she wanted him removed.
At the Pico Motor Inn, the woman told Loyzelle that Goodrich had been abusive to her for years and said the abuse had been escalating into violence.
She said that she was sleeping in the motel and she woke up with Goodrich’s hands around her neck, which left her unable to breathe until she kicked him off her.
The woman showed police a bruise on her shoulder she said she got from Goodrich punching her.
She also said she has called police before about the alleged abuse and Goodrich had threatened her because she contacted police.
Before calling police Friday, Goodrich had become abusive again and threw shoes at her, the woman told Loyzelle.
“I spoke to Goodrich who advised (the woman) is crazy, and he has never assaulted her. This was the extent of the statement provided by Goodrich,” Loyzelle said in the affidavit.
During Goodrich’s arraignment, Ian Sullivan, chief deputy state’s attorney for Rutland County, asked for a $5,000 bail. He said the request was based on Goodrich’s criminal history which included 13 instances of failing to appear for court proceedings, a conviction for violating court orders, four felony convictions and 20 misdemeanor convictions.
Attorney Mary Kay Lanthier, who represents Goodrich, said her client had lived most of his life in Rutland County, had relatives in the area and attended Rutland High School.
Judge Cortland Corsones, who ordered Goodrich to post an appearance bond, also ordered Goodrich, if released, to follow a curfew in Rutland from 9 p.m. to 5:30 a.m. and not to have contact with the woman who told police he had assaulted her.
In 2018, Goodrich was sentenced to serve seven months in prison for careless driving in a September 2015 crash in Pittsford that caused the death of Bryan Greene, 43, of Leicester.
According to affidavits filed in the case, both Goodrich and Greene were driving to work on Sept. 18, 2015. Goodrich was driving north on Route 7 in a 2001 Oldsmobile Alero. Greene, 43, of Leicester, was southbound on a 1983 Honda Shadow motorcycle.
The case was tried in 2018 and a jury convicted Goodrich of negligently leaving his lane and entering the southbound lane causing a crash that killed Greene.
One of the incidents during which Goodrich failed to appear in court happened in May 2019. After Goodrich was sentenced in 2018, he asked that the sentence be stayed pending the results of an appeal he had made to the Vermont Supreme Court but the court upheld the results of the 2018 trial.
However, Goodrich failed to appear for the 2019 hearing which would have reinstated the sentence.
Sullivan said on Monday that it took until March 2020 to bring Goodrich back to court.
If Goodrich is convicted of the charge against him, he could be sentenced to up to 15 years in prison.
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