By BOB MARTIN
Eagle Times Staff
SPRINGFIELD, Vt. — A Claremont woman was arrested by Springfield, Vermont, Police and charged with being a fugitive from justice after she failed to appear in court for a felony drug charge.
Alyssa Rivera, 37, of Claremont was arrested on March 2 and lodged at the Southern State Correctional Facility in lieu of $5,000 bail.
According to a probable cause affidavit, on March 2 the owner of 118 Park Street in Springfield called the police to report that a vehicle with a temporary registration plate was parked in his driveway blocking tenants. Corporal Philip Perkins arrived to find the vehicle with a woman in the driver’s seat alone, and the owner of the residence was on scene and requested that the occupant to be trespassed from the property.
Perkins activated his cruise lights in a fully marked police cruiser and parked behind the vehicle and then exited the vehicle to investigate the reported trespassing. This is when he saw the operator shift the vehicle into drive and go through an unplowed section of the parking lot into another adjoining lot. The vehicle allegedly proceeded onto Park Street, and Perkins got back into his cruiser and followed.
Perkins said in the affidavit that he met the vehicle and motioned to pull over as she looked directly at him. She proceeded to turn onto Union Street, and Perkins activated his siren before the vehicle finally pulled into a parking lot at 33 Union Street.
He recognized Rivera from prior law enforcement encounters, but she was unable to provide a license, registration or proof of insurance. Perkins requested that the Springfield Police Department check her status with the DMV and it also produced an NCIC hit out of Sullivan County that confirmed an active extraditable arrest.
Rivera was wanted for failing to appear in court after being arrested on Dec. 17 on a Class B felony charge for possession of Alpha-PHP, which is commonly known as bath salts of Flakka, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration. This carries a possible sentence of 3.5 to seven years in prison. The arrest warrant was electronically signed by Judge James Kennedy on Jan. 21.
Rivera was arrested and issued a flash citation to appear in Vermont Superior Court, Criminal Division, Windsor Unit on March 3 to answer to the charge.
