WHITE RIVER JUNCTION – Police are looking for a 66-year-old man who they say activated a false fire alarm at a hotel just days after he was accused of causing thousands in damages to an apartment building and displacing multiple residents by intentionally flooding his third-floor unit.
Jefferson Dickie, a Hartford resident, was cited to appear in Windsor Superior Court on Tuesday morning in connection with an Aug. 13 incident in which police say he pulled a fire alarm when there was no fire at the White River Inn and Suites at 91 Ballardvale Drive, resulting in the full evacuation of the hotel.
Dickie told Hartford Police, who responded to the incident, that he was “trying to let them know” there was an emergency. Police said he appeared disoriented at the scene, according to the affidavit in the case.
When police handed Dickie a citation to appear in court on Tuesday on a misdemeanor charge of false fire alarm, he refused to sign it.
On Tuesday, he also failed to appear at his arraignment, and Judge Elizabeth Mann granted a warrant for his arrest.
Two days prior to the false fire alarm, Dickie was arrested after admitting he intentionally flooded his apartment at 27 North Main Street, a 17-unit building managed by Vermont State Housing Authority, the Valley News previously reported.
The Hartford Fire Department estimated damages at a minimum of $10,000 and ordered eight units and the basement as no-occupancy.
“Dickie (was) standing in the kitchen area (of his third-floor unit) and laughing while the hand sprayer of the faucet was propped outside of the basin with the water on, actively flooding the apartment,” states the affidavit in support of a charge of felony unlawful mischief.
Police observed “burnt pieces of paper” on the kitchen countertop, according to the affidavit. The unit’s bathroom shower fixture was also left running, the document states.
“Dickie acknowledged that he intentionally flooded his apartment to cause damage hoping that it would force his eviction,” the affidavit states.
When police asked why he didn’t just vacate his apartment, Dickie told them he tried leaving but was being “thwarted,” without disclosing more.
One tenant stated that Dickie told him he was going to “burn the place down” about a week prior, according to the affidavit.
Phone and email efforts to reach Vermont Housing Authority were unsuccessful on Wednesday.
Initially lodged at Southern State Correctional Facility in Springfield, the court granted Dickie’s release on Aug. 12 on conditions including that he must come to court when told to and stay away from the apartment building, with a one-time exception to retrieve belongings under police supervision.
On Aug. 14, a day after the false fire alarm incident at the Hartford hotel, Dickie’s defense counsel, Jordana Levine of Marsicovetere and Levine Law Group in White River Junction, filed a motion with the court requesting a mental health evaluation.
The competency standard in Vermont requires a defendant to have “sufficient present ability to consult with (their) lawyer with a reasonable degree of rational understanding” and “a rational as well as factual understanding of the proceedings against (them),” Levine stated in the motion, citing legal precedents.
Based on conversation with Dickie, Levine stated she was concerned that his “competency to stand trial in this matter may be at issue due to unspecified mental health impairment.”
The court granted the defense’s motion for a competency evaluation the day it was filed, scheduled for Sept. 18.
However, on Sept. 21, Robert Sedic, assistant attorney general with the Department of Mental Health, stated in a motion that the evaluation did not take place as Dickie’s attorney was “unable to confirm with (Dickie) that the proposed date and time would work for the defendant.”
Phone efforts to reach Levine and Windsor County Deputy State’s Attorney Taaha Rehmani, who is prosecuting both the unlawful mischief felony and the false fire alarm misdemeanor, were not successful.
Dickie is scheduled for a status conference in the unlawful mischief case on Sept. 28 at 2 p.m.
