Police warn of high-risk sex offender on lam
Toolbox
By Susan Smallheer STAFF WRITER - Published: July 3, 2009
BRATTLEBORO – A Brattleboro man, who law enforcement officials said was a high-risk sexual offender, has disappeared, three days after being released from jail.
Scott T. French, 33, of Brattleboro, failed to report to the Brattleboro Police Department on Wednesday, and police believe he has fled the state.
French, who was released from prison in May after serving eight years of a 14-year sentence, had been arraigned last month on charges of stalking a Windsor woman, as well as violating conditions of his parole by failing to register his new address as a sex offender and also possessing brass knuckles.
Windham County State's Attorney Tracy Kelly Shriver said that French had posted bail on both the stalking charge and the violations of parole charges on Sunday and had skipped town.
Shriver said French had been returned to jail on June 22, after the Brattleboro incidents, and that Windsor police charged him last week with stalking a woman whom he knew before he went into jail.
She said the bail on the Windsor charge was $20,000, and added that as a result of his disappearance, he must forfeit his bail money. His bail on the Brattleboro charges was $2,500 cash or surety and he would be forced to forfeit that bail too.
French, who used to live in Bellows Falls, was released from prison after serving 10 years behind bars. French never attended any sex offender programming, according to the Department of Corrections.
French's release prompted community meetings and outrage that the state would release someone they said was at high risk of re-offending.
French was convicted of the sex assault of a vulnerable person and in March 2001 received a six- to 14-year sentence, all of it suspended but six years and six months.
susan.smallheer@rutlandherald.com
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