Plea deal includes anger management treatment

A Springfield man with a history of violent outbursts has reached a tentative plea agreement with the state that is intended to get him into an anger management program behind bars.



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http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20151208/NEWS02/151209577 http://www.vermonttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/RH/20151208/NEWS02/151209577 Published December 8, 2015 in the Rutland Herald Plea deal includes anger management treatment By ERIC FRANCIS CORRESPONDENT WHITE RIVER JUNCTION — A Springfield man with a history of violent outbursts has reached a tentative plea agreement with the state that is intended to get him into an anger management program behind bars. Wayne “Beaver” Johnson, 38, pleaded guilty this past week to a felony count of aggravated domestic assault and, when he is formally sentenced early next year, the plea deal currently calls for him to receive a one-to-three year sentence with the expectation that he will be enrolled in the Corrections Department’s “Risk Reduction Program.” The reason for waiting until after the new year is to give Corrections’ staff time to prepare an “intermediate sentencing report,” which will help determine whether Johnson is in fact eligible to participate in the programming. Johnson, whose family once described him to police as suffering from “explosive anger disorder,” admitted that he had menaced his wife with a knife at their home in July, which resulted in his arrest and his being held in pre-trial detention since then for lack of $25,000 bail. Springfield Police Officer Steven Neily wrote in his report on the July incident that Johnson had been stabbing walls and furniture with a large hunting knife during a heated argument inside his apartment and that he had made a verbal threat to decapitate a family member if they tried to get a restraining order against him. Neily wrote that once Johnson was safely taken into custody, police were unable to find the knife, but he noted that Johnson was wearing an empty sheath on his belt. In a sworn written statement to police, Johnson’s wife Justine wrote that he “has been using heroin, bath salts and meth (and) has many mental disorders and is unmedicated ... Wayne has many knives on him and is not in his right mind. All should be cautious around him.” Johnson spent three months in jail last year as the result of a December 2013 incident during which, police said, Johnson stood on his front porch yelling at them in a “demon-like voice” while threatening them with a crossbow, a chainsaw, a knife, and a can of gasoline and a lighter, all within the span of a few minutes.