Windham County Sheriff's Department
~ Breaking News ~

Judge Katherine Hayes, in Windham District Court, issued a written decision on May 14, granting a request to have the charge against Wayne Ryan, 54, owner of Nick's, dismissed.

In the decision, Hayes laid out the facts of the arrest.

A trooper of the Vermont State Police and a Bellows Falls Police officer arrived at Nick's in Bellows Falls on June 16, 2006. The two intended to enter the bar to check the IDs of some youthful looking patrons. Ryan, who was checking the IDs of everyone entering his bar, requested IDs from the two officers. Ryan refused to let Trooper Eric Vitali enter his bar, saying he did not show him proper ID.

Ryan eventually placed his hands on Vitali's shoulders and "lightly pushed" him toward the door. Five days later, Ryan was arrested.

"The court concludes that these facts are insufficient to meet the state's burden, and that the charge against the defendant must therefore be dismissed," Hayes wrote in the decision.

Hayes went on to write that the state was able to show that Ryan's actions did impede the officers' investigation, that he knew they were law enforcement, but that the state didn't show that Ryan did not have a right to act the way he did.

Ryan was accepting photo IDs only, as liquor laws require.

But Hayes didn't fully defend how Ryan acted with police, calling his actions "unnecessarily gruff and brusque, but by no means abusive."

"The more prudent decision for the defendant to have made ... might well have been to permit the officer to enter after being shown a state identification card with proof of age."

According to the director of Vermont's Department of Liquor Control, William Goggins, a condition of having a liquor license is allowing any law enforcement officer or liquor control agent to enter the establishment as long as it's open. All the officer needs to show is a badge.

On June 21, 2006, members of the Vermont State Police, including Vitali, returned to Nick's and had Ryan arrested for impeding a public officer.

Ryan, who is deaf and walks with a cane due to a leg amputation, was arrested and led to a cruiser with one arm shackled to a state trooper.

His arrest was made in front of a Reformer reporter and photographer, who were tipped off about the arrest.

In a motion to dismiss filed by Ryan's attorneys, Alan P. Biederman and L. Maxwell Taylor, wrote that the arrest became notable because of the media attention. They mention that Vitali later testified that he heard the reporter had been contacted by the chief of police. At that time, Keith Clark, now Windham County Sheriff, was chief in Bellows Falls.

Another attorney for Ryan, George Nostrand, alleged after Ryan's arrest that his client was arrested to make an example before an important budget vote in Bellows Falls that was to decide the fate of the police department.

Nostrand said the arrest was made because Ryan had been critical of the police department leading up to the budget vote. Ryan ran an ad in the Bellows Falls Town Crier urging residents to vote down the village budget.

But Clark denied any involvement in the arrest and said he did not "call in any favors."

Patrick J. Crowley can be reached at pcrowley@reformer.com, or 802-254-2311, ext. 277.