Friday, July 29, 2016
The Burlington Police Department was hosting about 20 imams, ministers, rabbis and nuns. They sat around plastic tables making small talk. Some came in ankle-length gray robes and clerical collars; others wore floral skirts.
It was the third luncheon that Chief Brandon del Pozo has hosted for local clergy at the police department at 1 North Avenue — part of an effort to make inroads in the community at a time when mistrust toward police across the country is high.
Del Pozo and his visiting friend, Dean Esserman, who is the police chief in New Haven, Conn., did most of the sermonizing at first. They emphasized the importance of sharing ideas across departments; del Pozo noted that he cribbed the luncheon concept from Esserman.
Tags: Burlington police department , Brandon del Pozo , First Congregational Church , Tamir Rice , Cleophace Mukeba , Farhad Khan , Sally May , Image , Web Only
Thursday, July 28, 2016
The Vermont Judicial Conduct Board has initiated a disciplinary proceeding against a Windham County assistant judge accused of mismanaging the estate of an elderly woman who had Alzheimer's disease.
In a 13-page complaint, a conduct board attorney cites allegations made in a probate court case that Assistant Judge Paul Kane drained the estate of Catherine Tolaro, who died in 2014 at age 86.
Kane and his late wife, Marie, took Tolaro into their Westminster home in 2009. She was then 82 and showed signs of dementia, the complaint states. The couple gained power of attorney for Tolaro in 2010.
In subsequent Windsor County Probate Court filings, an attorney appointed to represent Tolaro's estate alleged that Kane used that to siphon away Tolaro's assets.
Tags: Paul Kane , Judicial Conduct Board , Windham County , assistant judges , side judges , Catherine Tolaro , Image , Web Only
Friday, July 22, 2016
The defendants, seven of whom were arrested Friday, allowed dealers to use their apartments along a stretch of Malletts Bay Avenue, just a few blocks from the downtown Winooski traffic circle, authorities said.
U.S. Attorney Eric Miller said that law enforcement is increasingly focused on arresting "local facilitators": Vermonters who provide housing, transportation, links to customers and other support to out-of-state drug dealers who set up shop in local communities.
Tags: cocaine , DEA , drugs , Eric Miller , heroin , Malletts Bay Avenue , Opioid Crisis , Winooski , Image , Web Only
Thursday, July 14, 2016
"A man with mental health issues riding around the city on a bike with an unconcealed rifle and ammunition makes people nervous, because it should," Burlington Police Chief Brandon del Pozo said.
For weeks, Burlington police say, they were forced to leave Malcolm Tanner, 52, alone, because he did not seem to be breaking any laws. Wednesday, with the help of federal authorities, he was finally arrested.
Police had repeatedly approached Tanner, who was living in a homeless encampment in woods in the Old North End but does not appear to have any significant local ties.
Tags: mental health , mental illness , Burlington police , firearms , Brandon del Pozo , homelessness , homeless encampments , Malcolm Tanner , Image , Web Only
Monday, July 11, 2016
A black Brooklyn man whose drug conviction was overturned by the Vermont Supreme Court has filed a federal lawsuit against Bennington police, saying the department engaged in racial discrimination by targeting him in a 2013 traffic stop.
Shamel Alexander, who was freed in February after serving nearly three years in prison, alleges in a U.S. District Court lawsuit that officers had no evidence to justify a drug investigation and targeted him because of his race.
Alexander traveled from Albany, N.Y., to Bennington in a taxi on the night of July 11, 2013, and asked to be dropped at a Chinese restaurant downtown.
While stopped at a red light, the cab driver asked another driver, who turned out to be off-duty Bennington police detective Peter Urbanowicz, for directions to the restaurant. Urbanowicz directed them to the Lucky Dragon, then alerted Bennington police officer Andrew Hunt, who happened to be nearby, that the cab "would probably be a good stop if [Hunt] could find him doing something wrong."
Tags: Bennington police , Shamel Alexander , Peter Urbanowicz , David Williams , Andrew Hunt , Nancy Corsones , racial profiling , lawsuit , Bennington , Image , Web Only
Friday, July 1, 2016
The ACLU says it has been inundated with complaints from Rainbow campers that police are running checkpoint-like stops, detaining people for minor infractions and subjecting them to drug searches without reasonable suspicion.
"We've also been told that people are pressured to consent to searches of their person, vehicle or belongings; that they are subjected to abusive and prolonged questioning by state, local and federal law enforcement; and that citations ... for petty federal offenses on public federal lands are being issued," the ACLU said in a statement.
Tags: ACLU , cannabis related , Peter Shumlin , Rainbow Family of Living Light , U.S. Forest Service , Image , Web Only
Advocates say it is a signal achievement in consumer rights. Vermont Right to Know GMOs and other groups are planning a celebration on the Statehouse lawn this afternoon.
But it’s not clear how much change the average consumer will immediately notice.
The Vermont Office of the Attorney General says that because many packaged foods have long shelf lives, regulators are essentially granting a six-month grace period. Until January 1, improperly labeled foods will be assumed to have been packaged and distributed before today, and manufacturers will not be held liable if the labels are not in compliance.However, the attorney general’s office warned that no manufacturer, retailer or producer will be granted an extension beyond that, and manufacturers can be fined $1,000 per violation.
(Just what the heck is a GMO? Vermont Public Radio posted a good explainer last week.)
Tags: Senator , GMO labeling , food , grocers , Bernie Sanders , Image , Web Only
Tuesday, June 28, 2016
In the wake of the June 12 Orlando nightclub shooting that killed 49 people, Vermont's eight mayors called for a measure that they say would increase safety while respecting the rights of gun owners. Some of the mayors first pushed for background checks after the 2012 murders of 20 children and six adults at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn.
"In the three years since [Newtown], we have seen a terrible series of massacres across the country, [but] we have seen no action from Congress and very little action by state leaders," Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger said during a press conference at the city's police station. "It would be better for the federal government to act, but in the absence of that, state and local leaders must act."
Tags: Miro Weinberger , John Hollar , Seth Leonard , Thom Lauzon , Phil Scott , Peter Shumlin , guns , firearms , suicide , police , mental illness , Image , Web Only
Monday, June 20, 2016
James Duff Lyall, of Tuscon, Ariz., will replace Allen Gilbert as executive director of the ACLU of Vermont on July 25. The state chapter is based in Montpelier.
Tags: James Lyall , Allen Gilbert , ACLU , police , immigration , Vermont ACLU , Arizona ACLU , Image , Web Only
Wednesday, June 1, 2016
The ruling was a significant setback for Attorney General Bill Sorrell, who two years ago accused ExxonMobil and 28 other companies of knowingly polluting state waters with the gasoline additive MTBE. A similar lawsuit filed a decade earlier in New Hampshire won that state a $236 million jury verdict from ExxonMobil and a $90 million settlement from two dozen other companies.
In the Vermont case, the oil companies argued that the state had known about the perils of MTBE since at least 2005, when the legislature banned the chemical, and therefore had exceeded a six-year statute of limitations. A trial court judge agreed and dismissed the blanket claim in January 2015. The state appealed, but in Friday’s decision the Supreme Court upheld the dismissal.
Sorrell’s suit drew significant scrutiny last year due to the unusual manner in which it came to be filed. By the attorney general’s own admission, representatives of the Texas law firm Baron & Budd handed him an envelope filled with $10,000 worth of checks directed to his reelection campaign at a December 2013 fundraiser. They subsequently asked him to sue the oil refiners over MTBE contamination and offered their services to the state.
Within months, Sorrell’s office assented. It hired Baron & Budd and three other firms as outside counsel, guaranteeing them 25 percent of any verdict or settlement — potentially tens of millions of dollars. Another of the outside firms, the Law Office of L. Michael Messina, brokered the deal between Sorrell and Baron & Budd, according to the New York Times, and also contributed to the attorney general’s reelection campaign.
Tags: Bill Sorrell , MTBE , ExxonMobil , Image , Web Only