BURLINGTON, Vt. -
Last month police say a Winooski, Vermont man broke through the Burlington International Airport fence.
No one was hurt, but it caused a scare, and about $10-thousand dollars in damages.
On Tuesday, nearly a month later, Brent Rutledge, 39, of Winooski, Vt., faced three charges from the incident, including unlawful mischief and trespass.
"The next case is state vs. Brent P Rutledge," said a Vermont superior judge.
But Rutledge failed to show up.
"Is Mr. Rutledge present?" said the judge.
"No, your honor," said a court officer.
Because Rutledge wasn't there, the judge issued a warrant for his arrest, which was later reduced to having police issue a citation for him to show up at another point.
In a way airport leaders say last month's incident was a blessing because after it they walked along the rest of the fence they found and discovered a number of problems.
Now they're making changes before the end of the year.
"We have quite a few gates so now we're going to as we move forward do away with those gates and put in more re-enforcement's," said Burlington International Airport Director Gene Richards.
As for the busted fence, it's been replaced and airport leaders say the gate is much stronger than the other one.
They also took a look at how police and airport workers handled the situation and decided to make no changes.
"I couldn't have been any happier, it was dealt with by the minute perfectly," said Richards.
Police say they haven't been able to locate Rutledge and issue a new court date.
Until that happens they won't tell us when he's due back in court.
