Brian Rooney faces a raft of sex allegations, but still is not charged in co-ed's slaying

By  Seamus McGraw

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October 24, 2006

BURLINGTON, VT —Brian Rooney, the thrice-accused sex offender who has been identified as the prime suspect in the slaying of University of Vermont co-ed Michelle Gardner-Quinn, will remain jailed without bail at least for the near future, as police continue to sort out his alleged role in Michelle's death.

Rooney has agreed not to challenge a court order that he be held without bail on charges of sexual assault and soliciting a felony charges unrelated to Michelle. A hearing on that order had been scheduled for today.

Rooney, a 36-year-old contractor who has admitted to police that he accompanied Michelle as she walked along Burlington's Main Street in the moments before her Oct. 7 disappearance, was linked to the slaying after authorities matched a spot of his blood found on his jeans with a semen sample taken from Michelle's body. Last week, a source erroneously told Crime Library that DNA tests had shown the blood sample to have been Michelle's.

Instead, authorities initially charged him with sexually assaulting a teenage girl years earlier and with lewd and lascivious conduct toward another, charges that surfaced while authorities were investigating Michelle's death. He was initially ordered held on $150,000 bail.  Last week, police added new and in some ways more chilling charges that he not only sexually assaulted a former girlfriend on several occasions in 2002 and 2004 but that that at one point he tried to find someone to kill her.

According to a report published Sunday in the Burlington Free Press, police have obtained affidavits from Rooney's ex-wife and former girlfriends in which they describe the man as emotionally and sexually abusive and say that on several occasions he used chemical agents starter fluid in one instance to incapacitate them before engaging in sex. On at least one occasion, he videotaped a sex act he performed on an incapacitated woman, according to the Free Press. He also had a history of threatening women, the newspaper reported.

On Friday, Rooney pleaded not guilty to the most recent charges of sexual assault and inciting a felony.

Rooney's attorney, David Sleigh of St. Johnsbury, has not directly addressed the allegations already filed against Rooney, but has said that prosecutors and investigators seem to be using the allegations to hold Rooney while they collect evidence against him for Michelle's slaying.

All the same, Sleigh has not apparently been particularly anxious to spring his client from jail while the investigation continues. On Friday, the court ordered Rooney held without bail on the new sexual assault and solicitation charges, and on Monday, Sleigh filed papers with Vermont District Court in Burlington agreeing that Rooney would not immediately challenge the no-bail order.

Next Page

Arrest Affidavit for Brian Rooney in the Murder of Michelle Gardner-Quinn

Information Release 10-25-06 PM

Gardner-Quinn's Blood Reportedly Found on Suspect's Pants

Police Seek Witnesses in Hunt for Michelle Gardner-Quinn

Mystery Man Seen Walking With Michelle Gardner-Quinn

Search for Michelle Gardner-Quinn Stretches from Virginia to Vermont

Michelle Gardner-Quinn, Vermont Co-Ed Disappeared

Contact Seamus McGraw at seamusm@ptd.net

Seamus McGraw

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