Local woman held after weapons found during police check

Cherie Vickery was arraigned on a new charge of violating conditions of release.

A Brattleboro woman already facing a reckless endangerment case was ordered held without bail Thursday after police said they discovered prohibited weapons in her motel room.

Cherie Vickery, 46, was arraigned in Windham Superior Court, Criminal Division, on a new charge of violating conditions of release. Her bail had first been set at $1,000, but that was later withdrawn.

According to an affidavit, Officer Cody Evans of the Brattleboro Police Department went to Vickery’s room at the EconoLodge on Canal Street on Thursday morning. He reported finding a small wooden box with four pocket knives near her bed, along with a Swiss army knife and a blade from a folding knife on a table beside it. Evans also said he saw crack pipes and a scale used for weighing drugs.

The release terms imposed on Aug. 12 bar Vickery from possessing dangerous or deadly weapons.

The weapons case stems from an Aug. 11 arrest after police responded to a shooting reported just off Canal Street in the Circle K parking lot. Investigators said a victim claimed the gunfire came during a dispute tied to money owed to Vickery. No one was hurt.

Vickery entered a not guilty plea to reckless endangerment on Aug. 12.

Police said Vickery told them that $400 had been stolen from her and that a friend then fired a 9-millimeter round near a vehicle occupied by the people involved. She reportedly said the shot appeared to be aimed toward the tires.

Investigators also reviewed surveillance video from the parking lot. They said the footage shows Vickery getting out of her vehicle and making hand movements that appeared to mimic racking a pistol. The affidavit says she later came back into view as a truck drove away, with her right hand extended in a way that suggested she was holding and aiming a gun.

When officers asked what she had in her hand as she stepped from her car at Circle K, Vickery told them it was a BB gun. Police later found a BB gun under the mattress in her motel room and said it was capable of causing permanent eye damage.

Judge Michael Kainen told Vickery at the arraignment that she appeared not to have been the main actor in the incident, but he said the situation still involved dangerous circumstances and urged her to seek help before her next court date.