Gov. Phil Scott says he has known for some time about activities taking place at a militia training facility in West Pawlet that has neighbors terrified, but he challenged reporters to surface information that would allow authorities to take legal action against the operator.
“We’re very much aware of the situation, we’re monitoring the situation,” Scott said at a press conference Friday. “But if it doesn’t rise to the level of criminal offense, what would you suppose we should do?”
Scott was responding to questions from Seven Days about Slate Ridge, a military-style training ground that was the subject of a VTDigger investigation published Thursday.
The governor struck a similar tone when asked by VTDigger why he wasn’t encouraging prosecutors to take some legal action, such as an Extreme Risk Protection Order, which would allow authorities to seize Banyai’s firearms if he is determined by a judge to be a threat to himself or others.
“If you have information to the magnitude that we saw with Jack Sawyer you should present it to us about this case,” Scott said in response to questions about why more hasn’t been done to address concerns about the facility.
Scott was referring to the case of Sawyer, at the time an 18-year-old from Fair Haven, who had allegedly been plotting to shoot up Fair Haven Union High School in February 2018. Sawyer had a notebook titled “Journal of an Active Shooter,” which included plans for carrying out the shooting and a “kill list” of students and staff.
In that case, Scott pushed prosecutors to “identify any and all legal avenues” in a press release issued about Sawyer’s case. He urged law enforcement to take action when they found the journal outlining an alleged plan to carry out mass killings at the high school. Authorities lack such concrete evidence of wrongdoing with Slate Ridge, he said.
The governor has also weighed into prosecutorial matters when he called on Vermont Attorney General TJ Donovan to review a decision last year by Chittenden County State’s Attorney Sarah George to dismiss murder charges, and an attempted murder charge, due to insanity defenses in three cases.
Scott hasn’t taken the same stance in regard to Slate Ridge and its owner Danial Banyai.
In an apparent response to the governor’s comments during the press conference, a post went up a couple hours later on the Slate Ridge Facebook page stating, “Thank you Governor Scott for standing up for Slate Ridge.”
Rebecca Kelley, the governor’s spokesperson, in an email late Friday afternoon took exception to the Facebook posting.
“The Governor in no way indicated support for this group, only that investigations have so far determined the group has not committed a crime on which law enforcement can act,” Kelley wrote.
“Governor Scott is concerned with their behavior and intimidation tactics toward the community and neighbors, in particular, and has directed Public Safety to continue monitoring this situation closely,” she added.
Another post on Slate Ridge Facebook page referred to Thursday’s article, stating, “Free Range Time & Free Training Just Mention VTDigger.” The page had 130 new followers Friday.
Neighbors would only speak anonymously about their experiences, for fear of retribution. They described feeling terrified living near the 31-acre site in West Pawlet, which has two shooting ranges and promotes itself as a center for military-style training and “professional gunfighting.”
They talked about hearing explosions, and the threatening behavior toward them from Banyai, who is also facing felony gun charges in New York state. The social media profiles of people who have trained at Slate Ridge identify them as local militia and anti-government members.
Neighbors have made reports to law enforcement over the four years Slate Ridge has been there, some about confrontations with Banyai and threats they say he has made. But, they say, those reports haven’t led to any arrests or action such as the filing of criminal charges or an order to seize firearms.
“We have received multiple reports of various activities at that site, ranging from noise, to threats, to potential zoning violations,” Michael Schirling, Vermont’s public safety commissioner, said during Friday’s press conference.
“Some of those fact patterns have been investigated,” Schirling added, “and reported up to prosecutors to ensure that our assessment that nothing has risen to the level of criminal charges has occurred at this stage.”
He also said authorities are “very sensitive to the concerns of the neighbors” and others in the area and will remain “vigilant and responsive” to any reports about activities at Slate Ridge.
Rutland County State’s Attorney Rose Kennedy wouldn’t directly comment this week on why she has not brought criminal charges or filed for an Extreme Risk Protection Order, which would then need approval from a judge. Vermont Attorney General TJ Donovan who could also file an ERPO has not done so.
Federal authorities have also refused to comment on actions they are taking, if any, to address the situation. A spokesperson from the FBI said, per policy, they could neither confirm nor deny if a federal investigation is underway.
Schirling also said Friday he would not comment on any federal actions that are being pursued.
“I can’t discuss any federal investigation because it’s outside my purview,” he said.
“I can say,” Schirling added, “we have shared information with federal authorities and I have every confidence that if they have uncovered anything that rose to the level of a federal criminal charge that they would take that very seriously.”
Schirling said he has also been in contact with local officials and briefed lawmakers twice “on our threat mitigation posture,” once in August and again Thursday.
“This has been on the radar for the Department of Public Safety and the state police since before I arrived at Public Safety in late 2019,” he added, referring to when he was appointed to the post of public safety commissioner.
“We have folks assigned to the joint terrorism task force here in Vermont ,” Schirling said. “We scan the landscape not only for threats and issues specific to things that we receive directly, like reports at this facility, but also on a statewide and a national landscape.”
Scott also declined to go into detail about what may be in the works at the state or federal level.
“It’s not as though we’re just letting this go. But there’s some things we can say and some things we can’t. And we’re continuing to monitor the situation,” Scott said, adding “if I could say it, I would, right? So I’ll just leave it there.”
