Convicted Rapist Douglas Bryant has been released from jail.
A sex criminal police are calling "very violent, very aggressive, very dangerous" has been released from prison after serving 10 years for raping a Burlington woman in her apartment -- hours after the end of his jail term for attempting to kidnap another woman.
By Adam Silverman
Free Press Staff Writer
Thursday, April 01, 2004 
Douglas Bryant, 50, left the Southern State Correctional Facility in Springfield on March 18, and he is living in Burlington, said Walt Decker, deputy chief of the Burlington Police Department.
Bryant's release has prompted authorities to take the unusual step of warning the public about his presence in the community. People convicted of sex crimes in Vermont are required to register with the state, but names on the list rarely are available to the public. However, Decker said Bryant presents such a threat to the community that police are allowed to discuss his case.
Bryant has an extensive criminal record, which dates to 1970, when he was 17. His criminal history includes three charges or convictions for rape or attempted rape.
"This guy is an actual predator," Decker said. "He just chooses people at random and within hours is violently attacking them."
Bryant refused to participate in any treatment programs for sex offenders while in prison, Decker said.
Neither an address nor phone number for Bryant could be found Wednesday.
The state Department of Corrections warned Burlington police about Bryant three days before his release. According to a memo the department sent police, Bryant served the maximum amount of his 10-to-15-year sentence, and upon his release would no longer be under the department's supervision.
Notification
Upon his release, Bryant was required to register as a sex offender in Vermont, Decker said. If he changes addresses, he must update the list. The list in Vermont is not a public document.
Decker said two situations allow police to disclose registered sex offenders: when people need to know, such as neighbors who report someone has been acting strangely, and "if the police feel there's a general danger to the public." The second condition is applicable in Bryant's case, Decker said.
Bryant must remain on the sex-offender registry for 10 years, Decker said.
Corrections notified Bryant's victims of his release from prison, Decker said. Burlington police also have posted a color photograph of Bryant in their headquarters so officers know what he looks like, the deputy chief said.
Lengthy criminal history
Bryant has convictions in five Vermont counties, including an attempted rape in Rutland in 1974 and a sexual assault in Burlington in April 1994.
The more recent incident happened the day Bryant was released from jail on a 1990 conviction for attempted unlawful restraint. Decker and court records say Bryant struck up a conversation with a random woman, went with her to her Intervale Avenue apartment, and then raped her. Police rushed to the scene after a telephone operator heard a woman screaming over the line, according to a sworn statement written by Officer Roxanne Mesick of the Burlington police.
Bryant pleaded guilty to sexual assault and had been jailed since, according to court records.
Bryant was charged with an earlier sexual assault in Burlington, in March 1983. According to an affidavit, Bryant raped a woman in an alley outside the Cozy Nook Lounge on North Street. Two people who responded to the woman's screams pulled Bryant off her, according to the affidavit.
"Rape, huh, I must have been pretty drunk," Bryant told police at the scene, according to the affidavit.
The charge eventually was amended to simple assault, and Bryant received a sentence of 10 to 12 months, according to Burlington police records.
In December 1983, after being released, Bryant was convicted in Burlington of one charge of kidnapping, for pulling a knife on a woman outside a Burlington bar and demanding she drive him to Winooski. The woman leapt from the car near the Winooski police station and ran inside for help, according to an affidavit about that incident.
Bryant received a sentence of eight to 10 years, according to police records.
He was free by 1990, when, in November, he grabbed a woman as she walked on Grant Street in Burlington. The woman screamed, and Bryant let go, telling the woman, "I just wanted to be your friend," according to an affidavit. He pleaded guilty to attempted unlawful restraint and was sentenced to three to five years, according to court records.
Bryant's other convictions include simple assault, retail theft and probation violations.
"He is a very, very nasty, violent person," Decker said.
Homeless convict fails to meet sex registry rules
By Cadence Mertz
Free Press Staff Writer, Saturday, April 10, 2004
Convicted rapist Douglas Bryant pleaded not guilty Friday in Vermont District Court in Burlington to a misdemeanor charge of failing to comply with Vermont sex offender registry laws.
Bryant maintained that he attempted to notify authorities of his new location, but he is homeless and the best he could come up with was a Burlington beach. He told a court clerk that was where he would be sleeping. By law, he was supposed to directly notify the Sex Offender Registry Office.
Unable to comply with the registry requirements, Bryant was returned to jail Friday until he could find a place to live. He is being held on $2,500 bail.
"We do not think that living on a beach is a sufficient physical residence for the police to be able to check on him," prosecutor Babette Boyd said in court.
Bryant got out of jail in mid-March; he completed a 10-year sentence for raping a Burlington woman.
Burlington police took the unusual step of making public his release and his status as a sex offender, because he was considered "very violent, very aggressive, very dangerous." The warning made Bryant's arrival in Burlington a high-profile one.
He stayed in a Committee on Temporary Shelter bed for a while. He was kicked out for his behavior, Boyd said.
Bryant had been making inappropriate comments to female staff, Boyd said. Bryant shook his head in disagreement in court Friday when Boyd said that.
If a person poses a threat to other shelter residents or makes them feel unsafe, COTS will try to find that person another place to stay, executive director Rita Markley said. Markley declined to discuss Bryant's case specifically.
COTS found a men's shelter in Boston, Boyd said, but Bryant turned down the bus ticket for the trip.
COTS then paid for Bryant, who is unemployed and receives welfare, to spend a night at the North Star Motel in Shelburne, public defender Martin Maley said. Police checked on him there, according to court documents. He checked out the next day, April 2.
Bryant also made an appointment to see a psychotherapist next week, Maley said. Bryant refused sex offender treatment programs while in jail for the last decade.
Sex offenders are told before their release from jail what they must do to stay in compliance with state law, Vermont Sex Offender Registry Coordinator Sheri Englert said Friday in a telephone interview. They are given instructions on how to register and they must sign a form indicating they understand the rules, Englert said.
They must notify the registry, by calling or writing, of a new address within three days of a change. It must be a physical location, not just a post office box or a general area.
"It has to be a viable, verifiable address," she said.
Bryant has had trouble finding a place to live, as no one will take him in, Maley said. Bryant would be willing to check in with police once or twice a day and submit to alcohol screenings in exchange for staying out of jail, Maley said.
If he finds a place to live, the court will reconsider the bail amount, Judge Linda Levitt said.
Bryant faces up to two years in jail and a $1,000 fine if convicted of failing to comply with the registry laws.
Contact Cadence Mertz at 660-1847 or cmertz@bfp.burlingtonfreepress.com.
Sex offender admits registry violation, accepts probation
By Adam Silverman, Free Press Staff Writer, Wednesday, August 04, 2004
A convicted rapist, released from prison in March but returned in April on charges of failing to register with the state, admitted the violation in court Tuesday.
Douglas Bryant, 51, will be sentenced to time served and set free Aug. 23, but he will serve one to two years on probation, said his attorney, public defender Margaret Jansch, during a hearing in Vermont District Court in Burlington.
Bryant could have been freed Tuesday but asked to remain at the Southern State Correctional Facility in Springfield until Aug. 23 so he will be able to receive $300 from the state Corrections Department. The payment, called "gate money," provides indigent convicts with a small sum they can use to find temporary housing upon their release, said Keith Tallon, the prison's superintendent.
The amount -- the maximum prisoners are eligible to receive -- will be delivered to Bryant at the prison so he can use it immediately upon his release. He had not received the money by Tuesday.
Corrections freed Bryant in March after he completed a 10-year sentence for sexually assaulting a Burlington woman in 1994, a crime that happened only hours after his release for attempting to kidnap another woman four years earlier. Bryant refused any sex-offender treatment while in prison and was under no official supervision after his release, police have said.
Convicted sex offenders must provide the registry with a current address within three days of a move, and transient offenders must continually update their status.
Bryant, who Tuesday wore tinted glasses and a gray T-shirt with the words "My President is Charlton Heston," said "guilty" in a strong, clear voice when Judge Linda Levitt asked how he pleaded to a misdemeanor charge of failing to comply with Vermont's sex-offender registry.
The probation condition of his new sentence allows authorities to watch Bryant more closely. Conditions of his probation include the ability of his probation officer to restrict his associates and approve his residence.
"The state was looking for more supervision than just, comply with the sex-offender registry," Jansch said.
Bryant's March release and move to Burlington prompted police to take the unusual step of alerting the public about a man they called dangerous. Jansch wrote in earlier court filings that Bryant could find nowhere to live and ended up sleeping at North Beach. Police arrested Bryant in early April for the registry violation.
Rose Pulliam, statewide coordinator of the Vermont Network Against Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault, said Bryant's re-release is troubling because he remains untreated, but she praised the probation element of his sentence.
"Somebody needs to be looking out for the community in that way, but it's not the same as being incarcerated," she said. "There's no way to monitor him 24 hours a day, so women and children in the state are at risk."
Sarah Kenney, the network's public-policy coordinator, said she has no problem with Corrections' providing Bryant money because the cash helps smooth his re-entry to the community. Supporting offenders, though, must be done in tandem with supporting victims, Kenney said.
Bryant will be returned to court in Burlington for the Aug. 23 sentencing and released afterward.
"He just wants to be out of prison," Jansch said. "He's been in for a long time."
Contact Adam Silverman at 660-1854 or asilverm@bfp.burlingtonfreepress.com