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
Friday, January 24, 2020
Mayor Miro Weinberger placed del Pozo on paid administrative leave at 10:15 a.m. on Monday, July 29. The night before, the chief told the mayor he’d created an anonymous Twitter account to harass department critic Charles Winkleman. He also acknowledged he’d misled a Seven Days reporter when she asked him about it.
The chief surrendered his gun, badge, and city-issued cellphone, and the mayor told him to stay off social media, Weinberger has said in interviews. Human resources director Deanna Paluba met with del Pozo on July 29 and directed him to not work while he was being investigated, she said.
But del Pozo still had access to email and continued to direct some department business for three days, up until August 1, when his paid leave turned into medical leave. He also continued tweeting during those days.
Tags: Burlington police , Brandon del Pozo , Miro Weinberger , administrative leave , Web Only , Image
Thursday, January 23, 2020
The Vermont Senate is poised to pursue an ambitious overhaul of the state's system for returning prisoners to the community.
Senate Judiciary Committee chair Dick Sears (D-Bennington) said Wednesday that he'll seek to enact a series of reforms recommended earlier that day by a national research group charged with studying incarceration in Vermont. The proposals include replacing the state's complicated furlough system with one that would automatically release many nonviolent offenders upon serving their minimum sentence.
Such an overhaul could cut the state's prison population by up to 135 people and save as much as $14 million over five years, according to the Council of State Governments' Justice Center, which issued the recommendations.
"They're gonna be tough to implement, but my committee is ready to get going," Sears said. "We'll try to implement as much as we can."
Tags: Council of State Governments , Justice Reinvestment , Dick Sears , Alice Emmons , Phil Scott , Web Only , Image
Wednesday, January 22, 2020
Attorneys for two men who are suing Burlington asked Judge William K. Sessions III last month to slap the city with monetary penalties and decide the case in their clients' favor in light of revelations that del Pozo used an anonymous Twitter persona to harass Charles Winkleman, a citizen critic.
As part of discovery in the civil cases filed by Mabior Jok and a group of brothers, who claimed injuries from their separate downtown arrests in 2018, their attorneys asked del Pozo to provide information about his social media accounts. In responses dated October 30 and November 6, the chief did not disclose the @WinkleWatchers Twitter account he'd used. And the city's attorneys did not disclose information about the internal investigation that had followed del Pozo's private admission last July to Mayor Miro Weinberger.
Tags: City of Burlington , Brandon del Pozo , excessive force , social media , Robb Spensley , Evan Chadwick , Jeremie Meli , Mabior Jok , Pietro Lynn , William K. Sessions , discovery dispute , WinkleWatchers , Web Only , Image
Wednesday, January 15, 2020
The Vermont Department of Motor Vehicles committed to policy changes and antidiscrimination training to settle legal claims that its employees aided immigration authorities' crackdown on undocumented activists.
Migrant Justice, an advocacy group for undocumented farmworkers that sued the DMV and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in November 2018, announced the settlement Wednesday at the Vermont Statehouse.
"This agreement will create a set of protections that will be strong enough to guarantee the safety and security for all," Migrant Justice spokesperson Enrique Balcazar said through an interpreter.
Tags: Migrant Justice , Vermont Department of Motor Vehicles , Immigration and Customs Enforcement , Enrique Balcazar , American Civil Liberties Union , driver privilege card , Web Only , Image
Monday, January 13, 2020
After a week of playing coy, Lt. Gov. David Zuckerman has officially confirmed that he will run for governor.
The Progressive/Democrat formally declared his candidacy for Vermont's top office during a Monday morning press conference at the Capitol Plaza Hotel.
“Through the years, I have listened to many Vermonters as they have shared their economic struggles, and I’ve observed well-intentioned leaders trying to find solutions,” Zuckerman said. “But these last three years, we have not seen the vision or action that Vermonters need.”
Tags: David Zuckerman , Phil Scott , governor , lieutenant governor , election , Web Only , Image
Wednesday, January 8, 2020
Mohamed Luhizo is the third black man to file suit against the department for separate incidents that happened in the fall of 2018. All three plaintiffs are represented by attorney Evan Chadwick.
Luhizo's civil complaint, filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court, alleges officers used excessive force while taking him into custody early on October 6, 2018. It further contends that the Burlington Police Department has engaged in a pattern of using unlawful force against people of color.
Anticipating "legal interest" in the case, Burlington police publicly released some body camera video from the incident on December 31, noting that the city's citizen police commission had previously reviewed the officers' actions and determined they were "within guidelines."
Deputy Chief Jon Murad said in an interview Wednesday that the videos evidenced "good police work" by officers who were responding to a crime in progress by men with known felony records for violent offenses.
Tags: Burlington Police Department , Mohamed Luhizo , Luhizo Luhizo , Evan Chadwick , Jon Murad , Jason Bellavance , Derek Hodges , Web Only , Image , Video
Senate President Pro Tempore Tim Ashe (D/P-Chittenden) said Wednesday that he intends to seek Vermont’s No. 2 office.
“My plan is to run for lieutenant governor,” he told Seven Days. “It’s the right time for me to take on a different challenge and take some of my skills and bring them to [a] statewide approach to these issues.”
The news comes as the incumbent lieutenant governor, Progressive/Democrat David Zuckerman, prepares to vacate the position to run for governor. Zuckerman has said publicly only that he will announce his own plans next week, but VTDigger.org reported Tuesday and Seven Days later confirmed that he expects to challenge Republican Gov. Phil Scott.
Ashe informed colleagues of his plans at a meeting of Senate committee chairs Wednesday morning. He told them he intends to continue leading the chamber until the close of the legislative session.
Ashe said his candidacy is contingent upon Zuckerman moving on from the job. “I would not be running if his decision was to stay put,” the pro tem said.
Tags: Tim Ashe , David Zuckerman , Phil Scott , Web Only , Image
Tuesday, January 7, 2020
“Let me be frank: I don’t believe what the president has said about the plan,” Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) said at a press conference Tuesday before boarding a plane to Washington, D.C., where Congress reconvenes this week. “I want to have public hearings to get to the bottom of this.”
Welch, a member of the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, echoed statements by its chair, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), who on Monday cast doubt on the unspecified intelligence cited by the Trump administration that Qassim Suleimani, leader of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' Quds Force, was plotting “imminent” attacks against the U.S.
Unlike Schiff, Welch has yet to review any intelligence used to justify the drone strike that killed Suleimani and six others at Baghdad International Airport on January 2. He said he plans to review the classified material this week.
Welch nonetheless characterized the strike as reckless and impulsive and said it has already led to insecurity abroad. Repeating a recent Schiff quote in the Washington Post almost verbatim, Welch said Trump “was table-hopping down in Mar-a-Lago when he made this decision.”
“Amateur hour is in charge at the White House,” he said.
In casting doubt Tuesday on the administration's assertion that Suleimani was planning an imminent attack, Welch referred to Iraqi and Iranian officials’ recent statements that Suleimani had traveled to Baghdad for diplomatic discussions.
Earlier Tuesday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo ridiculed that notion, rhetorically asking reporters in Washington if there was “any history that would indicate it was remotely possible that this kind gentleman, this diplomat of great order, Qassim Suleimani, had traveled to Baghdad for the idea of conducting a peace mission?" CNN reported.
Welch called Pompeo’s assertion that the strike made Americans safer “absurd.”
He pledged to “be a voice for deescalation” in Congress.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) plans to introduce a resolution under the War Powers Act this week to curtail the president’s military actions against Iran. Welch said he will support it, as well as related legislation introduced in both chambers last Friday by Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) that would bar the use of funds for military force against Iran without congressional authorization. Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) has signed on to the Senate legislation.
“After authorizing a disastrous, $738 billion military budget that placed no restrictions on this president from starting an unauthorized war with Iran, Congress now has an opportunity to change course,” Sanders and Khanna said in a joint statement.
“We must invest in the needs of the American people, not spend trillions more on endless wars,” they said.
Tags: senator , Qassim Suleimani , Peter Welch , Bernie Sanders , Patrick Leahy , Iran , Trump , Web Only , Image
Monday, January 6, 2020
The former manager of an Essex eldercare home for seniors with dementia will pay up to $120,000 to settle claims that it misled prospective residents.
WoodBine Senior Living, a small, Maryland-based management company, opened Spring Village at Essex in 2016 and operated the residential care home until 2018, when it was renamed Maple Ridge Memory Care. The newly built facility was supposed to offer state-of-the-art dementia care, but problems mounted as WoodBine pushed to fill beds. Seven Days and Vermont Public Radio detailed these issues last month as part of the news organizations' "Worse for Care" investigative series on the eldercare industry.
WoodBine promised prospective residents that they would be able to live there until they died, Attorney General T.J. Donovan said at a Monday press conference.
Tags: Woodbine Senior Living , DAIL , Maple Ridge Memory Care , Web Only , Image