BRATTLEBORO — The former Vernon man who is charged in connection with a five-day armed standoff with police last year refused to get out of a sheriff’s cruiser on Oct. 21 to attend a hearing in his case.
Kristopher Knutson, 49, is seeking to represent himself in the case, and Windham Superior Court Judge Katherine Hayes insisted that Knutson come to the courtroom. Knutson maintains that his name is now “Christ” and he had condemned the criminal justice system as a fraud.
Knutson is charged with 12 counts, including nine counts of violating abuse prevention orders, one count of reckless endangerment, one count of criminal threatening and one count of disturbing the peace.
Vermont State Police troopers last September had gone to Knutson’s home on Dunklee Drive in Vernon to remove any weapons, as ordered by the court. But Knutson refused to let the police in, and he started making all kinds of threatening remarks.
After five days, police finally were able to get him to leave the home by using tear gas, and inside they found multiple loaded guns, including three 9 mm handguns.
Knutson, who had moved to Vernon recently from Massachusetts, had previously worked for the Berkshire House of Correction for four years, and another four years in a residential treatment facility, as well as many years as a truck driver.
He has pleaded not guilty and is being held on $50,000 bail, and has been since his arrest in September 2021. No one was hurt during the incident.
Knutson’s court-appointed lawyer, Windham County Public Defender Richard Ammons, at the same time has filed a motion to withdraw from the case, saying that communication between them had ceased.
“There’s nothing I can do for him,” Ammons told the judge.
But Hayes would not grant Ammons’ motion to withdraw, and said that while Knutson could represent himself, Ammons was there to advise him if necessary.
The judge waited for at least five minutes for the sheriff’s deputies to remove Knutson from the cruiser and bring him upstairs to Hayes’ courtroom, to no avail.
“I’m not going to stop the trial because Mr. Knutson refuses to come,” said Hayes. The case is tentatively slated for December.
But Windham County Deputy Sheriff Dana Shepard told Hayes that Knutson was refusing to leave the cruiser. The deputies had brought him to Brattleboro for the motion hearing from the Southern State Correctional Facility in Springfield.
Windham County Deputy State’s Attorney Dana Nevins said that Knutson’s most recent behavior was “not a surprise” to the state. At earlier hearings this year, Knutson had caused various disruptions.
Hayes noted that Knutson had been found competent to stand trial, despite his behavior. The question, she said, is whether Knutson will follow court protocol. Recently, she said, he has exhibited “obstructionist behavior.”
If he doesn’t follow protocol, she said, she might have to end up excluding him from the courtroom “and I don’t want to do that.”
She said that that hasn’t happened in the past 20 years in Vermont courts, “and that’s not my plan.”
In previous court hearings, Knutson has been very outspoken in his criticism of everything about the court system.