Larry Drown appears before Judge Grearson in an earlier court appearance in Barre on his criminal charges. Last week, he failed to show up for a status conference and the judge issued a bench warrant for his arrest. Photo by Rob Wills, The Northfield News Larry Drown failed to show up for a status conference last week in his criminal case which is being heard in court in Barre.

An arrest warrant was issued by Judge Grearson and bail was set at $1,000.

Trial in the case has been set for October and this was to have been a status conference to determine the status of discovery and whether the parties would be ready to proceed to trial on a timely basis according to court notes.

Mr. Drown is facing three criminal charges, careless and negligent driving which carries a maximum penalty of 2 years in jail, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon which carries a maximum of 15 years in jail and leaving the scene of an accident which carries a maximum of 3 years in jail.

All of this arose from the alleged assault on a flagger directing traffic around the site of work being done laying a new water main on Wall Street last November.

Mr. Drown was arrested following an argument with a construction worker who told him a road at the intersection of Water and Wall streets was closed, he then backed up, spun his tires and hit the woman who was directing traffic according to the original police report which was filed at the time according to the police report.

At the time, Mr. Drown told Kate Duffy of WCAX-TV “There's no place on that truck where it shows she was run over, or even struck by the truck. She might have just fallen down, I don't know that. She'll be challenged later in the depositions.”

The whole point of the status conference in court last week was to find out whether the depositions have been completed and whether the trial can proceed.

Several witnesses told police they saw Mr. Drown's truck hit the woman.

"I thought my car was in reverse, it was in drive," he told Thatcher Moats of the Times Argus earlier this year following an earlier court appearance. "My truck lunged forward, not hitting Brandy Packer."

In her report, Ms. Packer said her foreman told her to close down the roadway near the intersection of Wall and Water streets. Mr. Drown drove up, she said, and when she told him he would have to wait 15 or 20 minutes for the road to reopen, he started hollering obscenities at her.

She said Mr. Drown started to back up, which led her to believe he was going to turn around. That's when he "gunned it," she told police, who found tracks where Mr. Drown allegedly "squealed" his tires.

Ms. Packer said she was struck on the right side, hurting her ankle, hips knee and neck, the police report says.

A Vermont Agency of Transportation investigator determined there were no problems with the brakes, steering or accelerator in Mr. Drown's truck, according to court papers.

The News left a message on Mr. Drown’s answering machine requesting any comments that he might wish to make and asking if he is going to surrender and come back into court.

He left a telephone message response stating that he has asked “the federal marshals to intervene” and was “making a motion” with Judge Grearson “to assist him with the legal costs involved to allow federal intervention.”