The Office of the United States Attorney for the District of Vermont stated that John Breault, age 31, made an initial appearance in federal court in Burlington today on a heroin distribution charge. United States Magistrate Judge John M. Conroy released Mr. Breault on conditions.
According to a federal Criminal Complaint filed yesterday, Mr. Breault, while a police officer with the Royalton, Vermont, Police Department, last summer provided drugs to a woman with whom he was having an intimate relationship. An affidavit filed with the Criminal Complaint, by Special Agent Colin Simons with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, alleges that the woman was an opiate addict who pleaded for drugs and obtained them from Breault. The FBI filing indicates that Breault took drugs from the Royalton Police Department evidence vault, which drugs had been seized in a June 2017 raid, and provided them to the woman in July, 2017.
Breault recently resigned from the Police Department. He is represented by attorney Robert W. Katims of Burlington. The investigation was conducted by the FBI and the United States Drug Enforcement Administration. The maximum statutory penalty for the drug distribution charge is 20 years in prison. The U.S. Attorney’s Office stated that the Criminal Complaint is only a charge, and that Breault is presumed innocent. The United States is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney William Darrow.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
