By BOB MARTIN
Eagle Times Staff
BELLOWS FALLS, Vt. — A former Bellows Falls School Board chair and village trustee was recently arrested for stalking a woman since October 2024, and court records show that he was initially cited for disorderly conduct when he swore at and intimidated a store clerk the day before.
According to the probable cause affidavit, on March 21, Officer Joshua Lake stopped into a store in town, and he was informed that an hour earlier Colin James, 39 of Bellows Falls, was in the store attempting to intimidate him. The clerk also said he was harassing a woman customer. James was subsequently cited for disorderly conduct and is scheduled to appear in Windham Superior Court – Criminal Division on May 13.
Lake continued his investigation and contacted the woman who was allegedly being harassed. Through a phone conversation, Lake found that on Halloween, James had been allegedly harassing her for cigarettes and $10. The woman knew James from the community but was not friends with him. He allegedly pounded on her door unannounced, had “bugging” eyes as if he were on some sort of substance. After the incident she Facebook messaged him stating she wanted him to stay away from her.
On March 22, Lake reported that at about 9 p.m. James confronted the woman in the store and during an altercation he touched her, “not sexually but without invitation to do so, and in a manner that was outside the context of their acquaintanceship.” She reportedly told him to stay away several times. The affidavit noted that he looked “messed up.”
James allegedly left the store but was waiting in a bush, and then asked the woman to drive her home, but she left the scene. Police spoke with James who said he was upset with the store clerk and then gave a false name of the woman with whom he was speaking. He also told officers he did not hide in a bush but was waiting around the corner.
Police allowed James to get a shirt from his room before being arrested, and this is when Lake noticed several bottles of open and unopened wine, which violated his active conditions issued by the Vermont Superior Court – Windham Criminal Division issued on March 21.
While exiting his residence he asked to speak with his mother, and he told her he was going back to the police department because “apparently I stalked her.”
Chief David Bemis said when James was being processed, he became agitated and broke furniture in the processing room. This led to additional charges of unlawful mischief and disorderly conduct by phone, after Bemis said he repeatedly called the police station in an agitated manner after being issued a citation.
“He was in an agitated mood and began breaking furniture and stuff in the processing room,” Bemis said. “So, we didn’t get his picture or fingerprints.”
James was given an unlawful mischief charge, as well as the charge of disorderly conduct by phone. James was then brought to the Southern State Correctional Facility and held on $1,000 cash surety or bail.
The criminal history for James includes a DUI arrest in October 2013, and on May 25, 2019, he was arrested for forgery at Donovan’s bar in Bellows Falls, which he was an employee of at the time.
James appeared in Vermont Superior Court, Windham Division on March 24 for his arraignment and plead not guilty to misdemeanor charges of stalking, knowingly giving false information to an officer, and violation of conditions of release.
In Vermont, a conviction for stalking carries a maximum penalty of two years in prison and/or $5,000 fine. Providing a false name to an officer has a maximum penalty of a year in prison and/or $1,000 fine, and the violations of conditions of release have potential for six months in prison and/or $1,000 fine.
