MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) – A truck driver who ran over a woman during an Oct. 31 confrontation that stemmed from a traffic incident won’t be charged in her death, Vermont State Police said Tuesday.
Delbert Degree, 41, will not be charged in the death of Laurie Bragdon, 45, of Guildhall, who witnesses said was hit as she wrote down the license plate number of the truck and the name and telephone number of the trucking company, according to Detective Lt. J.P. Sinclair.
Investigators found a slip of paper at the scene with the handwritten license plate number of the truck on it, he said.
“In criminal court, we have to show the intent element. We would have to show that there was intent on the driver’s part to strike Mrs. Bragdon,” said Sinclair, who said there wasn’t evidence to support that.
Independent witnesses who saw the confrontation said Degree neither swerved nor accelerated quickly in the moments before the truck hit Bragdon, and simulations performed by investigators showed that Degree may not have been able to see Bragdon in front of the truck, as Degree said he didn’t, according to Sinclair.
The decision not to prosecute him, which was reached jointly by state police and Caledonia County State’s Attorney Robert Butterfield, was condemned by Bragdon’s husband.
“I am totally (expletive) enraged,” said Alfred Bragdon. “If I did something like that, I’d be in jail.
“I think he needs to be in jail, thinking about this every goddamned day for the rest of his life, that he killed somebody,” he said.
Degree, of St. Johnsbury, couldn’t be reached for comment Tuesday. He doesn’t have a listed telephone number, and a telephone message left for him at his employer, Karl Johnson Inc. trucking company, was not immediately returned.
According to police, the incident began in the village of Lunenburg, when Bragdon’s daughter, Sarah Bragdon, 22, slowed to allow a car in front of her to turn off U.S. Route 2 and Degree – driving the tractor-trailer – passed her.
Both continued on to St. Johnsbury, about 21 miles away, where Degree pulled into a parking lot and the Bragdons followed.
An argument ensued, with Sarah Bragdon scolding Degree about his driving before leaving to get a police officer. Laurie Bragdon stayed behind, trying to keep Degree from leaving, according to Sarah Bragdon.
Police say Bragdon, standing in front of the truck, was dragged underneath it and crushed. She was pronounced dead at Northeastern Vermont Regional Hospital in St. Johnsbury.
“He took away my wife, my daughter’s mother, my son’s mother, my grandchildren’s grandmother,” said Alfred Bragdon. “I am totally (expletive) enraged right now. I have the utmost respect for law enforcement, but they just crushed that. They proved to me that being honest isn’t the way to go.”
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