Northwestern Medical Center resumed some operations Monday after suspending all surgical procedures last week due to the persistent presence of small particulates in sterilized surgical trays, the hospital’s leader said. The St. Albans City hospital continued Tuesday to increase the number and type of surgeries it performs.  

During the temporary pause, first reported by WCAX-TV, which began August 18, the hospital installed a temporary reverse osmosis water filtering device to remove the particulates, hospital CEO Peter Wright said. The custom-made permanent reverse osmosis machine planned as a long-term solution will cost the hospital about $500,000, he said. 

Though the hospital uses municipal water, its staff is not aware of any issues with the city’s supply that could have caused this. They also are unsure why the issue became more prevalent this summer. 

The water standards needed for decontaminating surgical tools are stricter than what is required for clean drinking water, Wright said. The hospital’s particulate issue does not mean there is any danger in drinking or using city water for other purposes. 

“I fill up my water bottle; I drink city water every day,” he said.

Operating room staff started noticing tiny particles in the sterilized, plastic-wrapped trays of surgical tools in the spring. When found, those tools had to be replaced or re-sterilized, sometimes requiring surgeons to delay operations. The problem persisted and surgical delays became more frequent, which brought the issue to Wright’s attention in June, he said.

At that point, the hospital began efforts to remediate the problem, changing water pipes and filters more frequently, and reviewing HVAC systems and workstations, among other preventative checks, hospital spokesperson Kate Laddison said. Medical device company Steris has also worked with the hospital to remediate the issue, she added. 

Still, by late July, contamination in the trays became an even more frequent obstacle. 

“It got to the point where the team said, ‘Hey, we don’t know that we can reliably do surgery with the right equipment.’ The moment we thought it was a safety issue, we said, ‘stop,’” Wright said. 

Hospital leadership decided Friday, Aug. 15, to suspend surgeries the following Monday. 

The additional step of filtering water used to clean surgical equipment through the temporary reverse osmosis machine appears to be addressing the problem, according to Wright. Last week, early testing showed the trays and kits cleaned with water that passes through the reverse osmosis machine were free of particulates, he said. 

The hospital moved forward Monday with an incremental restart of surgeries and held four operations, all of which had trays free of particulates, Wright confirmed. They scaled up the number and type of surgeries Tuesday without any contamination. 

Still, Northwestern Medical Center’s administration plans to continue evaluating its decontamination and sterilization process to isolate other potential sources of contamination, according to Wright. The surgical tools and trays generally undergo a multi-part cleaning process. The tools are inspected and hand washed before going into a large dishwasher-like decontaminator. Then they are assembled into trays, wrapped in plastic, and sent through sterilization. The review will include examining the quality of the wrap the trays are covered with and interrogating how the sterilization room itself is cleaned, he said. 

“We do not think that [the water] is the only problem. We just think it’s the biggest bulk of the problem,” he said.

Some staff have expressed frustration with the ongoing nature of the problem.

Wright confirmed the administration received a letter from staff that expressed concerns about how long the contamination issues were allowed to go on and called for the removal of the person overseeing surgical processes. He declined to address the specific complaint, however.

“It would be inappropriate for me to comment about anything regarding any single member of our team,” he said of the letter, “but of course we will address it, absolutely.”

Christine Juaire, an operating room nurse and a member of the bargaining team for the newly-formed nurse’s union said in an emailed statement that “nurses don’t really know what is going on right now.” She did not address the letter or whether she signed it.

“Unfortunately, that is a trend with our current administration,” Juaire said in the statement. “There is often little transparency and little interest in involving staff who have years of experience in the processes and decisions.”

Read the story on VTDigger here: Surgeries resume at Northwestern Medical Center after contamination forced pause .

ST. ALBANS TOWN — Earlier this month, Janet Cote brought a pastor to her half-rebuilt store in St. Albans Town, where work halted in 2017. Inside the building’s bare bones, they prayed that after being closed for more than a dozen years, she could bring the store back to what it was. 

A freak accident involving a neighbor’s tractor initially caused the store to close for repairs in 2012. But soil contamination from underground oil tanks, which were found after the accident, started an extended limbo and legal battle over who should foot the whopping bill for remediation: Cote or the state. 

In late July, the Vermont Supreme Court ruled on the lawsuit against the state Agency of Natural Resources. Cote, who is 83, still hopes that after six years in the court system, winning the suit would put her on a path to reopening the store. 

“My mission and my purpose is to restore the business,” Cote said. 

There were gas pumps in front of Maquam Shore Market when Cote took over the one-acre property from her parents in 1982. She leased out the store, an apartment upstairs, a trailer hookup outside and two white houses closer to the lake. The store itself hosted a creemee window and a deli inside on the left as you walked in. Back then, the spot was mostly surrounded by cornfields. 

“It’s the only store within five miles in every direction, almost,” Cote said. 

In 2000, Cote decided to get rid of the gas pumps. 

So she paid to dig up her pumps along with three underground oil and gas tanks, she said. After digging up the tanks, the state paid a contractor to monitor the soil. The department, which is part of the agency, pays for projects like Cote’s through fees on gas and oil sales and regulations designed to follow federal regulations to protect the environment and public health.

The contractor “told me that the levels of hazardous whatever were below what (was) needed to continue,” Cote said. 

In hindsight, that’s when the trouble began. But she didn’t know it until 2012, when her neighbor accidentally rammed into the building while driving a large tractor along Maquam Shore Road. The crash caused so much damage, it forced her to close the store. 

In the process of getting a permit to rebuild, she learned her soil was in fact contaminated, she said.

To clean up the spill, she had to dig up a large section of her property — meaning her repairs went far beyond recovering from the crash. She would have to dig up the store’s foundation, wastewater system and electrical wiring and then rebuild the structure completely. In the process, contractors who Cote found through the department discovered, and dug out, more gas tanks from more than a decade before. 

The price tag on the additional work is more than she can cover herself, she said – and she thinks the department should pay for it all. In her eyes, the store is closed because she had to remediate the soil, so the state should pay the full price for restoring the infrastructure the store depends on.

But it hasn’t been decided whether the state will pick up the tab. 

After years of back and forth, the agency agreed to pay for only some parts of restoring the property. So she took the agency to court back in 2019. 

On July 25, the Vermont Supreme Court ruled unanimously to send the case back to the environmental division, asking for additional factual findings from that court about why the department would cover some costs and not others. 

“We understand the Supreme Court’s decision to remand the case back to the Environmental Court for more specific findings, and we will continue to represent the Agency of Natural Resources in this matter. We are confident that the Agency correctly determined the covered costs,” said the Vermont Attorney General’s office, which is representing the agency, in an emailed statement. 

For now, Cote is celebrating what she sees as a win, though she still awaits the day the legal battle can be over. 

As a retired person, she spends a huge portion of her time and energy on the lawsuit, she said. 

Her iPad holds about 5,000 pictures of the store’s site over the years and the vanity plate on her car reads “MAQUAM.” 

Back to environmental court

Emails from state officials obtained by Cote through a public records request and reviewed by VTDigger show that, throughout the years, department officials knew her soil was contaminated. However, she said, they never alerted her. 

In one email from March 2013, Matt Moran, who still manages the petroleum cleanup fund for the department, wrote that Cote was “uncooperative about doing the necessary follow-up work.” He later wrote, “the owner is older and likely will be needing to sell or transfer the property soon.” 

Cote called the emails derogatory and denies that she was ever uncooperative. She thinks the state is drawing things out because of her age, she said. 

Through a spokesperson, the Agency of Natural Resources denied Cote’s allegations of age discrimination by its staff. 

“Thus far, these claims have been determined to be without merit,” said agency spokesperson Stephanie Brackin. “Should Ms. Cote present any credible new evidence of misconduct by a state employee, we will review the information.”

The work has been expensive. By 2018, the state had spent more than $485,000 on her property from the state’s petroleum cleanup fund, according to court documents. After going back and forth, department officials asked Cote to send over a list of the remaining repairs. 

In 2019, they declined to cover many of those requested repairs, including on the wastewater system, work on the electrical system, concrete work and the price of hiring a general contractor. So Cote sued, arguing her costs should be covered in full. 

The case was tossed around and then put on pause for years during the pandemic. 

Then, in 2024, Environmental Court Judge Thomas Durkin reversed some of the agency’s decisions in favor of Cote. Durkin ruled that the state had to pay for concrete, wastewater and electrical work. But he allowed the agency to reject a range of other costs, some significant and others less so, from hiring a general contractor to repairing a flagpole. 

Those costs added up to at least tens of thousands of dollars that Cote did not have, she said, so she appealed the court decision.

This summer, she said she got what she was hoping for. 

All five justices reversed the part of the lower court ruling that accepted the department’s argument that the petroleum cleanup fund was not responsible for the additional costs, and passed the case back. 

In the ruling, justices reasoned that the lower court ruling did not include findings about the agency’s justification for why they would cover some costs and not others. Justices also found the lower court failed to thoroughly define what was considered a reasonable expense or how they interpreted the law. 

The language used in the lower court’s decision “forces us to speculate about whether and how each item is ineligible according to the agency,” justices wrote in the decision.

Now, the case must be passed back down to the environmental court where judges will revisit it and will issue new or additional findings, bearing in mind the legal interpretation offered by the Vermont Supreme Court. 

While Cote said she is grateful for the ruling, she’s dismayed by how long the whole process has taken. “I am not grateful that I have to keep litigating because of things that were not correct,” Cote said. 

On an August afternoon, only the skeleton of the prospective store stood in the old one’s footprint. Its red siding covered half the building. Cote stood out front and looked up at the building’s side as it cast a shadow over her.  

Corrections: An earlier version of this story misstated who paid for the removal of the gas pumps and mischaracterized what Cote wanted the state to pay for in one instance. A photo caption also mischaracterized Cote’s ownership of the store.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Vermont Supreme Court decision adds to saga over closed St. Albans store .

On Wednesday, Attorney General Charity Clark announced a $210,500 settlement with St. Albans Creamery over alleged violations of the pretreatment permit at its milk and dairy processing facility in St. Albans.

The Creamery has a pretreatment discharge permit with the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources that authorizes it to discharge wastewater that it pre-treats at the dairy into the St. Albans wastewater treatment facility.

But the Agency found that the Creamery violated the permit multiple times from 2021 to 2024. The alleged violations include release of a substantial amount of raw milk and cream into the town’s wastewater facility, which interfered with normal operations and led to contamination of Stevens Brook, which empties into Lake Champlain. Other violations relate to excess flow limits, phosphorous limits and biological oxygen demand, pH levels, and inadequate staffing of the facility.

“We all treasure our environment and natural resources in Vermont. Environmental permits are designed to protect our natural resources,” Attorney General Clark said in a press release. “I am very pleased that St. Albans Creamery has made a commitment to take the necessary actions to prevent further harmful discharges of raw milk wastes.”

Clark filed the proposed settlement in Franklin Superior Court on July 28.

The Creamery committed to pay the state a civil penalty of $210,500 and implement corrective actions. Within 60 days after the order is officially entered by the court, the Creamery will be required to submit a compliance plan to the Department of Environmental Conservation, including a staffing plan to employ sufficient licensed operators.

Dairy Farmers of America, the St. Albans Creamery’s parent company, wrote in a statement that they made significant investments to upgrade the facility’s wastewater treatment system. “The upgraded system is better equipped to effectively manage and treat wastewater in compliance with the facility’s Pretreatment Discharge Permit,” the statement reads.

Dairy Farmers of America declined to comment further on Thursday.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Vermont Attorney General settles with St. Albans Creamery over wastewater violations.

ST. ALBANS — Protesters showed up en masse Monday morning, their cars crammed bumper to bumper on both sides of Gricebook Road and overflowing onto Fairfax Road, lining the way to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office. 

Demonstrators showed up to keep a watchful eye on two immigration check-in meetings: one for Wuendy Bernardo, a dairy farmer who cares for seven children, and one for Steven Tendo, a nursing assistant and pastor. About 200 turned out in front of the building, according to Will Lambek, an organizer for Migrant Justice.

While Bernardo and Tendo sat down for mandatory meetings with ICE inside the brick building, those rallied outside shouted “Wuendy, no estas sola. Steven, you are not alone,” in hopes that they wouldn’t be detained during routine immigration meetings.

Activists have seen people detained or swiftly deported under the guise of mandatory check-in meetings at ICE offices. 

Amid chants from the crowd, Bernardo and Tendo walked through the building’s glass doors and stepped into the sunlight. 

Two men in the crowd, one in a Migrant Justice T-shirt, hugged in celebration. 

“And as you can see, we’re free,” Bernardo said, which Lambek translated to the crowd. The crowd cheered and hollered, some banged on drums while others waved American or Palestinian flags. 

“Under current policies, many people are being told that they have to go to the ICE office, where they’re susceptible to detention,” Lambek said in a statement to VTDigger. He considers their rallies to be an “important shield” for those at risk of detention, he said. 

Michelle Carter, who drove from her house in Cornwall to the rally, grasped a sign that read “Masks off cowards.” 

“I’m elated,” Carter said, referring to Bernardo and Tendo’s release. “I wish it was done.” 

Bernardo and Tendo still have pending deportation cases, and Lambek reminded the crowd as much upon their release. 

Carter said she considers it her responsibility to show up — but she’s skeptical that ICE is making decisions based on public pressure. 

“Unfortunately, I’m not sure it has anything to do with us,” she said. 

As crowds dispersed, Tendo stayed on the sidewalk in front of the building. Wearing a black suit, he stood before a panel of reporters, looked into the eye of a news camera and  thanked the crowd for their support.

“I love you guys. It’s incredible,” he said. 

Tendo said he’s relieved. Back in his home country of Uganda, he was the victim of brutal torture — if he was deported back, that torture would continue, he said. In Vermont, he’s found a new home working at the University of Vermont Medical Center and as a pastor. 

Activists rallied for Bernardo back on June 20 when she had a similar check-in with ICE. That day she was also released, on the condition she would return a month later. 

After Tendo and Bernardo left the ICE office Monday, people in the crowd fanned back to their cars. The parade of vehicles headed back on to Fairfax Road. In the much-emptier parking lot, three officers stood with their backs to the building, facing the empty parking lot. 

Corrections: An earlier version of this story misattributed one of Wuendy Bernardo’s quotes and inaccurately described Bernardo and Steven Tendo’s pending immigration cases.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Community celebrates as two immigrants return home after ICE check-ins.

Milky skies were carrying smoke and haze from Canadian wildfires across northern and central Vermont on Tuesday — prompting state officials to issue a one-day air quality alert across the state. 

Smoke and haze rolled in early Tuesday morning and are expected to linger through the afternoon and night, according to Tyler Danzig, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Burlington. 

Officials warned that sensitive groups should take breaks and monitor their conditions when spending time outdoors. 

Individuals with heart or lung issues, older adults, children, people who work outside and those experiencing homelessness are especially at risk, according to state health officials. Sensitive groups can spend time outside but should take more breaks than usual, according to officials. 

People with asthma are recommended to keep medication handy. Those with heart disease should watch out for palpitations, fatigue and shortness of breath. 

Sensitive groups could continue to feel the effects of exposure up to 24 hours after the haze has passed, according to Danzig. 

The alert spans across Grand Isle, Franklin, Orleans, Essex, Chittenden, Lamoille, Caledonia, Washington, Addison and Orange counties. 

Officials recommend Vermonters sign up for air quality alerts, limit their exposure and keep an eye on forecasts. 

The smoke and haze are coming from wildfires in the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba, Danzig said. Many of those fires have been ablaze for weeks and caused similar conditions in Vermont earlier this summer.

Skies may tinge orange this evening, but the air should clear overnight, Danzig said. The alert stands all day Tuesday and will not likely be extended for another day, according to Bennet Leon, who monitors air quality for the state Department of Environmental Conservation.

Correction: An earlier version of this story mischaracterized the length of the alert.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Officials issue air quality warning for northern and central Vermont .

In the months following her mother’s violent death, Pam Martin Harris has found herself questioning God. 

She told lawmakers as much in winter, asking them to make a change. She walked them through the story of her mother’s homicide — and the violent abuse of her corpse that followed. Police found evidence that the 82-year-old’s body had been sexually assaulted and set on fire after her death. 

“In my faith, I have concluded that this was the act of the devil,” Martin Harris said. 

She urged representatives in the House Committee on Judiciary to support a bill that would make it a felony charge to abuse a dead body, a penalty that has never existed in Vermont. Lawmakers in committee started working on the bill, and after the measure made its way through both chambers with near unanimous support, Gov. Phil Scott signed it into law May 22. 

Before this year, Vermont law only covered grave robbing and unauthorized burials. It never criminalized the mutilation, incineration or assault of a corpse.

The state should not have waited until 2025 “to cover something of that magnitude,” said Rep. Penny Demar, R-Enosburgh, one of the bill’s lead sponsors. Martin Harris’s testimony made it clear the law was needed, he said. 

Roberta Martin was first reported missing by neighbors who went to check on her at her Enosburgh house one morning in July 2024. Police deemed her disappearance suspicious and were unable to locate her remains until days later. Then, Martin Harris learned her mother’s foot had been found — and her body burnt beyond recognition, she told lawmakers. 

“I felt completely broken. The horror that she must have felt was haunting,” Martin Harris said. 

When a loved one goes missing and their family is left in limbo for days or months, holding out hope, “the additional trauma on top of the loss is really unconscionable,” said Jennifer Poehlmann, executive director of the Vermont Center for Crime Victim Services.

Poehlmann, who supports Martin’s family, declined to comment on their case. Martin’s family declined an interview. 

When a loved one’s body is mutilated, assaulted or incinerated, the family is not able to have the peaceful goodbye they envisioned, Poehlmann said. 

“The closure you never get is unnerving,” Martin Harris told lawmakers. “It’s a void and an ache that’s constant.”

In the days, weeks and months that followed her mother’s death, neighbors were haunted too, said Demar, who represents the town in the Legislature. 

“They were sleeping with the lights on,” he said. 

Demar used to teach a hunter safety course. After Martin’s death, his phone kept ringing, with people in town asking him about gun ownership, he said. 

The new law validates the experiences of survivors by offering a stiffer punishment for the brutality inflicted after the victim’s death, Poehlmann said.

Under the law, set to take effect July 1, dismembering, burning or otherwise abusing a corpse carries up to 5 years in prison, up to a $5,000 fine or both. If the abuse is sexual or for the purpose of concealing a crime, the felony is enhanced to at least 15 years in prison, up to a $10,000 fine or both. 

Burial of a corpse without a proper permit is no longer a crime, but rather a civil penalty up to a $1,000 fine. 

The law also gives prosecutors an added legal tool, Poehlmann said. If a corpse is mutilated, police may lack sufficient evidence to charge the alleged assailant with murder, she said. Or, in a case where one person committed a murder and another person mutilated the body, this law would allow both people to be charged. 

Poehlmann said she is alarmed that there are a number of cases, either recently resolved or still in court, in which someone accused of murder also mutilated the victim’s corpse. Because those cases predate the new law, those people will not face additional charges for any abuses after the victim’s death. 

If anything, Demar worries the law might not go far enough. 

“It’s a savage crime,” he said. “I think these people should be put away for a long, long time.”

Read the story on VTDigger here: An Enosburgh woman’s death led the state to criminalize the assault of a dead body.

Hundreds of people gathered outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in St. Albans on Friday, waiting to hear if Wuendy Bernardo, a migrant farm worker who has lived on a dairy in Orleans County for over a decade, would return home to her family or face deportation proceedings.

They cheered as she emerged from the office around 10:30 a.m. to return home to her family with orders to report back on July 21. Migrant Justice, a Burlington-based migrant advocacy organization, estimated that roughly 200 community members turned out to support Bernardo. 

“It’s really difficult because every time I come here I don’t know if I’ll be going back to my family or not,” Bernado said, tearing up while Will Lambek, a Migrant Justice spokesperson, translated. 

Susanna, 79, a retired textile designer from Albany, paced around the parking lot in her raincoat ahead of Bernardo’s arrival. She met Bernardo more than six years ago when she began taking her to prenatal appointments at Bridges to Health, a migrant health care program through the University of Vermont. 

“I’m really nervous about this,” she said. 

She described Bernardo as a charming friend and an excellent mother who loves gardening and her family. (Susanna asked for her last name to be withheld because of her work with migrants). 

Bernardo is a mother of five children, ages five to 18, and guardian to two orphaned half-sisters, according to Lambek. All her children are still in school, and none have immediate concerns about their immigration statuses, he said.

“We’re in a moment of intensifying attacks against immigrant communities around the country and here in Vermont,” Lambek said. “These are premeditated political actions to tear families apart and violate people’s rights.”

Bernardo and her community have been under increasing stress since she was first detained in Vermont in 2019, according to Susanna.

“For a while it was just, ‘be careful and observe the speed limits, and don’t do anything outrageous,’” said Susanna, who also came out to support Bernardo’s prior ICE appointment in April. “And now, of course, it’s no holds barred.” 

Bernardo pulled into the parking lot at 10:00 a.m., accompanied by her daughters. Supporters cheered and called “I love you Wuendy,” as she joined her attorney inside the ICE office. While inside, dozens of cars lined up and down Gricebrook Road and more supporters joined the semi-circle surrounding the office’s front doors. Thirty minutes later, Bernardo walked outside smiling while her daughter tugged the end of her ponytail. 

Bernardo’s saga with immigration officials began in 2019 when she was stopped by U.S. Customs and Border Protection while a fellow parishioner drove her home from church. She and two of her children were detained at a border patrol facility and then the ICE office in St. Albans where they were processed and released, according to Lambek. He said border protection agents gave no reason for pulling the car over. 

Border protection and ICE officials did not answer a request for comment by the time of publication. 

Following the 2019 detention, Bernardo was on a telephonic check in schedule until ICE told her in 2022 to come to the office, ordering her to bring a plane ticket that showed she would leave the country. Bernardo applied for a stay of removal — a formal request that her deportation proceedings be delayed. She was allowed to remain in the U.S. while that request was under consideration, according to Lambek.

But earlier this year, Bernardo was again ordered to report to ICE. In April, about 100 supporters rallied outside the office to support her stay in the country, and she was told to return in two months. Attorneys refiled her stay of removal, and that stay remains pending, according to Brett Stokes, Bernardo’s attorney and the director of the Center for Justice Reform at Vermont Law and Graduate School.

‘A lot of risks’

Abel Luna, a 36-year-old Migrant Justice field coordinator, joined the rally supporting Bernardo with his daughter. Luna, who was a farm worker in New York state beginning at age 13, called the recent detentions and deportations of migrants in Vermont a “fear tactic” by the federal government.

Since April, at least 25 migrant workers and students, including farmers, landscapers and construction workers, have been detained in northern Vermont by border officials.

On Saturday, 29-year-old Jose Ignacio De La Cruz, known as Nacho, and his stepdaughter, Heidi Perez, 18, were pulled over by border officials due to “suspicious border activity,” according to Customs and Border Protection spokesperson Ryan Brissette. The agents smashed their car window and detained both De La Cruz and Perez. De La Cruz is being held at the Northwest State Correctional Facility in Swanton and Perez is at the Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility in South Burlington, according to the state prison locator. 

The two have filed petitions in federal district court alleging their detainment was unconstitutional. The chief judge of Vermont district court, Christina Reiss, issued a temporary restraining order prohibiting ICE from moving them out of state. Both remain in custody pending deportation proceedings. 

Luna said his community was seeing more arrests during the second Trump administration, especially mass arrests, including a group of eight farm workers arrested in April at Berkshire’s Pleasant Valley Farms, the state’s largest dairy, and the detainment and monitoring of community leaders who worked closely with Migrant Justice like Bernardo, De La Cruz, and Perez.

“Nacho especially, and Heidi in her own right, were both very politically active,” Stokes said. “I think it’s important to consider whether that was a justification for this arrest.” 

Stokes didn’t know if they were targeted for their organizing work, but Luna said outspoken migrant leaders were detained during both Trump administrations.

“But it doesn’t matter who you are, you could be driving on the road and get stopped and detained,” Luna said. “There may be some targeting of leaders, but being a migrant worker in the state of Vermont, being a border state, there’s a lot of risks.” 

Stokes said Bernardo’s situation was unique because she was first detained with an expedited removal order upon her initial entry to the U.S. in 2014, and later let out on parole. Bernardo is currently ineligible for asylum because she didn’t apply during her first year in the U.S., and right now, she doesn’t have a pathway to citizenship. Like many others in the U.S., Stokes said, she has spent her time in the U.S. undergoing periodic check-ins by ICE officials. 

ICE under Trump 

ICE practices have changed under the second Trump administration, according to Lambek. While those under ICE supervision like Bernardo were once monitored through email or telephonic check ins, ICE is now ordering more in person appointments. Lambek said this increases stress for migrants, who know that visiting an ICE office could result in detention and deportation.

State leaders have supported Bernardo’s case for more than two years, including a 2023 letter of support by 67 state legislators, and Stokes said the congressional delegation has assisted his office in getting information from ICE about other migrant deportation cases. But Vermont officials could do more to support migrant workers who live in the state, he said.

De La Cruz and Perez had robust community support from Migrant Justice and were able to quickly get in touch with Stokes to start working on their petitions to remain in the state, but that type of support often requires knowing attorneys, like Stokes, exist.

“A lot of other folks who are detained in the state aren’t that lucky,” said Stokes, who can’t find clients to represent unless they get in touch with him.

“There are many other ICE detainees in the same facilities that I’m in that haven’t contacted me that I don’t think anyone knows are there and they don’t know who to call,” Stokes said. 

There could be a better effort to provide intakes for ICE detainees and triage their individual situations, along with pushing for universal representation in immigration proceedings, he said. Vermont has a small community of legal support for immigrants, and he said it was important for the state to fund that work in a meaningful way.

But for detainees who are well-connected, rallies can help support those like Bernado facing stressful situations. 

“I felt a lot of nerves going in, but hearing the chants of ‘Si Se Puede’ gave me strength and made me think that everything was going to turn out okay,” Bernardo said while Lambek translated. “It’s nice to know that there are still good people in this world, people who are out here supporting our community.”

Read the story on VTDigger here: Migrant leader heads home after hundreds rally at her ICE appointment.

A Swanton man is facing a murder charge for allegedly fatally shooting another man who had recently been staying in the same home as he was early Saturday morning. 

Mitchal Shedrick, 52, pleaded not guilty to a charge of second-degree murder Monday during his arraignment hearing in Franklin County Superior criminal court in St. Albans. The felony offense, according to charging documents, stems from the shooting death of 37-year-old Joshua Many during an argument. 

Judge Navah Spero granted a request from Franklin County Deputy State’s Attorney Diane Wheeler to hold Shedrick in custody without bail pending a further hearing in the case.

The investigation leading to the murder charge began around 3:15 a.m. Saturday when police reported receiving 911 calls from the residence on Fourth Street in Swanton, according to charging documents. 

Responding officers, the filings stated, found a man, later identified as Many, dead inside.

Katrina Montgomery told investigators she was Many’s fiancee and that they had been staying at the residence on Fourth Street for a few weeks, Detective Sgt. Isaac Merriam of the Vermont State Police wrote in an affidavit in support of the murder charge. 

Montgomery added that several other people resided at the home, including Shedrick, according to the filing. Montgomery said an argument took place between Shedrick and Many in an upstairs room following a dispute that started over money, Merriam wrote. 

She reported hearing a gunshot and then she ran upstairs and heard Many say, “You shot me” and then “Why did you shoot me?” as he exited Shedrick’s room holding his chest, the affidavit stated. 

Many made it to a downstairs room, where he collapsed, and Montgomery said she called 911, according to the charging document. Another person at the home at the time of the shooting reported to police that Many and Shedrick had been “bickering back and forth” over a drug debt for more than a week, Merriam wrote in the affidavit. 

A later autopsy determined Many’s cause of death to be a gunshot wound to his torso, according to the filing.

Attorney Paul Groce, representing Shedrick during the arraignment Monday, argued against the prosecution’s request to hold his client without bail. Groce said that based on the charging document there is at least an “outline” of a possible self-defense claim.

He added that Shedrick was not a flight risk, having lived at the residence for many years and having limited mobility. Shedrick attended the hearing Monday in a wheelchair.  

Wheeler, the prosecutor, countered that the evidence was strong, adding that there were witnesses in the home who provided sworn statements that they saw Shedrick with a gun and heard Many after being shot asking Shedrick, “Why’d you shoot me?”

Spero, the judge, said she was holding Shedrick without bail, at least for now, pending another hearing to more thoroughly consider the strength of the prosecution’s evidence in the case.

If convicted of the second-degree murder charge, Shedrick faces 20 years to life in prison. 

Read the story on VTDigger here: ‘Why did you shoot me?’: Witness reports hearing slain Swanton man ask his accused killer .

U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents on Monday arrested eight migrant workers at Pleasant Valley Farms, a dairy in Berkshire, according to state and federal officials.

Border agents were responding to a call from a concerned citizen who had observed “two individuals carrying backpacks exiting a wooded area and crossing … into private farmland,” according to Ryan Brisette, a spokesperson for U.S. Customs and Border Protection. 

“Agents apprehended one of the individuals on scene, while the second fled,” Brisette said in a written statement. “During the ensuing search of the area, agents located and apprehended additional individuals determined to be illegally present in the United States.”

In a Tuesday press release following the incident, Migrant Justice, a nonprofit advocacy group, said all eight of the people apprehended were farm workers at Pleasant Valley Farms, and that the arrests had occurred on the farm property. 

“What happened last night was an injustice,” said Cristian Santos, a member of Migrant Justice’s Farmworker coordinating committee. “Dairy workers were arrested by Border Patrol in their own homes, a violation of their human rights. We work hard to support the economy of this state, working long hours for low wages, doing work that U.S. citizens don’t want to do.”

Will Lambek, a spokesperson for Migrant Justice, said in an interview that “most of the workers were detained in their homes on farm property.”

In a written statement to VTDigger, Amanda St. Pierre, co-owner of the dairy, confirmed that the incident had taken place but said she “did not know the details or reasons at this time.” 

“We have fully cooperated with (CBP’s) instructions. Our employees were hired following the federal and state employment requirements,” St. Pierre said. “We remain supportive of our employees and appreciative of the valuable role they play in our community performing essential work on our farm. We hope this matter is resolved quickly.”

According to Lambek, one of the workers is currently in asylum proceedings, a process he had already initiated prior to his arrest. The immigration statuses of the other individuals are unclear. 

Located just south of the Canadian border, Pleasant Valley Farms is Vermont’s largest dairy farm. The incident represents the largest immigration enforcement action against migrant workers in Vermont in recent memory.

“I have long been clear: migrant workers are an essential part of our communities,” Gov. Phil Scott said in a Tuesday press release following the incident. “They are our neighbors and friends, have kids in our schools, shop at our businesses, and play an important role in our economy and workforce.” 

That statement was echoed by Anson Tebetts,  secretary of Vermont’s Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets, in an interview.

“I think it’s important for Vermonters to understand that, migrant workers, they do play essential roles at dairy farms and farms across Vermont — and not only Vermont but across the country,” Tebetts said.

Read the story on VTDigger here: US Border Patrol arrests 8 migrant workers at Berkshire dairy.

The U.S. government has revoked the visa of a Middlebury College international student, leaving the person at risk for deportation.

University spokespeople declined to comment or identify the people involved. They shared an announcement sent to faculty, staff and students Wednesday notifying them that a Middlebury student and three alumni from the Middlebury Institute recently had their Student and Exchange Visitor Information System records terminated by the U.S. government, effectively revoking their visas.

Representatives from student affairs are working with them to determine next steps and to provide support, the Wednesday post states. 

“Middlebury must abide by federal laws and regulations related to student and faculty visas and immigration status. We are taking steps to protect our community through legal pathways,” the announcement states.

From Stanford to Harvard, more than 1,000 international students across 160 colleges have had their visas or legal status revoked since March, according to the Associated Press.

Concerned about the growing federal reach into college campuses and recent detentions of international students nationwide, Middlebury College has signed on to an amicus brief for a lawsuit filed by the the American Association of University Professors challenging the detentions and deportations happening on college campuses.

Middlebury College is committed to its international community, the Wednesday announcement states, and hosted an online discussion with an immigration attorney Monday to discuss recent policies and traveling abroad.

“We are aware that the revocation of visas is a troubling trend at U.S. colleges and universities and want to express our commitment to supporting our international students, faculty, and staff. Our international community is absolutely integral to Middlebury and inseparable from our identity as an inclusive global community,” the online post states.

College leadership encouraged international students with questions about their immigration status to contact International Student and Scholar Services and continues to monitor the status of sponsored international students and scholars, the announcement added. 

Middlebury also posted an FAQ this week stating that while the college “will not voluntarily provide personally identifiable information about students, faculty or staff to the federal government,” it cannot prevent federal immigration enforcement officers from entering public spaces on campus.

The announcement comes two days after an Upper Valley resident with legal residency status was detained by masked, plainclothes federal agents during a scheduled citizenship interview at the Colchester field office of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

Mohsen Mahdawi, 34, remains detained at the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans as his lawyers work to prevent his deportation. A judge has issued a temporary restraining order to prevent his removal from Vermont or the United States. Vermont’s congressional delegation has condemned the arrest, and 67 House Democrats have signed a letter demanding answers from the federal government. 

A former student at Columbia University who helped organize protests and spoke out against the alleged crimes committed by Israel against Palestinians, Mahdawi was born in the West Bank and has been a lawful permanent resident of the United States for 10 years.

‘Unlawful terminations’

Colleges across Vermont are warily watching the news and working with campus organizations to support international students.

While St. Michael’s College has not been affected by immigration enforcement efforts, “We have also been working with our own campus community members to ensure they feel supported and have the information they need if faced with a similar situation,” Gretchen Galbraith, vice president of academic affairs and provost said in an emailed statement.

Adam White, a University of Vermont spokesperson, declined to say whether students with visas have been targeted. International students, faculty and staff may contact the Office of International Education with questions specific to their individual situations, he said in an email.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which has been fighting cases pertaining to students and other legal residents who have had their legal status revoked, condemned the targeting of students and wrote in an emailed statement that “such arbitrary administrative action flies in the face of due process and our shared democratic values.”  

“Across the country — and now in Vermont — we are seeing students who are lawfully present in the U.S. to pursue an education have their F-1 statuses abruptly terminated, and their liberty and academic futures threatened,” Hillary Rich, senior staff attorney at the ACLU of Vermont, wrote in an email. “These unlawful terminations are part of the Trump administration’s coordinated attack on students and institutions of higher learning.”

Read the story on VTDigger here: US revokes a lawful international student’s visa at Middlebury College .

Perrigo plans to shut down an infant formula manufacturing facility that employs roughly 420 workers in Franklin County, the company confirmed Thursday.

The company will phase out production at the Georgia facility through to 2027, according to a statement from Joe Shields, a senior manager of communications at Perrigo.

The multinational company manufactures over-the-counter health products and has operated its plant in Georgia for more than a decade. Perrigo acquired the plant from PBM Nutritionals in 2010.

Shields said that it was no longer “cost-effective” for the company to invest in long-term maintenance of the facility due to its “age and evolving regulatory requirements.”

“Perrigo considered multiple options for the Vermont facility, which unfortunately are not viable,” he said. 

Employees at the facility were informed of the planned closure on Tuesday. Shields said that the company was exploring several options for its employees, including redeployment opportunities and workforce support programs.

“In addition, we have developed a ‘retention and severance package’ that goes above standard packages,” Shields said.

“The dedication and commitment of our Vermont employees have been invaluable in ensuring a reliable infant formula supply throughout the United States,” Shields added. “We deeply appreciate their continued efforts as we navigate this transition together.”

Read the story on VTDigger here: Perrigo to shut down Vermont facility, affecting more than 400 employees.

Fairfax residents on Tuesday night voted overwhelmingly to keep the town manager position.

Voters in the Franklin County town of 5,000 cast 693 “no” votes on the ballot question to get rid of the town manager position, according to the unofficial vote tallies posted to the town’s website. There were 295 votes cast in favor of eliminating the position.

The results are sure to be a relief for current and incoming selectboard members, as well as town staff, who were prepared to take over the town manager's many duties and responsibilities.

Selectboard members, all of whom work full-time jobs, were adamant that the governing body was not equipped to handle the responsibilities that the position juggles on a day-to-day basis. The board last month unanimously approved a resolution in support of the town manager position.

“If we don’t have somebody to run the town on a day-to-day basis, it may come to a point where I may not be able to fulfill the duties of my role on the selectboard," Tim Burns, the vice chair of Fairfax’s selectboard, said previously. “That’s how much work there is in that position, how important it is, and to shift the responsibilities of all of the duties of a town manager to the staff or to the selectboard, you’re setting yourself up for failure in my eyes.”

Those duties include grant applications, which were critical in helping fund road improvements after flooding in July and December 2023 washed out a number of town roads.

Fairfax established its town manager position in 2017 with voter approval. The town's selectboard had previously handled those duties.

But last year, confusion over the whereabouts of a town-owned truck quickly billowed into calls for the resignation of then-Town Manager Sarah Hadd and later morphed into action to rid the town of her position altogether. She has since left the job.

Frustration among community members quickly materialized into a petition that garnered more than 200 signatures from town residents last summer calling for the end of the town manager style of governance.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Fairfax residents vote to keep town manager position.

On Town Meeting Day, voters in Fairfax will decide whether to do away with the position of town manager, leaving day-to-day operations in the hands of the selectboard.

But the selectboard is urging community members to vote against the measure on March 4, saying it would create an unmanageable workload for its five volunteer members, all of whom also hold full-time jobs.

“If we don’t have somebody to run the town on a day-to-day basis, it may come to a point where I may not be able to fulfill the duties of my role on the selectboard,” said Tim Burns, the vice chair of Fairfax’s selectboard. “That’s how much work there is in that position, how important it is, and to shift the responsibilities of all of the duties of a town manager to the staff or to the selectboard, you’re setting yourself up for failure in my eyes.”

The item landed on the March ballot through a petition that garnered more than 200 signatures from town residents last summer. Controversy over an investigation into a missing town truck set the effort in motion. 

Town managers, in effect, operate as de facto mayors, with the selectboard overseeing the role as well as town policy.

Nearly 100 municipalities in Vermont have either a town manager or a town administrator, with the majority relying on a town manager, according to Carl Andeer, a staff attorney with the Vermont League of Cities and Towns.

Fairfax established its town manager position in 2017 with voter approval. Previously, the selectboard for the Franklin County town of just over 5,000 handled those duties. 

But last year, confusion over the whereabouts of a town-owned truck quickly billowed into calls for the resignation of then-town manager Sarah Hadd and later morphed into action to rid the town of her position altogether. She has since left the job.

A missing truck, an investigation and an outcry

In 2023, an old truck that was owned by the town but had not been used for some time was taken by a town employee with permission from Tim Germaine, the public works supervisor at the time, according to later interviews and public comment from selectboard meetings.

The town’s bookkeeping records had listed the truck as an asset. Months later, during an inventory of those assets, town officials asked where the truck had gone.

In January 2024, Hadd reported the truck missing to the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office, which later referred the case to the Vermont State Police, according to Sheriff John Grismore.

Adam Silverman, a public information officer with the Vermont State Police, said his office turned the case over to the Franklin County State’s Attorney’s Office for review, which declined to file charges.

Investigators had questioned several town employees over the truck, inciting confusion and anger in town, and prompting the calls for Hadd’s resignation.

Frustration boiled over during a selectboard meeting in February 2024, during which residents alleged that the situation had been mishandled.

Bobbi Jo Magnan, a Fairfax resident who signed the petition, said during the meeting that the town employee who had been in possession of the truck was “going through hell” because Hadd “decided to open an investigation over a piece of friggin’ scrap truck.”

“Somebody’s gotta rein this girl in, ’cause this is enough,” Magnan said. “I’ve had enough of this girl destroying our town.”

Hadd, who declined to comment for this story, explained in public meetings that she was legally obligated to report missing property to the authorities. Selectboard policy around capital asset disposition and fraud prevention, she said, guided her decision.

“I followed those policies and did what those policies said, for better or worse,” she said. “That’s what I was legally and ethically obligated to do. Some people can say that that’s the wrong decision, or maybe I shouldn’t have done that, but these policies were adopted by the board and I had to follow them.”

The issue soon swelled into a debate around the town manager position itself, and whether the town should return to full selectboard control over day-to-day operations.

“You have a bunch of people… who are frustrated,” James Langelier, a resident who signed the petition, said during a February 2024 selectboard meeting. “Please take a good hard look at where the direction of this town is going, because it’s not good. We don’t need another Colchester, St. Albans.”

Jim Webb, a longtime resident who also signed the petition, argued at several board meetings that Fairfax should move away from a town manager position.

“I don’t think we need a town manager. I think there’s other ways that can be done, like an administrator or something like that,” he said at a February 2024 selectboard meeting. “What’s going on in town is terrible.”

Residents submitted a petition in June with 216 signatures to rescind the position, according to Town Clerk Lynn Parah.

Parah said 12 residents have since removed their name from the petition, including Germaine, the former public works supervisor. Germaine, also a former selectboard member, signed the petition after being contacted by state police during the debacle.

“When I played that message and it was a state cop, I called him and I let him have it, and I went looking for that petition because I am no thief,” he said during a July 2024 selectboard meeting. “It was a piece of shit truck.”

Germaine declined to comment when reached by email. Efforts to reach other petitioners, including Webb and Langelier, were unsuccessful.

Hadd stepped down from the position in December after she was appointed to Vermont’s Land Use Review Board. Nick Nadeau was appointed as interim town manager.

VTDigger could not verify the current whereabouts of the truck.

‘We’re not a small town’

While some residents remain opposed to the town manager position, others have since spoken in favor of the position — arguing it’s necessary for the operation of town government.

Josh Blake, who is running unopposed for one of two open seats on the selectboard, said he was not in favor of eliminating the position.

“It is not okay to change the form of government just because you didn’t like the person,” he said. “Just because somebody doesn’t like Donald Trump or Kamala Harris, doesn’t mean you get rid of the presidency.”

He noted, however, that the fate of the town manager job is “in the voters hands now.”

“It’s not in my hands or the board or the town manager or the 200 people who signed the petition. It’s in the 5,000 people that live in town,” he said.

Barbara Murphy, a resident and former state representative, said in an interview that the petition is the work of “one small segment of the community that really feels that we could go back to a selectboard running our town, the way it used to, and in my belief, not understanding how much our community has changed and how much the regulations for running a community have changed.”

“We aren’t a small town in Vermont, really,” she added. “We’re not a big city, but by population, we’re not a small town.”

Doing away with the town manager would stymie the progress of the town government, Murphy said. “In Vermont, where we don’t have a county government to run things, it really makes it complicated.”

In Fairfax, town managers have been critical in managing grant applications and other major projects, as well as handling responses to natural disasters. Hadd alone garnered more than $2 million in grants for several projects in town, said Burns, the selectboard vice-chair.

Those grants, according to Burns, helped fund repairs to a number of roads that washed out during flooding in July and December of 2023.

“A natural disaster hits us here in town, or another flood, all that has to be managed,” he said. “That’s a lot to put on the selectboard.”

The town selectboard has spent the last few weeks preparing for the outcome of the vote.

In preparation for potentially losing the position, Burns said town officials have divvied up the town manager’s responsibilities among the five selectboard members.

The town may also entertain the idea of a town administrator position, should the town manager position get nixed, he said. (Town administrators are more common in smaller towns, whereas towns with more than 5,000 residents typically have a town manager.)

But the selectboard has voiced its opposition to the petition, passing a resolution in support of the town manager position during its Feb. 17 meeting.

“I feel it’s a slippery slope to be going down to not have somebody there in the manager role,” Burns said.

Correction: Due to an editing error, an earlier version of this story mischaracterized Barbara Murphy’s town of residence. She is a current Fairfax resident.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Fairfax to decide whether to nix town manager position. Its selectboard isn’t keen to take over. .

ST. ALBANS — Citing mental health issues, a judge on Friday handed Mbyayenge Mafuta a 15-to-30 year sentence, with all but eight years suspended, in the beating death of his cellmate two years ago.

Franklin County Superior Court Judge Alison Arms accepted the terms of a plea deal, agreed upon by State’s Attorney Bram Kranichfeld and Mafuta’s defense team, during a hearing Friday morning. 

On Dec. 22, 2022, Mafuta was incarcerated at the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans when he repeatedly kicked Jeffery Hall, 55, in the head in a closed jail cell that they shared. Hall suffered brain damage in the assault and died several months later. Court records indicated that Mafuta believed Hall had stolen items from other incarcerated people. 

As part of the plea agreement, Mafuta pleaded guilty in November 2024 to charges of voluntary manslaughter and aggravated assault in the case.

In court, Arms said Mafuta struggled with “some undefined mental health issues,” and asked for more information, but specific details were not discussed in open court.

While incarcerated, the 23-year-old Mafuta will receive mental health treatment, and his criminal risk within the facility will be addressed, said Assistant Attorney General Sophie Stratton, who prosecuted the case with Kranichfeld. 

Arms told Mafuta that his written statement, in which he accepted responsibility, weighed significantly in her sentencing decision. She then read from Mafuta’s statement.

“I’m sure he had his own dreams and people in his life that loved him, but because of what transpired on December 22 he’s no longer around. I could blame my hard upbringing, my mental illness and other players. However, I know I am responsible. I have to live with this for the rest of my life. Jeff’s family has to live with their loss for the rest of their lives,” Mafuta’s statement read.

Seated in court between two of his attorneys, Mafuta remained silent throughout the 30-minute sentence hearing. However, when the judge asked if he wanted to say anything after the sentencing, he responded with a matter-of-fact statement, his tone devoid of emotion.

“I will prepare myself to become an independent man and to live on my own, to be able to live a structured life, to have the mental stability to live and be around the community and not have to fall back into my past life,” Mafuta said.

Kranichfeld told the court that family members of Hall were present in the courtroom but didn’t want to make a statement.

“They have asked me to communicate to you that they are in full support of this agreement in this sentence,” Kranichfeld said.

After the hearing, Kranichfeld said the state was pleased with the sentence. 

“We feel it’s a fair sentence. We feel that it acknowledges Mr. Mafuta’s mental illness, while at the same time holding him accountable for his behavior in this case,” the prosecutor said.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Man will serve 8 years in prison in beating death of cellmate.

ST. ALBANS — Poulin Grain, an animal feed manufacturer with two plants in northern Vermont, relies on crops imported from Canada, such as corn and oats, to make its products. But the company’s costs would grow substantially — and, perhaps, unsustainably — if President Donald Trump’s proposed 25% tariff on products from Canada goes into effect, Poulin’s senior vice president, Mike Tetreault, said Monday. 

The company could start to source some raw materials domestically, Tetreault said, but the materials would cost more, and those costs would be passed on to customers. 

“We haven’t got the margins to offset that. The sellers don’t have the margins to offset that. So essentially, the farms and users of our grain products and feed products are going to pay more,” Tetreault said, speaking at a roundtable on Trump’s proposal in St. Albans Monday morning convened by U.S. Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt.

“There’s no other option,” he added. 

Tetreault was one of several leaders of Vermont businesses, along with representatives from trade groups as well as state officials, who voiced concerns to Welch about the impacts the tariffs could have on the costs of local goods and services. 

Trump has threatened to impose a 25% tax on goods coming into the U.S. from Canada and Mexico as early as Feb. 1. Right now, both countries have a free-trade agreement with the U.S. by which most goods traded among the three nations don’t have tariffs.

The president told reporters last week that his proposal was a response to Canada and Mexico allowing “mass numbers of people to come in and fentanyl to come in.” While it’s not clear exactly how the tariffs would be implemented, experts generally agree they could disrupt many U.S. industries and raise prices on many goods for consumers.

“The amount of disruption that is going to happen through each of your enterprises is immense,” Welch told the panel, which also included a contract manufacturer in Morrisville and a maple sugaring equipment maker in Swanton, among others.

Rock Gaulin, who leads the maple division for H2O Innovation, said tariffs could protect the company’s U.S.-based operations in the short term, but would ultimately lead to higher prices for the sugarmakers who buy its evaporators and other equipment.  

Welch said he was committed to making a case against Trump’s proposed tariffs in Washington D.C. in the coming weeks, including during hearings he expects the Senate Finance Committee, which he sits on, will convene on the issue. 

Several speakers said Vermont could feel disproportionate impacts from the proposed tariffs because Canada is, by far, the landlocked state’s largest international trading partner. Like Poulin Grain, many Vermont companies are “so heavily reliant” on cross-border imports of raw materials, noted Amy Spear, president of the Vermont Chamber of Commerce.

Tariffs aimed at Canada could also raise Vermonters’ energy bills, Welch noted, pointing to how the state gets about a quarter of its electricity from Canada’s Hydro-Quebec. 

Mari McClure, the president and CEO of Green Mountain Power — Vermont’s largest electric company — estimated that Trump’s proposed tariff on goods from Canada could result in an additional $16 million per year in power costs, which she said would, with limited exception, go “directly to ratepayers.” 

Still, McClure and other speakers noted that it’s impossible to say with certainty what the impact would be because details of Trump’s proposals haven’t been clear — nor is it clear that the tariffs would even take effect on Feb. 1.

That’s made it difficult for businesses to prepare in recent weeks, some said. Sarah Mearhoff, advocacy and communications director for the trade association representing Vermont’s construction industry, pointed to how some contractors could, for instance, spend money now to stockpile timber — only to later realize that it was unnecessary.

“At one point they thought they would have tariffs on day one — and now it’s saying Feb. 1,” said state Treasurer Mike Pieciak, referring to the first day of Trump’s presidency. “I think there’s a question mark for businesses as to, will they ever come? Is this real — or is this not real?” 

Disclosure: Sarah Mearhoff reported for VTDigger from October 2021 until December 2024.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Vermont business leaders pan President Donald Trump’s proposed tariffs on imports from Canada.

Friends and colleagues are still coming to terms with the recent death of prominent Vermont LGBTQ+ advocate Brenda Churchill, remembered as an empathetic and passionate activist and as a vibrant, fun-loving compatriot. A Bakersfield resident and transgender woman, she was a beloved member of the Vermont Commission on Women and the state’s LGBTQ+ community. 

Churchill died on Jan. 13 at age 67 from natural causes, according to her family, outside of Syracuse, New York.

“When I think of her, I think of a woman that never gives up, that finds a way to fight for her community,” said Esther Charlestin, chair of the women’s commission and a friend of Churchill’s. “She was just a ball of sunshine energy, always encouraging, always willing to support and show up, being there for her parents, being there for her partner, being supportive.”

Her daughter Jessica Banta, reflected on how Churchill’s character shaped her own life and values. 

“Honestly, I’ve always been a strong protector of people’s rights and human rights,” Banta said. “And I feel like that’s probably the biggest thing that I’ve learned from Brenda, is to protect people and what’s right.”

Churchill was perhaps best known in Vermont for her advocacy for LGBTQ+ rights. After being asked to serve as legislative liaison for the LGBTQIA Alliance of Vermont, she became instrumental in passing legislation to preserve and expand the rights of transgender Vermonters.

Friends said she was especially proud of her advocacy for a 2018 law mandating that all of Vermont’s single-use bathrooms in public spaces be labeled as gender-neutral and a 2022 law that allows Vermonters’ birth certificates to reflect their gender identity. 

Churchill also worked on an 18-month-long project to add a third gender to Vermont driver’s licenses and identification, which came to fruition in June 2019. In the following year, 400 residents changed their identity status.

Christine Hallquist, the first openly transgender major-party gubernatorial nominee in U.S. history, reflected on how she first met Churchill and how it blossomed into a decade-long friendship.

“I transitioned very publicly in 2015, and it was in the papers and on the news,” Hallquist said. “She reached out and we became immediately good friends.”

Hallquist credited Churchill’s encouragement for inspiring her to run for governor in 2018. On their way to the Women’s March that year, Churchill asked Hallquist, “Why don’t you run for governor?” Initially, Hallquist dismissed the idea, content as CEO of Vermont Electric Cooperative. But during the march, she was deeply moved by four young Muslim women performing slam poetry about their experiences in Vermont.

“I cried, and I turned to Brenda and said, ‘OK, I will run,’” Hallquist said.

Churchill’s biggest focus was getting and expending resources for trans people in the rural towns in her region of Franklin County. Her dedication and effectiveness as an advocate for these issues were recognized at the highest levels, leading to her appointment by House Speaker Jill Krowinski, D-Burlington, to the Vermont Commission on Women in January 2023, becoming the first transgender woman on the independent, nonpartisan state commission. 

“I look forward to the near future when transgender women are no longer ‘first’ in any organization,” Churchill said in a statement following the announcement. “Being the first at anything opens doors for those who follow.”

Vermont LGBTQ+ rights activist Keith Goslant met Churchill after the 2016 elections when he said “it became clear to Vermont’s queer communities that we were not going to have a favorable federal administration.”

“Brenda went from having a little familiarity around union organizing to her first time walking into the Statehouse as an advocate to confront members of the Senate regarding an omission in their resolution recognizing Vermont’s queer community,” said Goslant, a cofounder of Outright VT, a nonprofit that supports LGBTQ+ youth in the state.

Goslant remembered a moment in the Statehouse when he and Churchill were strategizing on who should testify before committees on the 2018 gender-neutral bathroom bill, one of the first pieces of legislation she actively championed. 

“I would look at her and say, ‘This is an issue for which you need to be the face of our argument’,” he said with a smile. “And she looked at me and said, ‘I’m not sure how I feel about being the face of a bathroom bill.’”

Churchill was a mentor for and alum of Emerge Vermont, the training network for Democratic women interested in running for public office. The organization’s executive director, Elaine Haney, highlighted Churchill’s ability to connect with others, even in challenging circumstances. 

“She could walk into a room full of people who were not on her side and leave having given them an opportunity to understand and empathize in a way they hadn’t before,” Haney said. “She could meet people, share her perspective and somehow manage to change theirs.”

Haney also noted Churchill’s kindness and her thoughtful approach to helping others. She described how Churchill always took the time to listen carefully, ask insightful questions and guide people toward understanding their goals and finding ways to achieve them.

“I knew that if I had a problem and I called her, I had her complete and utter attention while she helped me through it,” Haney said. “You know, lots of friends do that for you, but she had a very particular way of doing it.”

Charlestin, herself a former Democratic gubernatorial nominee, texted Churchill three days before her death. 

“I was texting her on Friday, and we were making jokes,” Charlestin said in an interview the week after her death. “So her departure is coming as a huge shock. I wish I called. I wish I called her to say thank you for your service, for being a light and an example for all of us.”

An orange Jeep, ’80s music and beer

Those who knew Churchill knew that wherever she went, her bright orange Jeep was never far behind. 

“She loved driving her Jeep,” Hallquist said. “She would go on these backcountry Jeep tours, and so when we would get together, she would tell me all about her wanderings with her Jeep all throughout New England.”

When asked if he knew about her love for Jeeps, Goslant started to laugh, saying, “I got reprimanded by Brenda when I bought an all-wheel-drive Honda because it wasn’t a Jeep.”

Churchill also passed on her love for Jeeps to her daughter. “I actually belong to Jeep clubs and own two Jeeps myself,” Banta said. “I learned to drive manual transmission from Brenda.”

For Churchill, driving a Jeep came with music. One of her daughter’s fondest memories with Churchill was how she always quizzed her on music during their many travels between Bakersfield and Syracuse, where Churchill’s parents live.

“Even if I don’t know a music group, it is automatically Fleetwood Mac,” Banta said. 

When Banta first received the news that Churchill had died, it was Fleetwood Mac that comforted her. “That is what I listened to,” she said.

Hallquist attested to Churchill’s love for music, especially during Hallquist’s campaign for governor, when they drove together across the state. “We would get the car, and she always played dance music, you know, fun, fun music,” she said. “It was like late ’70s, early ’80s kind of stuff.”

Besides her love for Jeeps and music, she was also an aficionado of beer. Goslant recalled her go-to question when she began to get to know her colleagues better. “She’d look at them and say, ‘So, what kind of beer do you like?’” he said. 

Haney couldn’t have agreed more. “Wherever we went, as long as it involved good local craft beer, she was happy. We shared many plates of tater tots,” Haney said.

Beer was also the reason for Churchill and Hallquist to catch up after Churchill frequently lived near Syracuse, New York, to care for her parents. Anytime she was in Burlington, Hallquist would receive a message with just “beer?” from Churchill, she said with a laugh. “And of course, when I told her when I was in Syracuse, same thing. She would just say, ‘beer?’”

In her work, Churchill often looked to trailblazers for inspiration, particularly Ashanti Gholar, the president of Emerge’s national organization. 

“Sometimes Brenda would say to me, ‘What would Ashanti do?’” Haney said, noting how that mindset often led them to the right answers. Churchill admired those who stood firm in their beliefs, and she embodied that courage herself, inspiring others to do the same. 

“In the same way she’d ask, ‘What would Ashanti do?’ I’ll continue to ask, ‘What would Brenda do?” Haney said.

Read the story on VTDigger here: ‘A ball of sunshine energy’: Vermonters remember rights activist Brenda Churchill.

Updated at 3:10 p.m.

ST. ALBANS — Steven Tendo, a Ugandan asylum-seeker living in Colchester whose plight has drawn widespread attention in recent years, can stay in the U.S. for at least the next six months, federal immigration officials told him Tuesday morning. 

Tendo had feared he would be detained at a mandatory check-in with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials Tuesday at the agency’s office in St. Albans, just a day after the inauguration of President Donald Trump, who has long promised stepped-up deportations and on Monday launched a sweeping immigration crackdown.

But Tendo — who is eligible to be deported because his application for asylum protection in the U.S. has been denied — was instead allowed to leave freely after meeting with law enforcement inside the office alongside one of his attorneys. 

He emerged from the building, smiling, after spending about 15 minutes inside. A crowd of some 75 people had gathered outside in the bitter cold to show support for him, engulfing the building’s front sidewalk and spilling over into the parking lot.  

“I am just so warm — even if it’s freezing — that you guys came for me,” Tendo told the crowd, over cheers. “You’re going to make me do great things in Vermont.” 

The crowd ranged in age from young children to older people and included congregants from Tendo’s church in Colchester; members of a union at the University of Vermont Medical Center, where Tendo works; as well advocates from the immigrant rights group Migrant Justice and a local asylum-seeker support network. 

Some in the crowd held signs and handed out flyers with slogans including “Let Steven Stay!!” and “Vermont Needs Steven Tendo.” 

“He is a face of what goes on for many people,” said Rachel Cogbill, president of the Central Vermont Refugee Action Network, which supported Tendo after he moved to the state in 2021. She noted that the large crowd, which turned out on short notice, “shows how clearly Steven does make friends, and become included, and become valued in different communities.” 

Tendo had received a letter Friday telling him to report on Tuesday to the ICE office. His attorneys didn’t know exactly what to make of the letter, they told VTDigger in recent days, in part because Tendo had checked in with the office just two months earlier.

All non-U.S. citizens who face potential deportation have to check in with ICE at least once per year, even if immigration officials don’t plan to detain them at that point.

“We kind of assumed the worst — given that Steven does have a deportation order,” said Brett Stokes, one of Tendo’s lawyers, after reemerging from the building, pointing also to Trump’s inauguration Monday as a source of his and others’ uncertainty.  

Describing the interaction inside, Stokes — director of a Vermont Law and Graduate School clinic that provides pro bono immigration law services — said the check-in appeared to be a result of officers’ confusion over exactly how frequently Tendo was supposed to check in with the agency, rather than some effort to detain him. 

Tendo is now set to check-in every six months, rather than once a year, as he’d previously understood he was supposed to, Stokes explained.

Speaking to the crowd, Tendo said he appreciated how the officers inside had treated the situation, contrasting it with how, he said, he’d been treated by ICE in other states. Tendo is in the process of suing the government over how, he alleges, he was mistreated while in the agency’s custody in Texas. (Tendo was nearly deported while in custody in 2020, though ICE later granted him a reprieve, releasing him amid pressure from international human rights groups and dozens of members of Congress.) 

Tendo fled his native Uganda in 2018 after he was brutally tortured and members of his family were killed because government forces there viewed an advocacy organization he founded as a political threat, according to federal court records and Tendo’s own accounts. Tendo still runs the organization today from his home in Mallets Bay.

He has said repeatedly that deporting him back to Uganda would be “a death sentence.”

Tendo’s asylum application was denied in 2019 after a federal judge argued that there were inconsistencies in the story of how and why he got to the U.S. Tendo disputed that  ruling, arguing the inconsistencies had nothing to do with why he needed protection. His attorneys appealed the ruling multiple times, but none of the efforts were successful.

Since Tendo moved to Vermont, ICE officials have twice granted requests by his attorneys to hold off on deporting him. The agency has not yet issued a formal decision on his lawyers’ latest such request, which was submitted on Friday.

In the most recent request, Tendo’s attorneys argued that he should not be deported because of both his ongoing lawsuit against the feds and the fact that he needs access to crucial healthcare in the U.S. 

Tendo’s lawyers are now, also, working on a request to U.S. officials to reconsider his application for asylum on the basis that conditions in Uganda have become even more dangerous for Tendo as of late. That could put Tendo on a path with more options, Stokes said, including the possibility of obtaining a work visa. 

Getting Tendo’s asylum case reopened is “really our main battle — and struggle — at this point,” Stokes said.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Colchester asylum-seeker allowed to remain in the US for 6 months, officials say.

Highly pathogenic avian flu was detected in a backyard flock of birds in Franklin County last week, state officials said Thursday.

On Dec. 19, officials from the Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets made a house call to a concerned animal owner whose two-dozen non-poultry birds had begun to die from an unknown illness. Two days later, while samples from the flock were being processed in a federal lab in Iowa, the agency culled the rest of the flock with the owner’s permission.

The owner and other individuals who had direct or indirect contact with the infected birds were being monitored by the Vermont Department of Health, according to the agency of ag. Officials did not identify the town in which the birds lived. 

Though New England has so far not seen any documented cases of H5N1 bird flu, as the virus is also called, over 60 people have been infected across the country since the outbreak began in March 2024, according to the federal Center for Disease Control and Prevention. And while the virus officially remains a “low risk to human health,” according to the agency of ag, a growing chorus of health professionals continues to raise the alarm that a few quick mutations could change the picture drastically. So far, documented symptoms include conjunctivitis, fevers, body aches and nausea.

Last Wednesday, the CDC confirmed the “first severe case” of H5N1 in a human after a patient was hospitalized in Louisiana. And over the past 30 years, roughly half of some 900 people around the world diagnosed with bird flu have died. The Franklin County case marks the fourth documented instance of H5N1 in a domestic flock in Vermont since 2022. 

Avian flu has spread through just under 900 dairy herds across 16 states, according to the CDC, but agency of ag officials said Thursday that the case detected in Franklin County was not the same strain as what has hit dairy herds elsewhere. 

State and federal officials urged animal owners to stay vigilant. Suggestions include reporting sick and dead birds and cattle, and reviewing biosecurity measures to protect herds and flocks.

Correction: An earlier version of this story included a photo of a poultry bird. The Franklin County birds found to have highly pathogenic avian influenza were non-poultry. 

Read the story on VTDigger here: Avian flu found in backyard flock of birds in Franklin County.

FAIRFIELD — Nestled in a grove of sugar maples, the Branon Family’s sugar house buzzed with early activity Friday as sap boiled down to maple syrup. Inside an evaporator, golden liquid bubbled, releasing the warm aroma of syrup in the making. 

While most sugarers begin their work in February or March, the Branon Family Maple Orchards has turned on its boilers early this year, prompted by unusually warm days.

Cecile Baron, co-owner of the Fairfield sugar house, explained that the operation only begins boiling when they’ve collected more than 20,000 gallons of sap.

“Trees have to be dormant and frozen so we started tapping,” Branon said, adding that they can make a clean hole in the wood when it’s frozen. “But we got the rain a week ago so the trees warmed up, so the sap is running from the trees.” They have now around 50,000 gallons of sap ready to be turned into syrup.

It’s not the first time a December warm spell has brought an early start to the sugaring season. 

“Last year, we also started boiling on Dec. 20,” said Branon. “We used to tap in February, but now you get to start earlier because the weather patterns are changing.” 

While the sap was boiling, Branon took a mini glass to tap a little syrup from a tube to taste it. 

“This is a dark side of medium Amber,” she said. The syrup being made that day will be sold in May to distributors, larger companies specializing in beer or granola, or bakeries that will use it for bread and pastries, said Branon.

“This is processing syrup,” said Branon, pointing to the gallons of maple syrup from an earlier batch ready to be shipped to Klinger’s bakery in Burlington. “It might smell sweet, but it’s a little off flavor, like you wouldn’t want to drink that. But it’s great when you’re cooking.” 

The sugar house still has plenty of syrup left from last April, including a large and tasty batch made during the solar eclipse, said Branon. The Branons are using this reserve to create a variety of products, from maple jelly, cream, and sugar to vinegar, candy, seasoning, and even a chipotle rub.

In the kitchen, Michelle Ryan, a teacher turned sugarer, was boiling syrup from last April to turn into jelly. 

“People started ordering for Christmas like crazy. There’s at least 60 packages in one day that left here a week and a half ago,” Ryan said. “Just so it would arrive in time for Christmas.”

Read the story on VTDigger here: Warm weather spell accelerates maple syrup production.

In a case the prosecutor said involved “a strong component” of mental illness, Mbyayenge Mafuta pleaded guilty Thursday morning to charges of voluntary manslaughter and aggravated assault in the death of his cellmate at the Northwest State Correctional Facility nearly two years ago.

During a brief court hearing in Franklin County criminal court, State’s Attorney Bram Kranichfeld told Judge Alison Arms that the family of the victim, Jeffery Hall, “fully supported” the plea deal that had been reached. That agreement will see Mafuta, 23, serve a 15-to-30 year sentence on the two charges, with all but eight years suspended. With credit for time served, Mafuta will spend six more years in jail, and he will be placed on probation for 25 years when he completes his jail time.

“We recognize the fact that Mr. Mafuta has taken responsibility for his actions,” Kranichfeld told the judge. “Our hope is that Mr. Mafuta engages in his treatment” following the probationary period, the prosecutor added, citing a “strong component in this case of mental health and mental illness.”

Seated in court between two of his attorneys, Mafuta said little during the 15-minute hearing, other than to respond “yes” in entering the two guilty pleas, and acknowledging he understood the terms of the agreement.

Hall’s family chose not to attend the hearing, Kranichfeld said, although they did request to be present for the sentencing portion of the case, which is expected once a pre-sentence investigation is completed within 45 days.

On Dec. 22, 2022, Mafuta attacked Hall, kicking him repeatedly in the head in the cell that the two men shared, according to investigators. Mafuta believed Hall had stolen items from other incarcerated individuals, court records indicate.

The attack came just three days after Mafuta was returned to the prison’s general population after being placed in solitary confinement when he told guards that he “was hearing voices and they would not stop,” according to a police affidavit filed in the case. 

At the time, a behavior health coordinator for VitalCore Health Strategies, the private prison medical contractor at the time, reported that a mental health professional “was able to check in with Mr. Mafuta and we feel he is okay to come off full precautions and camera status.”

The coordinator said it was determined that Mafuta “had no current thoughts” of doing harm to himself or others, according to a police affidavit.

Hall died in March 2023 from the injuries he sustained in the attack, and the medical examiner later ruled his death a homicide, leading to murder charges being brought in the case.

In August, Hall’s estate filed a wrongful death lawsuit against VitalCore, as first reported in Seven Days. That lawsuit cites Mafuta’s reported multiple mental illness diagnoses.

Mafuta was being held at the Northwest facility after being charged with vandalizing 33 homes in Burlington in August 2022. He was returned to the same facility following Thursday’s court appearance.

Alan Keays contributed to this report.

 Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated the type of manslaughter charge that Mbyayenge Mafuta pleaded guilty to.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Plea deal reached in assault at Northwest correctional facility that led to incarcerated man’s death.

For years, a banner hanging over St. Albans City’s North Main Street broadcast a message to those passing below: “All Are Welcome Here.” 

Last month, the banner was briefly replaced with a new one delivering a more terse message: “Welcome.”

City Manager Dominic Cloud explained at a city council meeting last month that he’d made the switch to reflect priorities the city’s elected officials had conveyed to him over the last several months — that the city must do more to deter petty crime and open substance use in the downtown area.

The move wasn’t well-received by everyone at that meeting. “We all know the problems we’re facing, whether it’s homelessness or public safety, they’re not going to be solved by changing words on a sign,” said Erik Johnson, the city’s Ward 5 councilor.

“The message ‘All Are Welcome’ isn’t about inviting trouble,” he continued. “It’s about building a place where people can feel that they belong, and where we work together to carry each other.”

Cloud told the meeting attendees that “‘All Are Welcome Except Dealers, Addicts and Thieves’ seems a bit much for a sign, but that’s what I was feeling when I changed the friggin’ sign.” He went on, “So, if you want me to change it back, that’s a legitimate perspective, I get it, but that’s where I was coming from.”

Ultimately, the original banner was restored, with as little fanfare as when it was first replaced. 

But the dustup hinted at a broader debate brewing in the northern city. St. Albans City, like other downtown communities in Vermont, is grappling with a significant uptick in petty crime, which police say has been driven mainly by a small number of repeat offenders.

People with lengthy criminal records, arrested for minor crimes like retail theft or public disturbances, are often back out on the street hours later. Some days, police in St. Albans respond to the same perpetrators multiple times a day.

It’s fueled a growing feeling of frustration and helplessness among residents, who’ve taken to venting on social media forums.

“It’s overwhelming,” said Roland Prior, a longtime resident. “People are just scared, disgusted, very concerned.”

Things appeared to reach a boiling point this summer during community public safety forums and at council meetings. Officials in September began questioning whether a state-sponsored needle exchange program should be operating within city boundaries. And, according to both state representative candidates, the issue contributed to residents voting out the Democratic incumbent, Rep. Mike McCarthy, last Tuesday.

McCarthy said he felt issues around education and property taxes were the main drivers of his loss, but public safety “did contribute in part.”

Republican Joe Luneau, meanwhile, said affordability and public safety were “first and second in people’s minds” during his campaign.

“The feelings of a lot of voters is that… there aren’t appropriate consequences for negative behavior — stealing somebody’s packages from their porch or doing drugs in the open during the day,” Luneau said in an interview. “People are not happy with the fact that there’s open drug use during the day in our downtown core, and when somebody’s property is robbed, nothing happens to the perpetrators. It’s a problem.”

As the city continues to seek solutions, residents have started turning to one another to keep an eye out. They’ve formed or revived several neighborhood watch groups in recent weeks with help from the police department, which last month held a public information meeting for residents interested in starting a group.

“It’s really about just knowing your neighbors and looking out for each other and connecting with each other,” said Trudy Cioffi, the city’s Ward 4 councilor, who is involved in one of the city’s neighborhood watch groups.

But other residents are espousing a more radical, and at times violent, rhetoric on social media forums and, sometimes, at in-person meetings. Some people, frustrated with repeat offenders, have suggested taking matters into their own hands, while others have proposed forcibly removing people sleeping in tents or campsites.

“That’s why you have to shoot and kill them,” one comment posted to a local Facebook forum reads. “Cops and courts do nothing just let them go.”

The spirit of vigilantism online has taken some aback, while others have questioned how seriously that rhetoric should be taken.

“There’s a real problem,” McCarthy said, “and then there’s a magnification that happens on Facebook.”

‘High Flyers’

Since last year, instances of retail theft, disturbances, trespassing, and other petty crime have increased substantially, while major crime statistics have remained level, according to St. Albans City Police Chief Maurice Lamothe.

Incidents of retail theft increased from 58 last year to 229 this year, he said at a September city council meeting. Incidents of trespassing, meanwhile, jumped from 44 to 190, and disturbances — public fights or arguments — went up from 170 to 361.

Much of that, Lamothe said, can be attributed to “high flyers” — about 15 or so people in the city struggling with substance use issues who are routinely the subject of police calls. It has hampered response times, and the police department has struggled to keep up, according to Cloud.

“We’re feeling a great deal of frustration,” Lamothe said in September. “We are dealing with the same people.”

Cloud, at a meeting last month, suggested the situation was improving with the implementation of legislation like Act 138, which lifted the $200 cap on bail for people charged with another crime while awaiting trial, and Act 128, which increased penalties for low-level retail theft. 

“Even though they’re getting let out of jail they are spending some time in jail, so (the police are) beginning to be able to catch their breath,” he said.

Lamothe, meanwhile, pointed to a new street crimes unit within the police department aimed at dealing with nuisance calls, which he said will soon be staffed by two police officers and could begin to make a difference.

But officials admit that petty crime, fueled by a staggering substance use crisis, at times feels like an intractable problem. “We’re trying to get the place under control, right, and it’s not right now,” said Cloud. 

The city’s public safety committee, composed of councilors Cioffi, Marie Bessette, Newell Decker and Mayor Tim Smith, first convened in August and has met every other week since. It has tried to identify the problem and potential solutions.

“What we’re finding is a lot of the challenges we have, we don’t necessarily have the power to solve them as a committee, or even as a city council,” Cioffi said.

‘A loss of trust’

While the police and city try to adapt, certain things seem more and more routine for residents — be it packages stolen from porches, or vehicles broken into in the middle of the night.

“You used to at least be able to leave your car out in your yard and, gee, if you forgot to lock it, you know, you got up the next morning and nothing had been touched. I mean, those days are gone,” Bessette, the city’s Ward 3 councilor, said in an interview. “There’s a loss of trust now… We’ve just kind of lost that certain security that we once had.”

In response, the city is seeing a growing interest in neighborhood watch groups, and residents have started several in recent weeks.

The new groups have had help from the St. Albans City Police Department, which held an informational meeting in October on how to get a neighborhood watch group started.

The hope, Lt. Jason Wetherby said at the meeting, is to develop good programs in the city and meet with the groups to keep open lines of communication, according to reporting from the Saint Albans Messenger.

Wetherby and Lamothe did not respond to requests for an interview.

Bessette said she revived her neighborhood watch group after seeing the outcry over public safety this summer. The group has since started a text thread, in which, if someone sees something suspicious in the neighborhood — someone unfamiliar on a porch, or rummaging through a car — neighbors can send alerts to the rest of the group.

Cioffi, who started a group in her neighborhood, said 25 different households came out to the Ward 4 meeting. And Bessette has heard from residents in other wards hoping to start their own groups. 

For Bessette, the group is about connecting with your neighbors as much as it is keeping an eye out for each other.

“I think the more widespread it gets, I think the better off the city is going to be,” Bessette said. “It’s a connection with neighbors. For me, it’s a real camaraderie of neighbors and neighbors getting together and just looking out for each other.”

Cioffi and Bessette have pointed to the neighborhood watch groups as better alternatives than social media, where the rhetoric about public safety can be worrying.

“I get it. The people are angry and they’re frustrated and they’re getting sick of being ripped off,” Bessette said. “But you can’t take it to the far extreme by handling things yourself.”

St. Albans Facebook groups are replete with Ring camera footage of suspicious people walking through town. It’s led to an at times inflamed rhetoric online that has worried some residents.

“I think there’s a little bit of a kind of vigilante spirit to some of the comments I’m seeing on some of these community Facebook groups that are not helpful,” McCarthy said.

Facebook posts compiled by residents in the city and reviewed by VTDigger show an at times angry reaction to the petty crime, with multiple posts suggesting residents attack or try to harm people who are considered suspicious.

“Time for armed neighborhood watch program,” one comment reads. “We need to start taking matters into our own hands… This is getting out of control,” another reads.

Another comment, posted by a moderator of the All Things St. Albans Vermont Facebook group, suggested residents should “march into the camps, tell them to pack their shit and then walk them to the bus stop and stay there until they all get on it and leave. Do this with every encampment.”

Cioffi said she understands there is fear in the community. “I don’t feel unsafe in St. Albans. I don’t love all that I’m seeing, but I don’t feel unsafe,” she said. “But some people do, and that’s a real, valid concern that people have.”

But she added that she worries what could happen if people take matters into their own hands.

“When you have been victimized — and when someone tries your car door on the regular, you are a victim, and that is against the law. So, I understand,” she said. “I do worry that people are going to actually not just say that they’re going to do something… if they actually catch a person in the act, I mean, yeah, I’m worried about that.”

Tanner McCuin, a St. Albans resident, said there’s a lot of fear mongering in the community that is driving the online rhetoric.

“Ninety-five percent of that is empty rhetoric, no doubt about it,” said McCuin. “But when does empty rhetoric cross the line?”

Correction: Due to an editing error, an earlier version of this story omitted Joe Luneau’s first name.

Read the story on VTDigger here: ‘It’s overwhelming’: In St. Albans City, petty crime prompts frustrated residents to organize.

A Vermont judge is considering whether to continue to hold an Enosburgh man charged with killing his father and seriously injuring his mother with a baseball bat earlier this month in custody without bail.

Jordan Lawyer, 29, through his attorney, pleaded not guilty Oct. 7 to several charges including second-degree murder and aggravated assault stemming from the attack on his parents three days earlier at a home they all shared.

He has been held in custody without bail since his arrest shortly after the incident.

At a hearing Wednesday afternoon in Franklin County Superior criminal court in St. Albans, Judge Alison Arms heard arguments from the prosecutor and Lawyer’s defense attorney over whether Lawyer should remain in prison as he awaits trial.

“This brutal killing demonstrates the gravity of the defendant’s public safety risk,” Franklin County Deputy State’s Attorney Andrew Watts told the judge, arguing that the evidence against Lawyer met the standard needed to hold a person without bail.

“The defendant left the scene shortly after the homicide in a motor vehicle,” the prosecutor added. “(Lawyer) intended to evade officers pursuing him on public highways at a high speed.”

Lawyer ultimately crashed into a law enforcement vehicle and was taken into custody, Watts said.

Defense attorney Paul Groce contended that Lawyer was a lifelong resident of Franklin County and should be entitled to have bail set. However, he also noted that Lawyer was unlikely to be able to post any bail amount.

“At this phase,” Groce said, “certainly he doesn’t have money to post bail, so if he was given bail he probably would not leave the facility, but it certainly wouldn’t be a hold without bail, your honor.”  

Arms said she would make a decision about whether to set bail at a later time. 

According to charging documents, Lawyer repeatedly struck both his father, Todd Lawyer, and his mother, Robin Lawyer, with a baseball bat as they returned to their home on the morning of Oct. 4.

Jordan Lawyer was outside the residence when they arrived, the documents stated. According to a statement provided by his mother to investigators, he had removed the furniture from inside the residence.  

Todd Lawyer, 54, was killed in the attack, with the Vermont Chief Medical Examiner’s Officer determining his cause of death to be blunt force trauma to his head.

Robin Lawyer, 58, who police said suffered significant injuries, was hospitalized but has since been released. 

At Wednesday’s hearing, Watts played a video statement from Robin Lawyer who described the attack. “He just had that look on his face,” she said, referring to her son. “I know that look. He wasn’t there. Jordan was not there.” 

A couple of times during his mother’s recounting of the attack, Jordan Lawyer interrupted the court proceeding, stating in a loud voice, “She’s lying.” 

Twice previously Jordan Lawyer has been found incompetent to stand trial on criminal charges stemming from two previous alleged attacks on his parents, most recently in 2022.

He is currently awaiting a competency evaluation ordered by the judge following his arraignment on the latest charges earlier this month.

Adam Silverman, a Vermont State Police spokesperson, said Wednesday that Lawyer has been the subject of an investigation stemming from his alleged assault of a corrections officer after that arraignment. At the arraignment, Lawyer appeared by video from the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans.

The corrections officer, Silverman added, was taken to the hospital for treatment and was later released that same day. 

Read the story on VTDigger here: Judge weighs bail for Enosburgh man charged in bat attack that killed father, injured mother .

A week after a jury failed, for a second time, to reach a verdict in the assault case against Franklin County Sheriff John Grismore, the prosecutor in the case announced he will not put the sheriff on trial again.

Grand Isle State’s Attorney Doug DiSabito said Monday that he’d dismissed the case “with prejudice,” which means it cannot be brought back to court. 

Grismore was charged with simple assault stemming from an August 2022 incident in which the then-sheriff’s deputy kicked a shackled detainee — video of which has since been widely published.

During two separate proceedings, first in late July and then again earlier this month, Judge Samuel Hoar declared a mistrial because the two slates of jurors could not reach a unanimous decision over whether Grismore was guilty. In the recent proceedings, jurors spent more than 17 hours deliberating over three days before Hoar determined he had seen enough. 

“After any mistrial, I review a case and evaluate all the circumstances and decide whether another trial is a good use of public resources and is in the interests of justice,” DiSabito said in a press release. “I did that here and have determined that a third trial is not in the public interest.”

Notably, DiSabito said he might have taken the case to trial again had Grismore not already been sanctioned by the Vermont Criminal Justice Council, which oversees police conduct in the state.

Last December, the council found that in kicking the detainee in 2022, Grismore had violated the state’s policy on police use of force. As a result, the council voted to revoke his law enforcement officer certification. 

To be sure, the policy violation had no legal bearing on Grismore’s ability to serve as sheriff under Vermont law. (Nor would a criminal conviction, had jurors made that determination.)

But the council’s decision did limit what Grismore can do on the job. He is no longer allowed to participate in many facets of standard police work, the criminal justice council’s chair said at the time, such as investigating crimes or going out on patrols.

“Had the Vermont CJC not taken this definitive action, the right thing in this matter would likely have been to take this to trial again,” DiSabito said Monday. But he emphasized that “would not be happening.”

“This case is now closed,” he said.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Prosecutor dismisses assault charge against Franklin County Sheriff John Grismore.

ST. ALBANS — A Vermont judge ordered a competency evaluation Monday for an Enosburgh man charged with murder and felony assault for allegedly beating his father to death and seriously injuring his mother late last week at a home they all shared.

Jordan Lawyer, 29, appeared by video from the Northwest State Correctional Facility for his arraignment Monday afternoon in Franklin County Superior criminal court in St. Albans where he has been held since his arrest Friday.

Lawyer, through his attorney, entered not guilty pleas to a charge of second-degree murder and aggravated assault stemming from the attack on his parents. He also entered not guilty pleas to charges of eluding police and aggravated assault arising from a crash that led to him being taken into custody.  

Prosecutors alleged Lawyer repeatedly struck both his 54-year-old father, Todd Lawyer, and his 58-year-old mother, Robin Lawyer, with a baseball bat Friday morning at their home in Enosburgh.

Todd Lawyer was killed in the attack. The Vermont Chief Medical Examiner’s Officer determined his cause of death to be blunt force trauma to his head and ruled it a homicide.

Robin Lawyer, who police said suffered significant injuries, had been hospitalized for treatment for her injuries and was reported to be in stable condition Friday. Her condition was not available Monday.  

Jordan Lawyer had twice previously been found incompetent to stand trial on charges stemming from two previous alleged attacks on his parents, most recently in 2022.

“This case is a wakeup call that we urgently need to reexamine our mental health system in Vermont and particularly in regard to those who are a threat to themselves and others,” Franklin County State’s Attorney Bram Kranichfeld said following Monday’s court proceeding. 

“What we need to reform and what we need to reexamine are cases where there’s an intersection between mental health and the criminal justice system,” Kranichfeld added. “In my personal opinion, the system, as it functions right now, is not working.”  

During the hearing, Judge Alison Arms granted a request by Kranichfeld to hold Jordan Lawyer without bail pending a hearing to determine the strength of the evidence in the case against him. 

Paul Groce, an attorney representing Lawyer, did not contest the hold-without-bail order for his client. 

Arms also ordered a competency evaluation for Lawyer. 

The incident leading to the charges took place Friday morning when Robin Lawyer called police around 8:45 a.m. She reported to a 911 dispatcher that her son, whom she described as schizophrenic, was burning furniture and smashing windows at their residence, according to charging documents made public Monday. 

Moments later, the filing added, a neighbor of the Lawyers’ called police reporting that Todd Lawyer had been shot and Robin Lawyer was injured.

Arriving officers found Todd Lawyer dead on the ground outside, about 25 yards from the front of his residence, the charging documents stated. 

Robin Lawyer, who had injuries to her left forearm and forehead, told an emergency medical worker at the scene that she and her husband had returned home earlier Friday morning and saw their son, Jordan Lawyer, burning furniture in the front yard, according to the filing. 

Later, at the Northwestern Medical Center in St. Albans where she was taken for treatment for her injuries, she reported that after seeing their son burning furniture Todd Lawyer told him he had to leave and could no longer live at the residence, the charging documents stated.

Todd Lawyer, who had picked up a bat to protect himself, Robin Lawyer told an investigator, was then struck by Jordan Lawyer, also wielding a bat. 

Robin Lawyer added that she tried to protect her husband, but Jordan Lawyer kept striking him as well as her during the attack, the charging documents stated. 

She said she was able to lock herself in the house and call police for help, the filing added. 

“She screamed for help, but no one came,” Robin Lawyer told the investigator, according to the charging documents. 

A neighbor reported that as Robin Lawyer was fleeing her home he had her come into his residence where she asked for his help. The neighbor also reported that Robin Lawyer had recalled her husband saying during the attack, “Son, stop, I love you,” the charging documents stated. 

Jordan Lawyer had left the home before police arrived, taking off in his parents’ black Jeep Grand Cherokee, according to the charging documents. 

He was taken into custody later Friday morning after the Jeep he was driving collided with a vehicle driven by a game warden in central Enosburgh, the filing stated. 

At the time he was taken into custody, the charging documents stated, he had a white baseball bat with blood on it.

If convicted of the charges against him, Lawyer faces up to life in prison. 

Read the story on VTDigger here: Judge orders competency evaluation for man accused of killing father and injuring mother with bat .

Two months after a jury failed to reach a verdict over whether Franklin County Sheriff John Grismore committed assault when he kicked a shackled detainee in 2022, the sheriff’s case is back in court this week as prosecutors try, again, to convict him.

In late July, Judge Samuel Hoar declared a mistrial in Grismore’s case because the Grand Isle County jury could not come to a unanimous decision. The sheriff has been charged with simple assault for repeatedly kicking Jeremy Burrows in the groin in a department holding cell, video footage of which was widely published soon after.

But Hoar is now moving forward with a redo of the summer’s proceedings. Jurors were being selected for the trial redux on Monday, with the trial slated to start as soon as that afternoon, according to Grand Isle State’s Attorney Doug DiSabito, who is prosecuting the case. Officials have blocked off time for the trial through Thursday, a court calendar shows.

If he is convicted, Grismore could face up to a year in prison, a $1,000 fine, or both. 

A state panel has already found that Grismore’s actions violated Vermont’s policy on police use-of-force. As a result, they revoked his law enforcement officer certification last year. But this week’s trial, like the proceedings in July, centers on whether or not the sheriff also violated criminal law.

Grismore, who was a deputy sheriff at the time of the incident, has maintained that he did nothing wrong. In the earlier trial, he and his attorney argued that his actions helped two other deputies — who were also in the holding cell at the time — get the detained man under control. Burrows appears heavily intoxicated, and at times belligerent, in the events leading up to the incident at the sheriff’s department, body camera footage shows.

Meanwhile, DiSabito pointed to court testimony from those two other deputies, who said they did not think Grismore’s actions were necessary. One of the deputies, Karry Andileigh, was so concerned by the kicks that she moved her body in between Burrows and Grismore moments after in order to protect Burrows, she told the jury in July. 

Both Grismore and Burrows took the stand during the first trial. Burrows told the jury that the kicks caused him pain and have since made him scared of the police.

At the end of the trial in July, which lasted three days, jurors spent more than five hours deliberating. But the case’s lead juror was “convinced” the panel could not reach a verdict, the juror told Hoar. 

Read the story on VTDigger here: Franklin County Sheriff John Grismore to be tried on assault charge again.

As the St. Albans City community continues to confront a severe substance use crisis, officials there have begun questioning whether state-sponsored needle exchange programs should be operating within city boundaries.

Frustration over petty crime, substance use, and the growing number of littered syringes throughout the city has brought the community to a boil. It spilled over during a tense council meeting earlier this month, when officials from two service providers, Vermont CARES and the Howard Center, were invited to field questions from city councilors and the public.

Both organizations operate harm-reduction programs in St. Albans City. 

“I can tell you from a personal perspective, I do not favor the free needle program,” Mayor Tim Smith said at the Sept. 9 council meeting to applause from the audience. “This is not helping us in any shape or form when our kids are at risk of picking up a needle… More needles isn’t solving our problem. I get there’s probably some language, some studies that say it does, but from a community perspective, it does us no good.”

Vermont CARES, an organization formed in 1985, has field offices in Barre, Rutland and St. Johnsbury, and spends about two to three hours a week in Franklin County. The group drives around a van to bring sterile syringes to several locations and provides safe disposal of used needles. It partners with local organizations and also distributes naloxone and offers HIV and Hepatitis C testing.

Syringe service programs have been shown to prevent the spread of disease like HIV or Hepatitis C, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and can offer support to those struggling with substance use disorder by connecting them with services.

“We do work specifically with people who are in active use, because we do believe that everybody, whether you are in active use or not in active use, actually deserves to have access to health services and the support that we often need that we don’t get in other places,” Theresa Vezina, Vermont CARES’ executive director, said during the Sept. 9 meeting. 

The organization has operated in Franklin County since 2014, stopping in St. Albans but also making its way to Grand Isle County and more rural parts of Franklin County as well. It receives funding from the state, the federal government and from private foundations and is a state-sponsored program that operates under the guidance of the state Department of Health.

According to Vezina, the program gets back 80% of the needles it gives out in the 11 counties.

But loose syringes have become “a way of life” in St. Albans, according to City Manager Dominic Cloud. The public has become “outraged,” he said, and City Hall leaders are questioning whether they should continue allowing the practice within city boundaries. “The city’s experiencing a huge impact from it,” Cloud continued, noting that city parks and other public facilities are routinely littered with syringes. “That says that we’re leaning a little bit too much towards protecting the health of those who are suffering from addiction,” he said.

“I think that the empathy that we have had in the past might be waning a little bit,” City Councilor Trudy Cioffi said during the meeting. “Because some folks are starting to come into our cars, and into our porches and into our houses.”

Smith, who did not respond to emails and calls requesting an interview, said during the council meeting that unless the organizations required one-for-one programs — where people accessing sterile syringes were required to exchange an old needle — “you won’t have my support.”

In a Thursday interview, Vezina said she was taken aback by the comments at the council meeting. “I’ll be honest with you… I’ve been with Vermont CARES 13 years now, and I’ve never in 13 years experienced as hostile as what we experienced at the city council meeting,” she said. “It was astounding… and really was sad to see how far away from humanity that this community has become.”

‘A much bigger issue’

The uproar directed at the city’s needle exchange programs comes as St. Albans City, like many Vermont towns, grapples with concerns about crime, substance use, and homelessness. More than two dozen residents packed into the Sept. 9 meeting to express their growing frustration with the state of their city.

Vezina said she felt the anger from the council and public “is about something much larger than just our syringe service program operating in St. Albans.”

“This is a much bigger issue, quite honestly,” she said. “This is a pretty extreme example of pushback.”

St. Albans City Police Chief Maurice Lamothe reported that instances of retail theft, disturbances, trespassing, and other petty crime have increased substantially from last year, although violent crime statistics have remained level.

“It’s basically the nuisance calls that are crushing us right now,” Lamothe said. Fifteen repeat offenders give the police department the most trouble, the chief said.

Diane Wheeler, a Franklin County deputy state’s attorney, also expressed frustration at the council meeting over the “repetitive petty criminals that are caught wreaking havoc in the community at this time.” 

Much attention also focused on how to handle a growing homelessness crisis. The city has disbanded at least two encampments where residents without shelter have camped out, officials said.

Multiple community members and city officials suggested that unhoused residents were coming to St. Albans from elsewhere.

“Five years ago I could go into Martha’s Kitchen and I would know everyone at least by face, not by name. And I go in now and I know a few, but I don’t know many,” said Smith, later asking Lamothe and Wheeler “where are we attracting some of these individuals from?”

The city has proposed a handful of solutions to address residents’ concerns. Councilor Tim Hawkins said he was planning to propose an ordinance that would levy fines on absentee landlords, and would “require that they have knowledge of the people that go in and out of the property,” he said during the meeting.

The police department, meanwhile, is standing up a new street crimes unit. Many residents during the meeting also wanted to know whether a neighborhood watch group could help the police get a handle on the issue.

But many suggested the needle exchange programs, rather than presenting a solution, have been fueling the issues St. Albans faces.

‘You can’t just walk in’

Cloud said the council is “reflecting on what their next step is, but at this point they’re still in the deliberation stage.”

Hawkins, the city councilor, suggested at the meeting that he could draft an ordinance banning needle exchanges from downtown St. Albans — a proposal that met with applause from the audience.

Hawkins told Vezina “it would be nice if” Vermont CARES would “come in here and talk” to the city about its program, “because I don’t ever remember seeing any license for you to be operating in the city of St. Albans.”

“This council can regulate that in the municipality anytime they want,” he said. “You can’t just walk in and say, ‘Hey, look, I’m going to start giving away free needles in the community.'”

Hawkins and Cioffi, when reached by email, referred questions to Cloud, and said all media inquiries must go through the city manager or mayor.

Vermont CARES, the Howard Center and city officials agreed that a one-on-one meeting should be scheduled to discuss harm reduction practices, but nothing has been scheduled yet, according to Vezina and Cloud.

A spokesperson for the Howard Center was unable to answer questions this week.

Councilors Cioffi and Hawkins did not respond to questions about whether they would put forth an ordinance limiting the needle exchange programs in any way, but they and other officials during the meeting said they were hesitant to continue the program.

“I believe you that it’s making a difference health-wise,” Cioffi said to Vezina during the meeting. “But what I see is that the drug activity and the level of addiction that I see people suffering with is so huge that it makes me wonder, is this really helping, or is it just perpetuating a problem?”

Correction: An earlier version of this story misrendered quotes from Tim Smith, Theresa Vezina and Tim Hawkins.

Read the story on VTDigger here: St. Albans City questions needle exchange programs amid growing public safety concerns.

Updated at 4:37 p.m.

ST. ALBANS — A Franklin County jury found former Georgia Elementary and Middle School teacher Matthew Toof not guilty of allegations that he repeatedly sexually assaulted one of his students over a period of nearly six years starting in 2016. 

Toof, who was charged in 2021 with aggravated repeated sexual assault of a child and lewd and lascivious conduct involving a child, was acquited on both counts after jurors deliberated for about three hours Friday in Franklin County Superior criminal court.

The verdict came at the end of a three-day trial that saw both Toof and the female student — who was 11 at the time the alleged assaults began — take the stand. 

Prosecutors had identified the student in court records only by her initials. VTDigger does not typically publish the names of minors involved in criminal cases or the names of victims of alleged sexual assault. 

The case was further complicated by the fact — to which Toof himself testified — that the 42-year-old was having an affair with the student’s mother over at least some of the same time period during which he was accused of sexually assaulting the student.  

Toof was fired by Georgia’s Board of School Directors in 2021, after he was charged. 

Robert Kaplan, Toof’s attorney, praised the jury’s verdict in a statement Monday.

“After three years living under the dark cloud of horrific accusations, Matthew Toof was finally vindicated by a jury of his peers,” Kaplan said in an email. “Matt looks forward to rebuilding his life and moving on from this difficult experience.”

According to court records, the student first came forward with allegations that Toof had long been sexually assaulting her in late 2021. 

Staff at the Georgia school had filed two reports with the state Department for Children and Families in 2016 recounting “concerning” interactions they observed between Toof and the student, prosecutors said. The agency did not accept either report, though, court records show, because the reports didn’t meet the criteria for sexual abuse. 

Prosecutors alleged that Toof sexually assaulted the student in a school classroom, at the student’s home and while on vacation with the student and her family.

Kaplan told the jury in closing arguments Friday that the case came down to “a question of believing (the student) or not.” He urged the jury to instead believe Toof, who had repeatedly denied the student’s recounting and called the allegations “ludicrous.”

At the same time, Diane Wheeler — a deputy Franklin County state’s attorney who was prosecuting the case — argued to jurors that the student’s word stood on its own.

“That’s all the evidence you need to decide, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the defendant engaged in (this) sexual behavior,” Wheeler said Friday afternoon.

Bram Kranichfeld, the Franklin County State’s Attorney, said in an interview Monday that his office was “disappointed in the outcome in this case, but we respect the jury’s decision.” 

“We continue to take seriously our mission to protect our most vulnerable victims, especially children, and to pursue justice against perpetrators of sexual violence,” Kranichfeld said.

He noted that the office cannot appeal the jury’s ruling. 

Read the story on VTDigger here: Jury finds former Georgia teacher not guilty of sexually assaulting student.

A federal judge rejected a challenge to the state’s Public Utility Commission brought by a national telecommunications company whose proposal to build a 140-foot radio tower in Enosburgh was shot down by the state regulatory panel last year. 

Industrial Tower and Wireless was appealing the panel’s decision in a civil lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Burlington. The Massachusetts-based company’s plans were for the tower to provide two-way radio and emergency dispatch services that it said would fill a communications gap long frustrating local first responders and businesses.

The company also planned for enough space to be available on the tower for up to five cell phone carriers to install antennas there — though no carriers were willing to sign onto a deal until the project was approved, according to federal court records. 

The Public Utility Commission ultimately found that the proposed tower was taller than it needed to be and would be “obtrusive” to its surrounding area as a result. The panel suggested it might have approved a slightly shorter, 120-foot-tall tower, finding that would be less conspicuous while achieving most of the company’s objectives.

In the civil suit, Industrial Tower and Wireless asked Judge Geoffrey Crawford to order the utility commissioners to greenlight the tower as proposed. Instead, on Aug. 19, he issued a summary judgment against the company, meaning the case won’t go to trial. 

In court filings, lawyers for Industrial Tower and Wireless maintained that the tower had to reach 140 feet. They pointed to comments from Maurice Lamothe, chief of the St. Albans Police Department, who previously told regulators that the emergency dispatch equipment his agency planned to put on the tower would work best at that height. A shorter structure would also reduce the number of cellular antennas the company could install, the lawyers argued. 

To that point, the attorneys said, regulators’ denial violated a federal telecommunications law meant to ensure the public’s access to wireless coverage. They also argued that the denial relied on inadequate evidence about the project’s impact on the surrounding area — and that, in fact, the tower would be hardly noticeable to neighbors, if at all.

Vermont law requires the utility commissioners to provide what’s known as “substantial deference” to the recommendations of a regional planning commission before making a decision. In this case, a project review committee from the Northwest Regional Planning Commission came out against the project, saying that its public safety benefits would not outweigh its drawbacks.

“The project’s height is not compatible with the scenic rural character of the Bordoville hamlet and has a negative impact on the area’s historic resources,” Emily Klofft, a planner at the organization, wrote in testimony to the utility commission last year.

Klofft’s comments echoed concerns about the tower raised by some neighbors in testimony to regulators and at a public meeting in Enosburgh in 2022. Other local residents, though, had voiced strong support for the proposal.

Crawford wrote in his judgment that the case “illustrated a tradeoff between aesthetics and (radio frequency) performance.” But he ultimately came down on the side of the utility commission, finding there was “substantial evidence” that a 140-foot structure would create a “negative visual impact on the community.” 

Crawford also tied debate about the project’s merits to broader conversations about the balance between preserving natural views and building new infrastructure in the state. 

“Senator Patrick Leahy was quoted in 1998 as stating that Vermonters did not wish to be left out of the telecommunications age, but also did not want Vermont ‘turned into a giant pincushion with 200-foot towers sticking out of every mountain and valley,’” the judge wrote, referring to an article published in the New York Times.

In this case, Crawford added “some of the same themes appear.”

Industrial Tower and Wireless has until late September to file an appeal of the judge’s ruling. Attorneys for the company did not respond to a request for comment Friday.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Federal judge deals another blow to proposed Enosburgh radio tower.

Mosquitoes in Alburgh and Swanton have tested positive for eastern equine encephalitis virus, according to a Friday press release from the Vermont Department of Health and the Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets.

The virus is rare in humans, but can cause serious illness or even death. The release clarified that the majority of people who contract the virus will have mild or nonexistent symptoms. The potential for infection is highest in late summer and early fall, according to the release.

The Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets collected the positive samples on July 22.

“Finding EEE virus in mosquitoes is a warning sign,” Health Commissioner Mark Levine said in the release. “Please take steps to protect yourself and your family from mosquito bites.”

The health department advises wearing long sleeves, using bug spray, limiting outdoor time around dusk and minimizing standing water near living areas. Covering strollers and playpens with mosquito netting, and repairing window screens, are also good precautions, according to the release.

The virus was previously detected in Vermont mosquitoes in August 2023, when at least one horse was infected in Swanton. Prior to that, “Triple E” had not been found in the state since 2015. 

Two Vermonters died from the virus in 2012, the only confirmed human cases in the state’s history. While there is a vaccine for horses, there is no specific treatment for humans, according to the release.

Environmental Surveillance Program Manager Patti Casey said that mosquito counts have ballooned this year, registering three to four times higher than cumulative averages since 2015. 

Standing water from the recent floods might be making a significant difference, according to Casey. “Floodwaters leave impounded water in places where mosquitoes love,” she said.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Mosquitoes in Grand Isle and Franklin counties test positive for EEE virus.

Updated at 5:06 p.m.

ST. ALBANS — The man charged with aggravated murder in last week’s death of 82-year-old Roberta Martin allegedly sexually assaulted the Enosburgh woman before killing her and disposing of her burned remains about three-quarters of a mile from her home, according to court documents.

Darren Martell, 23, pleaded not guilty Friday afternoon in Franklin County Superior criminal court in St. Albans on the charge of aggravated murder in Martin’s death. Judge Robert Katims granted a prosecutor’s request to hold Martell without bail.

In a four-page affidavit filed in support of the aggravated murder charge, Vermont State Police Det. Sgt. Tyson Kinney spelled out details of the investigation. It began the morning of July 17 when neighbors, alerted by the victim’s daughter, went to the Butternut Hollow Road home to check on Martin. She last spoke with her daughter late in the evening on July 16.

The neighbors reported finding an open sliding door and an air conditioning unit ripped from the window, along with an unmade bed and a dresser drawer left open, but no sign of Martin.

“They advised this was very abnormal for Roberta because she was a very tidy and regimented individual who typically kept to the same schedule every day,” Kinney wrote.

Police also found duct tape on the floor of the bedroom and “dolly cart” tracks leading from the house to a neighboring property, Kinney wrote.

That same day, state police interviewed neighbors, including Martell, who was staying at a camper parked on a nearby property. Returning to the same property a day later, detectives found “several pieces of gray duct tape on the ground near one of the fire pits that was cleaned out by Darren the day before,” Kinney wrote.

During questioning, Martell initially told police he was living in a house in Grand Isle and had arrived in Enosburgh around 8 a.m. on July 17, but when questioned further, “Darren advised he had lied to detectives and admitted that he had been living in the camper” for the last two months, the affidavit read.

A resident of Sand Hill Road called police to report that she had seen “an unknown male” walking on the road at around 4 a.m. on July 17, wearing clothes that matched the description of those worn by Martell during a subsequent interview with police, Kinney wrote.

On July 21, two detectives went to a pull-off area on Sand Hill Road where an acquaintance of Martell told police he was growing marijuana. The site was about three-quarters of a mile from the missing woman’s home, according to the affidavit.

One detective followed a trail into the woods, where he discovered the partial remains, with additional remains found nearby, Kinney wrote, adding, “the human remains appeared to be burned.”

A post-mortem exam the following day confirmed the remains were those of Martin, according to the affidavit, and additional evidence was collected for testing. On July 25, the state forensic lab notified state police it had “preliminarily determined” that a DNA sample of sperm taken from the victim’s body matched DNA taken from Martell, the affidavit said.

In charging documents, Deputy State’s Attorney Diane Wheeler wrote that Martell “on or about July 17, 2024, was then and there a person who murdered another human being while perpetrating sexual assault, to wit: unlawfully killed ROBERTA MARTIN…”

Martell was arrested on the murder charge late Thursday night while he was in custody at the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans, state police said. He had been held since his arrest Monday on a charge of lewd and lascivious conduct. He was arrested on that charge after police, looking for him for questioning in Martin’s death, found him on a wooded trail in St. Albans, allegedly committing a lewd act. 

Wearing green prison clothing, Martell walked into the courtroom Friday for his arraignment on the murder charge with his ankles and wrists in chains and sat between his attorneys at the defense table. He did not speak during the hearing and mostly looked down during the proceeding. 

Rosanna Chase, a public defender representing Martell, challenged whether there was probable cause to support the aggravated murder since there was no cause of death provided within the police affidavit.

“Additionally, while there is a probable cause for a sexual act based on the DNA, within the four corners of the affidavit there’s no evidence of non-consensual sex,” Chase told the judge.

Chase’s comments drew gasps and groans from Martin’s family and friends, who filled several rows of seats in the courtroom.

Franklin County State’s Attorney Bram Kranichfeld, the prosecutor, said he believed enough evidence was contained within the filing to support the aggravated murder charge and said he expected to “soon” file an additional affidavit providing information from the medical examiner’s office regarding Martin’s cause of death. 

He agreed to remove from the charging documents, at least until the supplemental affidavit was filed, the reference that Martin had been killed by “smothering and blunt trauma.”

Katims, the judge, denied Chase’s challenge, finding there was still enough information within the police affidavit to support the aggravated murder charge.

Martin’s family members declined comment after the hearing.

Kranichfeld, speaking to reporters outside the courthouse following the hearing, wouldn’t comment on whether he expected additional charges to be filed in the case.

“This is a terrible tragedy for our community,” the prosecutor said, adding that his office was “committed to holding the perpetrator of this act accountable and bringing him to justice.”

Maj. Dan Trudeau, head of the state police’s criminal division, also declined following Friday’s hearing to comment on the possibility of additional charges being filed.  

If convicted of aggravated murder, Martell faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Man arraigned in sexual assault and murder of 82-year-old Enosburgh woman.