BENNINGTON — A Bennington County man facing life imprisonment on multiple counts of sexual assault, including two assaults that caused serious injury, was denied release from jail after a Bennington Judge found safety concerns ample to keep him locked up, the second such instance of denying release in two days with Bennington’s recently appointed new criminal Judge.

Willard Buell, 65, is currently charged with five counts related to two separate attacks in Pownal. Three of the charges, two aggravated sexual assaults with serious injury and two of sexual assault without consent, are punishable as life sentences. Buell is considered a habitual offender in Vermont with at least three prior felony convictions on his record. A fifth charge, obstruction of justice, carries an additional five ye

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