Middlebury – The man charged with attacking Marian Pollack and Marjorie Susman pled guilty in Addison County District Court last month. In mid-December, a man broke into the women's home in Monkton, threatened to kill Susman, and attempted to stab Pollock with a knife. The women fought off their attacker, who then left, bleeding profusely from a head wound (see OITM, February 2005).
      James Peck, 41, of Burlington, was arrested within an hour in a truck driven by an accomplice. The truck matched the description of one seen driving away from Orb Weaver Farm just after the attack. Peck, who had demanded "weed" from the women during the attack, pled guilty to burglary and carrying a dangerous weapon in the commission of a felony. Judge Christina Reiss sentenced accepted his abrupt change of plea at what was supposed to have been a "status hearing" and sentenced him to 10 to 25 years in prison; Peck began serving his sentence immediately. Charges of aggravated assault and kidnapping were dropped.
      "We are very, very happy to put this behind us," said Marjory Sussman. "We were glad that John Quinn who was the prosecutor took it as seriously as he did. I would have wished that we didn’t have to plea bargain it down to only two crimes... I felt that the aggravated assault was a very real charge and wished that he had been charged with that also, but we'll take what we get.
      "The whole thing seems like a very strange dream," she added, "and I'm glad that it didn't go to trial, and I'm glad that it's pretty much over." Sussman, who said she and her partner Marian Pollack were not in the courtroom for the sentencing, indicated they were glad the case did not have to go to trial.
      A month before Peck attacked the lesbian dairy farmers, someone vandalized more than 200 rounds of handmade cheese, nearly a year's production, by puncturing the rinds. That crime remains unsolved.
After both attacks community support poured in for the cheesemakers. Some supporters sent checks, which have been set aside for a reward fund in the unsolved crime.