Stannard man accused of New Year’s assault on woman, child – vtdigger.org

ST. JOHNSBURY — A Stannard man accused of assaulting a woman and her child on New Year’s Day was ordered held without bail in court Thursday.

Jeremy Gervais, 30, faces 11 counts of six different charges after his Wednesday arrest, including domestic assault, cruelty to a child and unlawful restraint. 

He pleaded not guilty to all counts in Caledonia County court.

The charges stem from an incident at a Stannard home that happened about 2 a.m. that morning, according to Vermont State Police. 

Troopers responded to a call that the woman had run barefoot to a neighbor’s home after Gervais had assaulted her for more than an hour.

VTDigger does not generally identify victims of crime.

The 24-year-old woman told state police she and Gervais had been drinking and watching a broadcast of the New Year’s Eve ball drop. 

The two went to a bedroom and were joined by a 6-year-old child, the woman said, but Gervais grew angry that the woman was letting the child sleep with them in the room.

The woman asked the child to call 911 on her phone, but Gervais grabbed the phone and threw it, she told troopers. Then, she said, he became violent. 

She showed troopers bite marks on a shoulder and one elbow. She had a bruise on her left pinky toe and heel, which she said came from being thrown into the side of a doorway. 

Gervais then grabbed her by the throat, she said. The woman said she tried to leave the home multiple times for about an hour, but Gervais wouldn’t allow her to go. 

During that hour, the woman said she told the 6-year-old to get help from the neighbors. But Gervais allegedly picked the child up and tossed the youth to the ground several times. 

When the woman was able to leave, she could only take the 6-year-old and another of her children, a 4-year-old. She left a baby, born this fall, behind. The neighbors later retrieved the infant.

Troopers saw footprints leading away from the home where the incident took place and tracked them for more than a mile before finding Gervais in a Greensboro backyard, according to an affidavit.

Gervais told state police that he and the woman had been shoving and biting each other. He said the incidented last several minutes and that he was just trying to calm the woman down when preventing her from leaving, troopers said. 

He showed troopers several bite marks on his body, as well as scratches on his neck that he believed had come from the woman.

That narrative factored into Judge Michael Harris’ decision in court on Thursday to keep Gervais in Northeast Regional Correctional Complex without bail.

Harris also cited a previous incident involving Gervais and the woman, for which Gervais had several conditions of release that he allegedly violated Wednesday.

On Aug. 3, at the home in Stannard, Gervais awakened the woman at about 1 a.m. and said he wanted to talk about a fight from several hours earlier, she told state police.

She refused because she was in bed with one of her children, and when she tried to text her mother, Gervais took her phone, she told troopers.

The woman headed to the front door of the home, but Gervais grabbed her face and blocked her way, she said. When she tried to yell for help, she said, Gervais threw her onto her stomach, pushed his hands into her face and sat on top of her. 

The assault restricted her breathing, said the woman, who was pregnant at the time. 

Then Gervais tried locking her inside a bathroom, the woman said. But she managed to flee to her father’s house, where Gervais followed her before leaving, state police said.

Troopers said the woman was bleeding from the nose and a finger. She had a quarter-size bump on her left wrist.

After Gervais  was arrested that August day, a judge ordered him to have no contact with the woman. But the next day, he began calling and texting her nonstop, troopers said.

Gervais did something similar while he was being booked into jail on Wednesday, police said. Troopers said he called the woman on a phone at the jail and said he loved her. That was another violation, authorities said.

Caledonia County State’s Attorney Jessica Zaleski had asked Harris to hold Gervais without bail. 

“There are no set of conditions that can protect [the woman] and her children at this point,” the prosecutor said.

Public defender Al Franklin represented Gervais. The defender argued that Gervais could be released to a relative’s home in Windsor County and that he could be placed under a strict curfew. But the judge decided otherwise.

“The court has severe reservations about Mr. Gervais’ willingness to abide by conditions,” Harris said.