Pittsford man sentenced to a year in prison for drug trafficking

BURLINGTON, Vt. (NEWS10) -- A Pittsford man has been sentenced to serve one year and one day for possessing drugs with the intent to distribute. Court records indicated that on May 24, 2020, Scott Chandler, 47, was stopped while driving his truck north from Massachusetts to Vermont on I-91.

Chandler's truck was seized after a K9 alerted law enforcement to the presence of drugs. While the truck was impounded and a state search warrant was pending, surveillance captured Chandler checking out the impound lot. Police suspected Chandler was attempting to access his truck and when they approached him, he fled on a motorcycle. A chase ensued at high speeds before Chandler crashed the motorcycle and was apprehended.

During a search of Chandler's truck, around 600 bags of fentanyl were seized, in addition to 13 grams of cocaine and approximately 1 gram of cocaine base. Chandler failed to successfully complete the Rutland Federal Drug Court, an alternative to incarceration for pre-trial defendants whose crimes were motivated by their addictions.

Chandler was dismissed from the Rutland Federal Drug Court following grand larceny charges in a case where he assisted another man in stealing an excavator from a job site in Wilmington in October 2021. That case remains pending in Vermont Superior Court.

Chandler participated in the Rutland Federal Drug Court from June 2021 until June 2022
but did not successfully complete the program. Chandler was dismissed from the Rutland
Federal Drug Court after his arrest for Grand Larceny in Bennington County, Vermont. The
Grand Larceny case remains pending in Vermont Superior Court