Bolton road project fight leads to manslaughter charge
April 1, 2023 | By Mike Donoghue | Correspondent 
Second layer of pavement being placed on U.S. Route 2 in Bolton in early November 2022. VTrans photo
BOLTON – A construction site flagger is facing a manslaughter charge after he was in a deadly altercation with a truck driver as they worked on a state of Vermont road project in Bolton last November, state police said.
The flagger, Whitney Grady, 42, of Middlebury, is due in Vermont Superior Court in Burlington for arraignment on Tuesday morning, according to state police.
The trucker, David Cheney, 72, of East Montpelier died a few hours after the Nov. 10, 2022 altercation at a construction site on U.S. 2 near the Notch Road in Bolton, police said.
Vermont State Police however did not mention that there was a death from the incident when the department issued a vague news release five days later looking for witnesses. The news release said there had been a "physical altercation between two individuals" at a location described as "the construction site." It said detectives were looking for information. No names, ages, hometowns, etc. of the individuals involved were provided in the original press release, nor did it indicate the nature of the disagreement.
An update on March 30 from Detective Trooper Mathew Nadeau provided more details, saying there was an ongoing dispute between the two men that day that escalated into a physical confrontation at about 1:15 p.m. in which Grady repeatedly punched and kicked Cheney.
After the assault, Cheney returned home to East Montpelier, but he subsequently suffered medical complications related to his injuries and went to the University of Vermont Medical Center in Burlington where he was pronounced dead at 7:18 p.m. that night, records and police noted.
The felony charge follows "a lengthy investigation" but state police said this week were unwilling to provide the public with additional information from the case, including the names of the companies that employed either man.
State police spokesman Adam Silverman said Friday afternoon that when the initial news release was issued on Nov. 15, the detectives working the case made a decision for investigative reasons not to disclose to the public that Cheney had died five days earlier.
Cheney died from "cardiac complications following blunt force trauma," according to Dr. Elaine R. Amoresano, an assistant chief medical examiner. She noted that Cheney had arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease and listed the time of the fight on the death certificate as 1:30 p.m. – 15 minutes later than state police reported.
Amoresano ruled the case a homicide and said Cheney had a cardiac event following assault, according to the certificate.
State police said Grady turned himself in at the Williston state police barracks on Thursday where he was issued a citation ordering him to appear in criminal court in Burlington on Tuesday, April 4.
Cheney and his wife, Joyce, had three children. He owned Cheney Trucking and had past memberships with the Williamstown Fire Department, the Moose Club and the Canadian Club, according to his obituary in the Times Argus.
Vermont Agency of Transportation Secretary Joe Flynn on Friday said he was notified the day after the fight that one of the combatants had died a few hours later.
The $20.4 million state highway project where the incident occurred involves reconstructing and repaving 8.2 miles of U.S. 2 between the Williston-Richmond town line eastward into Bolton. Kubricky Construction Corp. of Queensbury, New York, was selected as the main contractor for the project, which is using subcontractors. It is listed by VTrans to be completed in 2024.