Thursday, January 22, 2015
The case against a Burlington man charged with concealing violent crimes he allegedly committed during the Bosnian War was littered with false accusations and contradictory testimony, his attorney said in closing arguments today.
Jurors began deliberating the fate of Edin Sakoc at 2:15 p.m. after hearing from attorneys for the final time in the two-week trial. After nearly six hours of deliberations, jurors went home shortly before 8 p.m. without reaching a verdict. They were scheduled to return in the morning.
Sakoc, 55, faces several years in prison and possible deportation if convicted of lying to immigration officials about his conduct during the Balkans conflict.
Sakoc is accused of kidnapping and raping one woman and assisting a soldier who murdered two other women in 1992. He is a Muslim, and the women he is accused of targeting are ethnic Serbs. The two groups clashed violently during the early 1990s war.
Sakoc won refugee status in 2001, settled in Vermont, and eventually obtained citizenship.
During a nearly 90-minute closing statement, defense attorney Steven Barth said that Sakoc had not lied to immigration officers because nothing he did in Bosnia qualified as a crime that he was required to disclose. Barth told jurors that Sakoc never committed a rape, and was acting on orders when assisting a fellow soldier who murdered two women.
"In order to lie you have to know and believe that what you are saying is not true," Barth told a U.S. District Court jury in Burlington. "The government simply cannot prove its case because their narrative of what happened is based on testimony that is so full of inconsistencies, changing statements and outright fabrications made by [people] with ingrained prejudices."
But prosecutors said witnesses had supplied "overwhelming" evidence that Sakoc engaged in heinous crimes that he knowingly concealed.
Tags: law , immigration , Edin Sakoc , Burlington , Bosnia , refugee , Image , Web Only
The panel presentation and public forum that followed was about saving one beloved and highly valuable tract of open space in the Queen City: the lakeside land behind Burlington College. The school owns an expansive meadow and a small sandplain forest that abuts Lake Champlain.
Three months ago Mike Smith, the college’s interim president at the time, announced a plan to sell most of the school’s 33-acre campus to local developer, Eric Farrell, for roughly $7.5 million. If not for the sale, Smith said the struggling institution would likely shut down within a year.
The school said it would entertain an alternative offer and set a 60-day deadline — which passed last week — for any conservation group to buy the development rights (not the land itself) for $7 million. Spokeswoman Coralee Holm said the college received no bids. Also, the closing of the sale, originally scheduled for last week, has been delayed until early February, according the college.
The real estate transaction between Burlington College and Farrell is private, but Vermonters have been allowed to roam the lakeside property for decades, as if it were public. Roughly 200 people attended Wednesday's event, which was organized by a small group of residents who have been meeting weekly to discuss preserving the land. At one point, panelist Alicia Daniel, who also lectures at UVM, asked how many in the audience had spent time exploring the woods and meadows in question. Virtually everyone — from high school students to senior citizens — raised their hands.
Tags: Burlington College , Burlington , Lake Champlain , Image , Web Only
But he also used the occasion to build out his own email lists and lay the groundwork for a fundraising pitch, according to an email chain inadvertently sent to Seven Days. And in an exchange with campaign and Senate staff members planning the Citizens United anniversary, Sanders appeared focused on raising money from Washington, D.C., political action committees.
"YES. Let's do it," the senator wrote his advisers, referring to a Citizens United-focused fundraising pitch. "How are you doing on the DC PAC fundraiser? Thanks. B."
In the emails, campaign aide Nick Carter asked his boss to approve a collaboration between the Sanders campaign and Progressives United, a political action committee founded by former Wisconsin senator Russ Feingold. Together, Carter explained, the two entities would send an email on the anniversary of Citizens United asking supporters to sign a petition saying "Democracy's Not for Sale."
Doing so, Carter wrote, would help "to grow our lists and send a message to legislative leadership to stand strong for progressive values." Later, Carter suggested, the Sanders campaign would return to those who signed the petition to ask for campaign cash.
Tags: Senator , Bernie Sanders , Citizens United , fundraising , political action committees , presidential campaign , government reform , Image , Recommended Reading , Web Only
Twenty-one years after he cofounded the Bridge, editor and publisher Nat Frothingham says the twice-monthly's finances are so dire, he's seeking a $27,254 appropriation from Vermont's capital city.
Frothingham and his staff have spent the past two weeks gathering the 600-plus signatures necessary to place an article on the Town Meeting Day ballot this March asking for the money. He says the paper must gather just 55 more signatures before 5 p.m. Thursday to qualify.
But according to city officials, Montpelier can't legally appropriate money to the Bridge because it's a for-profit entity. They say that even if Frothingham gathers enough signatures, the city council can vote Thursday night against placing the article on the ballot.
"It's an unusual situation to be asked to provide a direct appropriation to a private business that's not a charity or a foundation," says city manager Bill Fraser, who consulted with city attorney Paul Giuliani and determined the request was "not appropriate."
Tags: Montpelier , The Bridge , Nat Frothingham , Image , Web Only
Wednesday, January 21, 2015
New England Newspapers, Inc., announced Tuesday that Tom D'Errico, who has served as executive editor of the Reformer since 2008, has been named to the new position of content marketing manager for the regional publishing group. The Banner's managing editor, Michelle Karas, will now lead both papers.
The changes come as NENI's corporate owner, Digital First Media, attempts to sell off its 76 daily and 160 weekly newspapers. According to industry analyst Ken Doctor, DFM is close to requesting final bids from several national chains and private equity firms interested in all, or just a handful, of its papers.
The masthead shift at the Reformer and the Banner will leave the papers with one fewer top editor, but Karas says she can handle running both.
"I'm hoping so," she says. "When I'm here at the Banner, I can still be in good contact with the people at the Reformer — and vice versa."
Tags: Brattleboro Reformer , Bennington Banner , Digital First Media , Image , Web Only
The decision came after U.S. District Court Judge William Sessions III persistently questioned whether prosecutors had supplied enough evidence to support their two charges, which were very similar, against Edin Sakoc, who obtained refugee status in 2001 and settled in Vermont. The judge said the charges seemed to be for the same alleged conduct and were repetitive. Authorities say Sakoc, a 55-year-old father, participated in two murders and raped a woman during the 1990s conflict, and hid those acts from immigration officials.
Jay Bauer, a prosecutor from the Justice Department's Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section, tried to fend off Sessions’ criticisms.
The first charge against Sakoc, Bauer said, was for checking “no” to questions on immigration forms that asked whether he had committed crimes or other acts of “moral turpitude,” in Bosnia. The second charge, Bauer said, was for proceeding with his quest for citizenship knowing his application was falsified.
Bauer previously characterized the differences between the charges as a “subtle, but simple,” distinction.
But Sessions called Bauer’s argument “extraordinarily confusing.” The judge said that bringing two similar charges to a jury might prompt an appeals court to overturn a verdict and grant Sakoc a new trial.
“You’re basically saying they’re identical crimes,” Sessions said. “In light of the facts in this case, it’s a significant concern that the defendant is being prejudiced by the multiplicity of charges.”
Tags: Edin Sakoc , Burlington , Bosnia , Image , Web Only
Tuesday, January 20, 2015
Seth Leonard, a first-term city councilor, announced his campaign in a press release Tuesday afternoon.
Last week, after Mayor Michael O'Brien announced he would not seek reelection, William Norful, a lawyer who served as the Onion City's mayor from 1991 to 1999, said he planned to run. Since losing the post to Clem Bissonnette in 1999, Norful has run Norful Law Office on Main Street. He could not immediately be reached for comment.
Leonard, who also could not immediately be reached for comment, has worked at the Vermont Housing Finance Agency since 2012. Prior to that, he was a branch manager at Opportunities Credit Union. According to his website, Leonard graduated from University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and owns a home with his fiancee on Weaver Street.
Tags: Winooski , William Norful , Seth Leonard , Image , Web Only
The bad news: That’s bigger than any raise you’ve likely seen in years. As a result, your and other Vermonters’ incomes continue to suffer, and so do the state’s revenues.
With that news in hand, Gov. Peter Shumlin and the legislative leaders who compose the state's Emergency Board signed off Tuesday on an $18 million reduction in anticipated revenues for the next fiscal year, which starts in July.
The move comes days after Shumlin unveiled his fiscal year 2016 budget. Shumlin said that means that with other anticipated changes, he and legislators will have to cut $14 million to $16 million more from the budget. He suggested, however, that he’s expecting the news to improve by the time lawmakers sign off on the budget in May.
“We’re going to manage to the money we have. It’s possible we’ll see some growth coming forward,” Shumlin said afterward. “It’s not an insurmountable challenge.”
Tags: Peter Shumlin , Vermont state revenues , Tom Kavet , Jeff Carr , oil prices , Vermont legislature , Image , Web Only
Mark Larson, who led the rocky rollout of the state's health insurance exchange, is leaving his job as commissioner of the Department of Vermont Health Access in March, Gov. Peter Shumlin's office announced Tuesday.
Both the governor and his outgoing commissioner said Larson made the choice himself to leave.
“Mark led the department through some challenging times, but no one cared more or tried harder to overcome those challenges so Vermonters could access affordable health care than Mark," the governor said in a written statement. "Thanks to the work of Mark and others, tens of thousands more Vermonters are now insured. I appreciate his service and understand his desire to take some time to step back and explore new opportunities."
Larson didn’t return a call seeking comment, but in a text message, he said it was “my choice to step down” and the “right time for me to move on.”
“I don’t currently have any specific plans to announce for what I plan to do next,” he said.
Tags: Peter Shumlin , health insurance exchange , Mark Larson , Lawrence Miller , Doug Racine , Image , Web Only
That has advocates in Vermont hoping the president's push will provide momentum for a long-stalled state initiative.
"I'm optimistic that this will help us get it over the finish line," says Lindsay DesLauriers, director of Main Street Alliance of Vermont.
Last year, DesLauriers — then a lobbyist for the nonprofit Voices for Vermont's Children — waged a high-profile campaign to mandate paid sick leave in Vermont. Legislation introduced last January would have required employers to provide up to 56 hours of accrued time off for those who are ill, taking care of a family member, or recovering from domestic or sexual violence.
But the bill died halfway through the legislative session, following serious pushback from Vermont's business community, when House Speaker Shap Smith (D-Morristown) said his caucus was not unified behind the issue — and Gov. Peter Shumlin said he'd prefer to raise the minimum wage.
Tags: Vermont paid sick leave , earned sick leave , Sarah Copeland Hanzas , Peter Shumlin , Shap Smith , Lindsay DesLauriers , Image , Web Only