Jun 30, 2008 4:59 pm US/Eastern
Search For Missing VT Girl Zeroes In On Uncle
BETHEL, VT (AP) ―
The head of the Vermont State Police says the uncle of a missing 12-year-old girl is a "person of interest" in her disappearance.
Col. James Baker says the search continues for Brooke Bennett, of Braintree, who vanished after walking away from a Randolph convenience store Wednesday and was the subject of Vermont's first-ever Amber Alert.
Michael Jacques, 42, of Randolph, a registered sex offender who was one of the last people to see Brooke Bennett before she vanished, pleaded not guilty to aggravated sexual assault in an unrelated case.
The alleged victim, a relative of Jacques', was a girl who says Jacques assaulted her over a five-year period, beginning when she was 9-years-old and ending a few weeks ago, Orange County State's Attorney Will Porter said.
In an affidavit released afterward, Vermont State Police Detective Sgt. William Jenkins said the girl told police that when she was 9 or 10, she was told -- in a telephone call and in a note left under her pillow -- that she had been selected for enrollment in a "program for sex" and that Jacques was to be her trainer.
The alleged victim, identified only as "A.R." in court papers, said she was told two other girls were in the program, too.
"The first who does it lives and the second gets her throat cut," she told police, according to the affidavit.
At Jacques' home in Randolph, meanwhile, Vermont State Police called in state police units from Connecticut and Massachusetts and used a helicopter and dogs to search Jacques' home and an adjoining property. Troopers swarmed around Jacques' home -- a large two-story house -- beginning around 4 a.m. Monday.
Jacques, who is married to the sister of Bennett's mother, dropped Bennett off at a Cumberland Farms convenience store in Randolph on Wednesday after she told family members she was going to meet a friend and visit a relative of the friend's in the hospital.
Police believe that was a lie, and that Bennett may have bound for a meeting with an unknown individual she had been communicating with through MySpace.com, the social networking site. On Friday, Vermont State Police director James Baker said the MySpace communications were the main focus of the probe.
Surveillance video from the store showed Bennett and Jacques leave the store and go in separate directions.
Bennett, who just finished seventh grade at Randolph Union High School, has not been seen since. She is the subject of Vermont's first-ever Amber Alert, which was issued Friday.
In court Monday, a pallid Jacques -- handcuffed and shackled at the waist -- entered a not guilty plea through public defender L. Brooke Dingledine, who persuaded Judge Theresa DiMauro to grant bail over the objections of Porter.
Jacques has 1993 convictions for kidnapping and aggravated sexual assault and there is "a threat of prejudicial violence to this particular juvenile complainant," said Porter, in arguing for no bail. "Her personal safety was threatened."
He also noted the serious nature of the crime, which could lead to a life prison term, and said Jacques had violated his probation.
"There's no condition or series of conditions that could guarantee the safety of the juvenile complainant in this case," said Porter.
Dingledine said Jacques has a full-time job as an operations manager for a company in West Lebanon, N.H., owns his home and a rental property next door, has strong family ties and a family that depends on his income.
DiMauro said she was considering barring Jacques from leaving the county, but Dingledine -- who called the corroborating evidence on the sex charge "very sparse" -- said he needed to get to work. So the judge ordered a 24-hour curfew -- except for work -- if he makes bail.
Relatives of Bennett watched from the gallery as Jacques made his appearance.
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