Tag: Vermont

VT: Remorseless murderer killed former registrant and mom as a jail retirement plan

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Source: berkshireeagle.com 9/7/23 BRATTLEBORO, Vt. — A man accused of killing a 79-year-old Whitingham, Vt., woman and her 52-year-old son by shooting them in their home on Route 8A is being held without bail. Christopher D. Ellis, 54, pleaded not guilty through his attorney Wednesday to two counts of first-degree murder and an additional charge of operating a vehicle without the owner’s consent. He was arraigned in Windham Superior Court, Criminal Division. Judge John Treadwell ordered Ellis held without bail. Treadwell said the court would not schedule a weight of…

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VT: At what point redemption?

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Source: manchesterjournal.com 2/3/23 BENNINGTON — There’s a case making its way through the halls of the Bennington Superior Courthouse that touches on all the things that our criminal justice system is designed to accomplish. The case hinges on what happens to people convicted of crimes who serve their time and stay out of trouble. It begs certain questions: When has someone paid enough for a crime committed long ago? What if years pass and that 17-year-old kid becomes a husband and father of young children, a productive member of society,…

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CO, LA, VT: More states enact major “second chance” reforms

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[ccresourcecenter.org 6/11/18] In recent weeks, three more states — Colorado, Louisiana and Vermont — have enacted laws intended to make it easier for people with a criminal record to find and keep employment, or otherwise to regain rights and status. We are just now noting Wyoming’s amendment in March of more than a dozen occupational licensing laws, to impose new limits on how criminal record may be taken into consideration by licensing agencies. In the first five months of 2018 alone, a total of 21 states have enacted legislation to…

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VT: City won’t fight sex offender ruling

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The Board of Aldermen will not challenge a superior court’s decision that strikes down a city ordinance restricting where convicted sex offenders can live in Rutland. … Hoar’s ruling said Rutland had “not meaningfully articulated” the danger posed by sex offenders and said the city “declares plaintiffs nuisances for no discernible activity but drawing breath.” “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 said. “Plaintiffs have been convicted and punished;…

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VT: Judge strikes down Rutland’s limits on where sex offenders can live

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[vtdigger.org]   RUTLAND — A judge has shot down an ordinance in Rutland that limited where convicted sex offenders can live in the community. “The case hinges on the question whether the City of Rutland has the power to declare people nuisances,” Rutland Superior Court Judge Samuel Hoar wrote recently in the strongly worded 13-page ruling. “It does not.” The ordinance, which the city’s Board of Aldermen adopted in 2008, prohibited any offender convicted of a sex crime against a child from living in the city within 1,000 feet of…

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PA: This Vermont program might reduce sex offender recidivism. Could it work in Philly?

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Counting down his last days in prison, Greg thought about his daughter, and the grandson he’d never met. But his first days of freedom in Summer 2016 yielded more loss than gain. His fresh start was spoiled when Greg’s face appeared on the local television news. There were anticipatory town meetings, preceded by the police of his small Vermont town stepping up patrols, just for him. Within a couple months, Greg was asked to leave his stepfather’s house, before he ended up at a homeless shelter. Full Article

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VT: Sheriff Risks His Career by Hiring a Sex Offender 

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Skill saws screamed, drowning out Top 40 country music tunes while two men labored to transform a run-down garage in the village of Hyde Park. The lead carpenter on the job, Timothy Szad, showed off his work in what will become an evidence room for the Lamoille County Sheriff’s Department. Szad, 56, explained that the gun racks he’s building will hold firearms that have been seized by police. To make sure the slots are the right size, he made a wooden replica of a pistol. Full Article

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VT: State senator arrested and charged with sexual assault

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ST. ALBANS, Vt. – A Vermont state senator was behind bars Thursday night. WCAX has learned that ____ ____ is facing a slew of charges including sexual assault and human trafficking. Sen. ____ ____ , R-Franklin County, was at work inside the Statehouse Thursday afternoon. By Thursday night, he was being held at the Northwest Regional Correctional Center in St Albans. The Republican from Highgate was arrested and charged with sexual assault, prohibited acts and human trafficking. Full Article

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VT: Lawmakers ask – How good does sex registry need to be?

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MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) — Vermont lawmakers are grappling with how close to perfect the state’s sex offender registry needs to be before offenders’ addresses are posted online. Vermont in 2009 passed a law saying the registry had to have a clean audit from the state auditor of accounts before addresses could be posted. A 2010 audit found many errors; a follow-up audit last July found what Auditor of Accounts Doug Hoffer labeled “critical errors” in 11 percent of cases. Full Article

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VT: Lawmakers not ready to post Sex Offenders’ addresses online

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Lawmakers on Tuesday held off on deciding whether the state sex offender registry is good enough to allow offenders’ addresses to be posted online. State law says an audit of the error-ridden registry must be “favorable” before the state can post home addresses of sex offenders on the Internet sex offender registry. After a 2010 audit found major problems, State Auditor Doug Hoffer last week released a new audit report that found persistent problems, though there were fewer issues than in the previous audit. Hoffer’s office found 253 offender records…

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