Arrest follows threat to foster parents

A Waterbury woman who threatened to harm the foster parents of her children has been arrested on a federal gun charge after buying a rifle, according to court records.

Jamie Ransom, 34, of Hill Street is a convicted felon and prohibited from possessing any firearm, the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said.

“According to local law enforcement, Ransom has also within the last month made threats to harm the foster parents of her children,” ATF Special Agent Ben Cohen wrote in a court affidavit.

She appeared in federal court Friday and was ordered to remain in custody. She was not required to enter a plea.

The Vermont Family Court in Washington County had awarded custody of Ransom’s two juvenile children to a Waterbury couple last year, court records show.

Ransom has denied a charge of simple assault on a Waterbury man serving as a foster parent in November 2014, records show. She is due to appear Wednesday in Vermont Superior Court in Barre for jury selection in that upcoming trial.

The Ransom gun case comes one month after a state social worker was killed with two rifle shots as she left the Barre office of the Department for Children and Families.

Jody Herring, 40, of South Barre has pleaded not guilty to a charge of first-degree murder in the Aug. 7 killing of Lara Sobel, 48, of East Montpelier. Herring has said she was upset DCF had taken away her 8-year-old daughter, court records state. Herring later was charged with aggravated murder in the fatal shooting of three relatives also on Aug. 7.

U.S. Magistrate Judge John M. Conroy, during a brief hearing Friday in federal court in Ransom’s case, noted the prosecution wants Ransom held without bail pending trial on the gun charge.

Ransom, who said she takes care of a retired lawyer, was assigned a federal public defender.

Conroy agreed to a request by Assistant U.S. Attorney Eugenia Cowles to continue the hearing until Tuesday to allow prosecutors more time to investigate Ransom’s past.

“The government believes that the defendant is an opiate user based on information about Suboxone use provided to the government by the defendant,” Cowles wrote in her request to detain Ransom.

Conroy said the pretrial services office also lacked sufficient time to profile Ransom, and there are some questions about possible drug and mental-health issues.

Cowles said she had information Ransom might be under certain supervision by the Vermont Family Court.

Ransom’s arrest follows a two-day investigation by ATF and the Barre City and Waterbury police departments, Waterbury Chief Joby Feccia said.

Washington County State’s Attorney Scott Williams said one of his deputy prosecutors had heard on Wednesday about a possible threat Ransom made. Williams said based on that information and on the environment following the shootings in Washington County, a decision was made to alert law enforcement.

Cohen said when investigators confronted Ransom about the firearm, she told them the gun was next door at an upstairs apartment. Ransom’s boyfriend, Tim Perry, accompanied the ATF into the apartment and directed agents to the gun.

The gun is a Rossi S.A. .243 caliber rifle, records show.

“Ransom claimed she had purchased the firearm for a child,” Cohen wrote in his court affidavit.

Court records fail to indicate where the rifle came from, and authorities declined to answer questions about the weapon’s source.

Ransom believed she could possess firearms because her felony conviction did not count after seven years, Cohen wrote. Ransom has a 2006 conviction in Washington County for passing a forged check, records show. She was sentenced to one year on probation.

Ransom, who was jailed at the Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility after her arrest, was returned to the South Burlington jail pending the hearing Tuesday.

Ransom also is due Oct. 15 in Vermont Superior Court in Barre on state charges including disorderly conduct and driving with a suspended license, Feccia said.

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Contact Mike Donoghue at 660-1845 or mdonoghue@freepressmedia.com. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/FreepsMikeD.