A federal judge in Vermont last week dismissed with prejudice a 2023 lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of John Chinnici, who previously accused Bennington police and town officials of violating his constitutional rights.
The parties to the lawsuit “successfully reached a mutually agreeable resolution of this matter to avoid further litigation,” according to a statement provided by the Vermont American Civil Liberties Union spokesperson Emily Hagan-Howe.
“The Parties make no admissions regarding liability or the strength or weakness of any claim in reaching this resolution,” the Vermont ACLU statement read. “The Parties look forward to moving past this lawsuit and will have no further comment.”
Court filings did not include the conditions of the mutually agreed upon resolution. The case stems from Chinnici’s arrest and prosecution after two masked men robbed a Bennington convenience store at gunpoint in 2016, according to the ACLU complaint.
The complaint claimed that Bennington police, including Chief Paul Doucette and detectives Lawrence Cole and Anthony Silvestro, targeted Chinnici despite him not matching witness descriptions of the armed robber.
The complaint describes police officials using “a variety of coercive and unlawful tactics” to charge him with the crime. Chinnici has maintained his innocence, and his federal conviction in 2017 for the robbery was subsequently dismissed, according to the complaint.
The civil case regarding the alleged violations of Chinnici’s constitutional right to be free of unlawful search and seizure was originally filed in January 2023 in Bennington Superior Court but was moved to federal Vermont district court in March of that year.
On July 30, 2025, lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union, town and police officials submitted a request for the case to be dismissed with prejudice, which means the parties cannot bring the suit back to court. The attorneys also asked for the parties involved to bear their own legal fees. The federal Magistrate Judge Kevin Doyle approved the stipulated motion, closing the case last week, as first reported by the Bennington Banner.
Doucette declined to comment. Neither Bennington Town Manager Stuart Hurd nor Michael Leddy, the attorney for the town and police officials, could immediately be reached for comment.
