Submitted
By Ethan Weinstein/VTDigger
A month after Vermont’s Environmental Court renewed a warrant for Daniel Banyai’s arrest, law enforcement say the Slate Ridge owner has left the state.
Environmental Court Judge Thomas Durkin required Vermont State Police and the Rutland County sheriff to submit official updates every 30 days on their efforts to arrest Banyai.
In the first of these filings, state police Lt. Douglas Norton wrote in an affidavit that since Dec. 4, law enforcement performed 14 checks of Banyai’s West Pawlet property, a former weapons training facility that had previously hosted militia groups.
Banyai’s lawyer, Robert Kaplan, told Norton on Dec. 13 that “he understood that Mr. Banyai was not currently in Vermont, nor did he have plans to return to the state,” Norton wrote in the affidavit. “Attorney Kaplan added that he did not possess more specific information as to Mr. Banyai’s whereabouts.”
Kaplan also told Rutland County Sheriff David Fox that he found it “highly unlikely” Banyai would turn himself in, according to Fox’s affidavit.
The police updates, both filed with the court on Wednesday, Jan. 3, come more than a week after Banyai was required by court order to turn himself in to the Vermont Department of Corrections’ prison in Rutland.
Banyai’s years-long legal saga with the town of Pawlet over zoning violations on his property has garnered attention nationwide.
Finding the Slate Ridge owner in contempt of court for failing to take down unpermitted structures, Durkin issued an initial arrest warrant earlier this year, but that warrant expired without any action taken.
As Durkin considered renewing the warrant, attorneys for Pawlet and Banyai agreed to a last-minute deal that allowed town officials to inspect Slate Ridge to determine the property’s compliance. The judge ultimately sided with the town, agreeing that Banyai had not completely removed unpermitted structures.
The state police affidavit, as well as that of the Rutland sheriff, show that the agencies together planned to arrest Banyai at a probation meeting in Rutland in late December. (The affidavits list dates of both Dec. 19 and Dec. 20 for the scheduled meeting.)
“I as well as Troopers from the Rutland Barracks awaited Banyai to arrive,” Fox wrote, adding that on the morning of the meeting, probation and parole informed police that “Banyai had called in and would not be coming in.”
According to the affidavits, Banyai is allowed to check in with probation and parole electronically, which he did on that date.
On Dec. 21, the day before Banyai was required to turn himself in at Marble Valley Regional Correctional Facility in Rutland, Norton, the state police lieutenant, reached out to the prison to see if they were aware of the order for Banyai to surrender.
“They were not aware,” Norton wrote, “therefore I provided them with a copy of the order.”
Norton wrote that “negotiations between Mr. Banyai and the town on this matter had resumed,” but that, according to Pawlet’s attorney, Merrill Bent, “The resumption of negotiations has not resulted in identifying a location where Mr. Banyai could be found” as of Dec. 23.
In an email to VTDigger on Thursday, Jan. 4 Kaplan, Banyai’s attorney, wrote, “Mr. Banyai remains eternally hopeful that a sensible and fair compromise can be reached with the town of Pawlet,” calling the affidavits “quite stunning.”
