By Mike Donoghue, Vermont Standard Correspondent
A wedding planned for an inn in Woodstock last week had to be relocated at the last minute when the innkeeper was arrested after he reportedly put a loaded handgun to the neck of the bride’s father, according to officials and court records.
Jeffrey J. McClain, 55, an innkeeper at the Jackson House Inn, was initially jailed for lack of $5,000 bail at the Southern State Correctional Facility in Springfield following the incident on Oct. 11, Woodstock Police said.
He pleaded not guilty the next day in Vermont Superior Court to a felony charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and a misdemeanor count of reckless endangerment.
The defendant’s wife, Robin McClain, 66, is due in Vermont Superior Court in White River Junction on Nov. 21 to face a misdemeanor count of simple assault, Woodstock Police Chief Joe Swanson said.
“We are fighting the charges and dispute the nature and tenor of the allegations,” defense lawyer Cabot R. Teachout of Norwich on behalf of Jeffrey McClain told the Vermont Standard.
Teachout said the wedding party had reportedly damaged the property owned by the inn and also their neighbors. There was a level of intoxication after the guests had returned to the inn from the rehearsal dinner, Teachout said. They drove into the inn and caused damage, he said.
When the guests became more uncooperative and refused to move their vehicles to proper parking spaces, the McClains, as property managers, told them they were no longer welcome and that the inn would not host the scheduled wedding, Teachout said.
Things went downhill from there and Mr. McClain had to defend the inn and his wife, who was physically assaulted, Teachout said.
A fight broke out between the McClains and the Revene family that was staying at the inn for the mid-week wedding. The Revenes were part of a wedding party that had rented 7 of the 14 rooms at the inn a few miles west of Woodstock Village, records show.
James Revene, 65, of Ashland, Mass. said he had the gun pressed into his neck by Jeff McClain, the inn operator, a claim confirmed by the victim’s son, William Revene, 29, of Berlin, Mass., according to a court affidavit filed by Swanson.
“James Revene stated that he first thought that Jeffrey McClain was grabbing for his neck, but then felt the cold of his barrel pressed against his neck. He grabbed for the gun and in doing so grabbed what he believed was the barrel of the firearm and cut himself on it as he pushed it away,” Swanson wrote in his court affidavit.
“I thought he was going to kill me, so the pain did not register,” Swanson said Revene reported.
Revene later during the police interview indicated he placed his pain in the range of 8 or 9 on a 1-to-10 scale with 10 being the highest, the chief said.
Jeff McClain told a slightly different story. He maintained that Revene went for the gun, Swanson said.
Jeff McClain interrupted a police interview with his wife to yell “he pulled the gun out of his holster,” Swanson wrote. The chief said he gathered McClain was claiming James Revene had grabbed the gun.
Wiliam Revene maintained there had not been an escalating dispute and no swear words, the affidavit said. Police said William Revene reported McClain simply pulled out his gun.
“He was going to kill us,” James Revene claimed in the chief’s affidavit. “There is no doubt in my mind he was going to kill all three of us,” he said.
The case began when Woodstock Police Officer Elizabeth Turco responded about 8:40 p.m. to a fight with a gun complaint at the inn at 43 Senior Lane outside the village limits. As Turco arrived, witnesses reported “he has a gun” and when she asked who, everybody pointed to McClain, court records show.
Turco said she ordered McClain to put the gun on the ground and raise his hands. McClain pulled the gun from his waistline belt and put it on the ground as Turco ordered him to take five steps away from it, court records show.
Swanson arrived as backup and told McClain to get on the ground. The chief seized the 9-mm handgun with the hammer cocked and a fully loaded magazine, police said.
Turco, during a subsequent pat down of the suspect, said she found three knives — including one with a long blade tucked into his belt. The other two were pocketknives, she said.
Swanson said James Revene declined needing medical treatment at the scene, but his wife, Amy, 57, said she might bring her husband to the hospital. The chief said he photographed the bloodied hand.
Woodstock Ambulance had been asked to stand by in the area if needed.
Robin McClain had blood on her sleeve, but no cuts that he could see, the chief said.
Swanson wrote that Robin McClain reported the fight had escalated from a dispute from earlier in the afternoon over where the Revenes had parked and they later left with others in the wedding party to go to dinner. The chief said McClain indicated that when the Revenes returned from dinner they were asked to move their vehicles and the argument broke out.
Robin McClain said the Revenes began to video her and her husband, the chief wrote. She admitted that she “attacked their phones,” the chief said.
When the family was asked to move a specific car out of the way, James Revene began using expletives, the affidavit said.
McClain said, “Of course we have a gun… We have a property to protect.”
She claimed earlier in the day the Revenes claimed they had firearms, but when Swanson asked at the scene they denied the claim, court records show.
During the skirmish Robin McClain had with William Revene, she struck him with a “closed fist,” which the victim scored as a 5 on a 1-to-10 scale with 10 being the highest, the chief said.
The investigation showed that she also pulled on his shirt and removed it. She also pulled on his pants, but he was wearing suspenders, the chief said. The son ended up on the ground and scraped his knees, Swanson wrote.
Lynn and Walt Manney, the co-owners of Maple Sugar and Vermont Spice on U.S. 4 in Mendon, agreed to open their business special to host the wedding reception for 21 people the following night, according to Lynn Manney.
The couple had gotten engaged at Jackson House, which was built in 1890 and was converted into an inn about 80 years ago, its website states.
It is owned by Blue Hill Properties based in Alexandria, Va.