Sunday, January 7, 2018
In a story published Sunday, VTDigger.org reported that the probe had progressed to the point that federal prosecutors had convened a grand jury — a step the news outlet suggested meant the feds were seeking indictments. Authorities have spent two years investigating whether, during O'Meara Sanders' tenure as president of Burlington College, the now-defunct institution overstated pledged donations to secure a bank loan.
Former Burlington College board member Robin Lloyd told VTDigger that she testified before a grand jury last October at the federal courthouse in Burlington. She said that Paul Van de Graaf, who heads the criminal division in the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Vermont, questioned her for an hour about the college's attempts to secure pledges to buy a $10 million campus.
In a statement issued to Seven Days following publication of the VTDigger story, Sanders family spokesman Jeff Weaver cast doubt on it.
Tags: Senator , Jane O'Meara Sanders , Bernie Sanders , Burlington College , Robin Lloyd , grand jury , Paul Van de Graff , Image , Web Only
Tuesday, December 19, 2017
As the Times-Argus first reported on Saturday, the Professional Responsibility Board, which oversees attorneys' conduct, has raised questions about a "community fund" that Williams oversaw. In at least a few instances, defendants who pleaded guilty to charges filed by Williams paid money intended for the fund, though Williams told the board that none of the money had been spent, and the fund itself has not been formally established.
That's according to a six-page letter dated August 16 that Williams wrote to Sarah Katz, disciplinary counsel for the Professional Responsibility Board. In the letter, posted online by the Times-Argus, Williams, who was elected in 2014, said that he discovered his predecessors ran a fund to support crime victims and other initiatives. They had dissolved the fund, and left behind proceeds, but little other information.
Tags: Scott Williams , Washington County State's Attorney , John Campbell , Brad Stetler , Professional Responsibility Board , Brattleboro Retreat , Image , Web Only
Monday, December 18, 2017
A regional center would combine the operations of up to eight municipalities — Burlington, Colchester, Essex, Milton, Shelburne, South Burlington, Williston and Winooski — depending on which ones vote in March to move forward. The existing system uses seven dispatch centers.
Burlington Fire Chief Steven Locke said the change could save between 60 and 70 seconds in response time on each 911 call. Depending on how many towns participate, the move could also save money, Locke told Seven Days.
Tags: Steven Locke , Brandon del Pozo , Max Tracy , regional dispatch , Image , Web Only
Wednesday, December 13, 2017
Judge Samuel Hoar Jr. sided with three anonymous sex offenders who sued the city after they were forced to move, or pay massive fines, for living within areas protected by the 2008 ordinance.
The judge ruled that the city did not have legal authority to create the ordinance, and called the policy needlessly punitive.
"What the city has done here is effectively to declare an entire class of persons to be a public nuisance, by simple virtue of their physical existence," Hoar wrote in a 13-page decision issued December 8. "Plaintiffs have been convicted and punished; the city cannot now say to them, anymore than they could to any other citizen, 'We don’t want your type in our town.' The boldness and breadth of this assertion is virtually without precedent."
Tags: Rutland , Barre , sex offenders , Samuel Hoar , Matt Valerio , Dave Allaire , Image , Web Only
Tuesday, December 12, 2017
The policy is meant to prevent cops from discriminating while interacting with the public, but civil liberties and immigration advocates say the new rules actually remove protections from a 2016 version.
Tags: immigration , Christopher Brickell , Jay Diaz , Will Lambek , Miguel Alcudia , Jennifer Morrison , Vermont Criminal Justice Training Council , Fair and Impartial Policing policy , Image , Web Only
Friday, December 8, 2017
During a traffic stop last summer, a Franklin County sheriff’s deputy quickly discovered the driver of a green Dodge truck couldn’t speak English. Through a translator, the deputy also learned that the man didn’t have a Vermont driver’s license. He radioed for backup from a “Romeo unit.”
Within 10 minutes, U.S. Border Patrol agents were standing next to the green truck.
Tags: Immigration , U.S. Border Patrol. Franklin County Sheriff , ACLU , Migrant Justice , Jay Diaz , Will Lambek , Image , Web Only , Video
Wednesday, November 15, 2017
Judge John Pacht said Jody Herring's August 2015 killing spree, triggered by the DCF's decision to take custody of her 9-year-old daughter, was the "hardest case" he'd seen in his 35-year legal career.
"I have a great deal of compassion for Jody Herring, but I also have an obligation to assure that this community is safe, that people can start to heal, and that the enormity of the crimes are reflected in the sentence," Pacht said before siding with prosecutors and handing Herring the maximum penalty for her crimes.
In a brief statement before she was sentenced, an emotional Herring apologized. She had each of her three children taken from her in custody proceedings — including a child that was conceived during a rape — and said she could empathize with the loss that her victims' families feel.
"I know how it feels. And I'm very sorry. I can't take back that day. I wish I could," said Herring, her voice severely shaking. "But I can't. I handle my stress so differently than anyone else does. I wish I could help myself. I asked for help several times, and I didn’t get it."
Tags: Jody Herring , Lara Sobel , David Sleigh , DCF , Barre , courts , crime , Matt Levine , Scott Williams , John Pacht , John Campbell , Image , Web Only
Tuesday, November 14, 2017
Williams was slated to take the witness stand on the second day of Jody Herring's sentencing hearing in Washington Superior Court. Herring's defense attorneys had subpoenaed him to testify.
But at the last minute, Williams filed a motion to quash the subpoena and avoid testifying.
Lawyers and Judge John Pacht retreated behind closed doors to discuss the motion. When they came back into the courtroom, Pacht, citing "reasons that implicate privacy and confidentiality concerns," temporarily granted Williams' request. The judge made additional reference to "Mr. Williams' circumstances at this point" and agreed to seal related documents.
Tags: Jody Herring , Lara Sobel , David Sleigh , DCF , Barre , courts , crime , Matt Levine , Scott Williams , John Pacht , John Campbell , Brad Stetler , Image , Web Only
Monday, November 13, 2017
On the opening day of Jody Herring's sentencing hearing in Washington Superior Court, several of her family members took the stand and described a family riven by physical, mental and sexual abuse for generations.
As a young girl, Herring was generally happy and especially close with her father, David Herring, witnesses said. He died in 1979 after he was shot in his backyard, and his death was ruled a suicide. But Jody Herring, who was 5 years old and home at the time, and other family members have long believed that he was murdered, witnesses said.
Tags: Jody Herring , Dave Sleigh , DCF , Barre , Lara Sobel , court , sentencing , Rutland Regional Medical Center , Image , Web Only
Friday, November 10, 2017
Two months before the murders, Jody Herring was deemed a "threat to herself and others," and a psychiatrist recommended that she spend 90 days undergoing involuntary psychiatric treatment. But she was released from the hospital after less than a week in what her attorney calls a "failure" of the mental health system.
On what would have been day 68 of a 90-day hospital stay, Herring gunned down DCF worker Lara Sobel in downtown Barre. Three of her own relatives — her aunt, Julie Falzarano, and cousins Regina Herring and Rhonda Herring — were later found shot to death in Berlin.
"If Rutland Regional Medical Center and the Vermont Attorney General's Office had done the right thing, Jody Herring would have been locked up involuntarily in a psychiatric facility, in Rutland, Vermont, on [the day of the killings]," her attorney, David Sleigh, wrote in a sentencing memorandum filed in Washington Superior Court. "These four tragic and unnecessary deaths are the result of one the biggest failures of the mental health system in the state of Vermont's history."
In July, Herring pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and three counts of second-degree murder. Facing life in prison, she is scheduled to be sentenced next week in Washington Superior Court. The hearing is set to commence Monday, and could last several days.
Tags: Jody Herring , DCF , Lara Sobel , David Sleigh , Phil Scott , mental health , Rutland Regional Medical Center , Aita Gurung , Miro Weinberger , Barre , Burlington , Central Vermont Medical Center , Image , Web Only