Free Press Staff

A Vermont dance instructor has been arrested on suspicion of sexually assaulting two students, state police said.

Police re-opened a sexual assault investigation from 2012 into suspect Ernest Phillips, also known as “EKnock”, after a victim came forward and provided accounts of being assaulted while the victim was a dance student of Phillips in Washington County.

Phillips, 29, of South Burlington, was arrested at his workplace in Essex on Tuesday. Police did not say where Phillips currently works.

During the investigation a second person, who was a juvenile at the time of the suspected assaults, provided a similar account as the first victim. Both said they were students of Phillips' and that the assaults lasted about one year.

Phillips was placed under arrest and lodged at the Northwest Correctional Facility awaiting his arraignment.