Wednesday, March 18, 2020
Speaking by phone to the Senate Judiciary Committee, Baker said that the outbreak has worsened the Department of Corrections' preexisting workforce crisis. "By the middle of next week, our staffing will be stressed inside the facility," he said.
To make up for a projected shortage of corrections officers, the department plans to train and certify some of its 143 probation and parole officers to work inside the state's six prisons.
According to Baker, the department has managed to reduce Vermont's prison population from 1,671 to 1,628 over the past three weeks, but he cautioned against opening the gates too wide.
"I hear from a lot of folks about who should be let out of jail," he said. "But I gotta tell you, I'd be worried about the level of care that they'd get outside. The system would be stressed even more. It's not as simple as people [are] making it sound. And in some case, folks have nowhere to go."
Tags: coronavirus , Jim Baker , Phil Baruth , James Lyall , Sarah George , Matthew Valerio , John Campbell , Brian Grearson , Web Only , Image
Monday, March 16, 2020
The wheels of justice turned Monday at the Edward J. Costello Courthouse in Burlington, though each rotation seemed squeakier than the last.
“Why am I here?” one defendant in Judge Gregory Rainville’s second-floor courtroom wondered aloud, after learning that the state prosecutor and her public defender would be appearing for her hearing by telephone. “That’s a waste of time.”
Minutes later, a public defender walked in and vented to court officers after a judge required her client in a different case to attend an uncontested hearing, even as coronavirus shuttered schools and public gatherings statewide.
“He's going to come in and contaminate all of us,” she said of her client, before she rushed off to a different proceeding.
Tags: Vermont Superior Court , U.S. District of Vermont , Department of Corrections , Prisons , Inmates , Coronavirus , Matthew Valerio , Tom Dalton , Jim Baker , Web Only , Image
Wednesday, March 11, 2020
The findings are contained in a 63-page report submitted to lawmakers Wednesday by a commission created in 2017 to study law enforcement interactions with people in mental health crisis.
Members of the Vermont Mental Health Crisis Response Commission were split in their assessment of how officers handled the hours-long standoff with the 76-year-old Grenon in his Burlington apartment. But the report vividly recounts the months of communication breakdowns and inadequate health care that precipitated Grenon's fatal encounter with police.
"If there's one thing that's clear to me from this, it's that his death was preventable," said commission chair Wilda White, former executive director of Vermont Psychiatric Survivors. "This was so preventable."
Tags: Phil Grenon , Ralph Grenon , Howard Center , Burlington Police Department , Wilda White , Vermont Mental Health Crisis Response Commission , police shooting , mental health , Web Only , Image
Tuesday, March 10, 2020
The Attorney General's Office filed suit against the face-search company on Tuesday, alleging its practice of scooping up billions of online images to build a facial recognition app violates Vermont's consumer protection statute.
The civil suit is also the first legal test of a provision in the state's data broker law, which was the only one of its kind when passed in 2018.
Tags: Clearview AI , data broker law , Vermont , lawsuit , T.J. Donovan , Web Only , Image
Thursday, March 5, 2020
The wrongful death suit alleges she succumbed to a heart infection that went untreated during several days that she was held by police and in prison, despite her repeated pleas for medical help.
Linsenmeir, or "Maddie" to those who read the stories penned by her sister, Kate O'Neill, was a Burlington, Vt., native who had long suffered from opioid-use disorder. She was arrested on a probation violation warrant in Springfield, Mass., on September 29, 2018. During her booking interview, she repeatedly said she was sick and requested medical care.
"I have a really, really bad chest, like I don't know what happened to it. It feels like it's caving in," she said, as recorded on police surveillance video. "I can't breathe."
Tags: Madelyn Linsenmeir , Springfield , Hooked , opioids , Web Only , Image
Thursday, February 20, 2020
A Winooski police officer pleaded not guilty Thursday to charges that he strangled, assaulted and repeatedly threatened his girlfriend.
Christopher Matott, 31, faces seven charges, including two felonies for aggravated domestic assault and unlawful restraint. Other charges include three counts of domestic assault and two counts of criminal threatening.
Matott did not speak during his brief arraignment in Vermont Superior Court in North Hero. Attorney Robert Katims entered pleas on his behalf and told Judge Samuel Hoar that his client had entered counseling.
Tags: Christopher Matott , Winooski Police Department , Drug Enforcement Administration , domestic violence , Grand Isle County , extreme risk protection order , Robert Katims , Web Only , Image
Friday, February 14, 2020
On Monday, after twice going to the University of Vermont Medical Center for treatment and being discharged, the 62-year-old homeless man headed to Burlington City Hall. Inside, he lit newspapers on fire and broke historic windows with a hammer. He asked police who arrested him to take him to a hospital.
He wound up jailed on arson and felony criminal mischief charges. There, his behavior seemed to worsen, Chittenden County Sheriff's Department employees would later report. He smeared feces around his cell and, when sheriff's deputies attempted to take him to court, made animal-like sounds.
Those details were enough to convince prosecutors and his public defender, Sara Puls, that Phillips needed inpatient psychiatric care.
Tags: Department of Mental Health , committment , Sarah George , Sara Puls , Sarah Squirrell , Dennis Phillips , Web Only , Image
Monday, February 10, 2020
Burlington Police Deputy Chief Jan Wright has resigned her post following weeks of scrutiny of her inappropriate use of social media.
In a written statement Monday night, Mayor Miro Weinberger said that Wright “agreed to my request that her service to the City end at this time, for the benefit of the Department and of the City.” Her last day is February 21.
“Good local governance, including good policing, depends upon the hard and skillful work of our City team, including civility and respect for all members of our community,” the mayor’s statement says. “In this instance, a high-ranking leader in our City’s Police Department took multiple actions that damaged City relationships and eroded the public’s and my trust in her judgment beyond repair.”
Wright will remain on administrative duty until her last day and will get a severance package that's equivalent to 22 weeks' pay, according to her separation agreement.
Tags: Burlington police , social media , Abby Sykes , Lori Spicer , Jan Wright , Brandon del Pozo , Web Only , Image
Tuesday, January 28, 2020
Purdue Pharma, the infamous drugmaker behind OxyContin, is an unnamed co-conspirator in a criminal probe that was revealed Monday by federal prosecutors in Vermont, Seven Days has learned.
Christina Nolan, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Vermont, announced a $145 million settlement with electronic medical records company Practice Fusion over criminal charges that it conspired with an unnamed opioid manufacturer in 2016 to subtly push the addictive pills via doctors.
Nolan refused to identify the drug company, identified in court filings as "Pharma Co. X," because the company had not been indicted.
Seven Days verified that Pharma Co. X is Purdue by comparing documents referenced in the court filings with others that identify the program between Stamford, Conn.-based Purdue and Practice Fusion.
The U.S. Attorney's Office declined to comment. Purdue said in a statement that the company has previously noted it is cooperating with federal investigators and "is engaged in ongoing discussions with the DOJ regarding a potential resolution of these investigations and therefore the company has no comment at this time.”
The filing sheds new light on how Purdue found ways to increase OxyContin prescriptions even as company's opioid empire was beginning to collapse.
Tags: Purdue Pharma , Practice Fusion , U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Vermont , Christina Nolan , OxyContin , opioid epidemic , conspiracy , Web Only , Image
Monday, January 27, 2020
Burlington Police Deputy Chief Jan Wright received an eight-day unpaid suspension and must undergo a restorative justice process following an investigation into her inappropriate use of social media, the department said Monday.
Wright has been on paid administrative leave since December 16, when she admitted to anonymously using social media accounts under the pseudonym Lori Spicer. The investigation into her conduct found she also operated an anonymous Facebook account using the name Abby Sykes.
Wright has been reinstated from administrative leave and can now work on restricted duty, interim Chief Jennifer Morrison wrote in a letter dated Monday and released to the media. The deputy chief will lose five vacation days and must serve the other three days of unpaid suspension at Morrison's direction, the letter reads.
To return to full, active duty, Wright must use "restorative justice principles" to "rebuild the trust of those" she interacted with while using the anonymous social media accounts, Morrison wrote. Among those were at least three city councilors, including one Wright lied to directly in a Facebook message.
Tags: Burlington , Brandon del Pozo , Miro Weinberger , Jan Wright , deputy chief , internal investigation , Web Only , Image