This story was updated at 6:56 p.m.

BURLINGTON — Teresa Youngblut pleaded not guilty Friday to federal criminal charges that could carry the death penalty in the fatal shooting of a border patrol agent in northern Vermont.

Youngblut appeared at the hearing in federal court in Burlington in an oversized gray crewneck with braided hair. It was the first court hearing since prosecutors obtained an indictment with upgraded charges last month and filed notice they will seek Youngblut’s execution, if convicted of the capital crimes.   

Dennis Robinson, one of three federal prosecutors in court, told the judge near the close of Friday’s hearing that the government’s probe was continuing.

“We are still actively investigating the case,” he said, adding there are “individuals that have worked together to commit the crimes we are investigating.” 

Robinson did not provide names during the hearing of any other people who may be under investigation, or what crimes they may have committed. But he did say he has reason to believe individuals associated with a group are working together and communicating. 

Youngblut, a 21-year-old former Seattle resident, stood beside attorneys and gazed down at the defendant’s table and entered denials to each charge through a green medical mask.

Judge Christina Reiss started with the murder count, asking Youngblut after reading the charge from the indictment, “How do you plead?”

“I plead not guilty,” Youngblut said. 

Youngblut had initially been charged earlier this year with federal firearms and assault charges in connection with a traffic stop that led to the fatal shooting of U.S. Border Patrol Agent David Maland on Interstate 91 in Coventry on the afternoon of Jan. 20. 

The latest indictment charges Youngblut with murdering Maland and assaulting two other agents with a deadly weapon. The upgraded charges allege for the first time that Youngblut fired the fatal shot. 

Youngblut remains held without bail following Friday’s hearing. Youngblut’s parents sat in the second row of the courtroom, about 15 feet behind the defendant’s table.

Prosecutors alleged in charging documents that after the traffic stop on I-91, Youngblut exited the Toyota Prius that had been pulled over and opened fire, resulting in a shootout with law enforcement. 

Maland, 44, of Newport, was killed in the exchange of gunfire, court documents stated, as was Felix Bauckholt, a German national and a passenger in the vehicle Youngblut was driving.

Youngblut and Bauckholt had been linked to a loosely connected group of people known as the Zizians, whose members have been tied to at least six homicides across the country, including a landlord in California and a couple in Pennsylvania.  

Prosecutors in Youngblut’s case have considered federal capital charges for some time, with U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi signaling shortly after taking office in February that she would be pushing for the charges as well.

President Donald Trump issued an executive order on his inauguration day Jan. 20 — the same day as Maland’s fatal shooting — lifting a moratorium on the federal death penalty that was put in place during the Biden administration.

Bondi, in a later directive to federal prosecutors across the country, specifically cited Maland’s death as a case where capital charges would be warranted. 

Vermont has not carried out an execution since 1954, and the state no longer has the death penalty, but Youngblut was charged in federal court, where capital punishment remains an option.

And that option loomed over the discussion in court Friday. The prosecution and defense had a lengthy debate about the sharing of material in the case. Reiss, the judge, said the goal was to prevent the prosecution from obtaining information they were not entitled to have access to. 

Attorneys on both sides answered questions from the judge and proposed protocols to keep that from happening. 

Youngblut’s lawyers argued it was an “unacceptable risk” for privileged information to end up in the hands of the prosecution. 

“That does change every aspect of how we proceed,” attorney Julie Stelzig, one of three lawyers representing Youngblut, told the judge of the death penalty now on the table. Stelzig also spoke of the “heightened scrutiny” that has been brought to the case with the prosecution seeking her client’s execution. 

Stelzig raised specific concerns that Youngblut’s confidential medical records would be incorrectly opened as part of the case. “Our client was shot and is still receiving frequent medical treatment” in jail, she said, referring to injuries Youngblut sustained in the shootout. 

Youngblut’s parents remained silent when asked questions by reporters and walked swiftly past them outside the courthouse following Friday’s hearing. They got into their car across the street and stared straight ahead as they drove away.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Teresa Youngblut denies murder charge, other offenses, in fatal shooting of border patrol agent.

Repeated mistakes from the Burlington Electric Department over four years have prompted state officials to audit the department. They hope to pinpoint what’s going awry in the Queen City’s electric utility department. 

Kerrick Johnson, the commissioner for the Department of Public Service, recommended the audit after the Vermont Public Utility Commission sent him a letter late last month including a list of 11 mistakes Burlington Electric had made in recent years. Many of the listed items detailed errors in how the electric department reported its work and spending to state regulators. 

The utility commission saw a “pattern of errors, inconsistencies and shortfalls,” members wrote in the letter. In response, Johnson proposed that an outside firm audit the utility department “with a specific focus on internal quality controls,” he wrote. 

Like every electric utility department in Vermont, Burlington Electric has a monopoly over its area, Johnson said. The department provides service for over 21,000 residential and commercial accounts, according to Darren Springer, Burlington Electric’s general manager. It also owns two large generating facilities, including a hydropower facility in Winooski and part of the McNeil Generating Station wood-burning plant in Burlington.  

So, it’s important that the department’s reports to regulators are correct, Johnson said in an interview with VTDigger. “The repeated mistakes time after time over a period of years, what that demonstrates is a lack of professional rigor,” he said. 

The electric department “certainly takes accountability” for its mistakes and acknowledges that it’s performing below the state’s expectations, Springer said in an interview with VTDigger.

The electric department does provide a reliable service and receives few complaints from customers, Johnson acknowledged in his letter. 

But some of the department’s mistakes have been costly. 

In 2024, the electric department failed to properly report to officials some of the operations at its Burlington wood-burning plant, costing the department almost $1 million in renewable energy credits, as first reported by Seven Days. The work slipped through the cracks due to staff turnover, Springer said. 

After that, the electric department set up a number of internal checks to catch mistakes before it’s too late, Springer said. He claimed those checks have worked well. 

Not all of the department’s mistakes are public facing. In another instance mentioned in the letter, the electric department overspent part of its budget by 33% due to invoicing errors. Other complaints relate to inconsistencies in paperwork filings to the commission, the letter shows. 

Though the impact of those mistakes “absolutely affects ratepayers,” Johnson said, it’s hard to tell in what form. 

While Johnson is unsure why things seem to be falling through the cracks, the pattern of mistakes makes him wonder if there’s more dysfunction that he isn’t seeing, he said. 

“What else are we not seeing that could be an error? Are there opportunities not being seized?” Johnson asked hypothetically. 

He hopes the audit can answer those questions. It isn’t decided what company would run the audit, how much it might cost or how long it might take. But the electric department will have to pick up the tab, Johnson said. 

“Let’s be clear, Burlington Electric customers are paying for this,” Johnson said. 

Read the story on VTDigger here: Vermont officials to audit Burlington Electric Department after mistakes in reporting.

Windsor Superior Court Judge H. Dickson Corbett issued a ruling this month preventing the Village of Woodstock from hiring a new police chief. 

In his Aug. 7 ruling, Corbett signaled that the court likely will ultimately rule in favor of the former police chief, Joe Swanson, in his legal action against the village. A separate $5 million civil lawsuit against the village is still pending.  

Swanson sued the village in early May after the municipal manager, Eric Duffy, and the Board of Village Trustees demoted Swanson from police chief to police officer. At the heart of his lawsuit, Swanson claimed that village trustees did not follow state law, by establishing proper cause, when they removed him from office. 

When Swanson filed the suit, he also asked the court to step in and offer a preliminary injunction, an intervention that would stop the village from hiring a new chief pending future court orders. 

To grant Swanson’s request to step in, the court needed evidence that Woodstock’s hiring of a new police chief would cause Swanson irreparable harm — and Corbett reasoned the case met that threshold. Chris O’Keefe has been serving as interim chief and can remain in that post, according to the decision.

In his reasoning, Corbett signaled that the court will likely rule in Swanson’s favor down the line. 

“It appears that the village trustees failed to apply the correct legal standard before removing petitioner (Swanson) from the office of police chief,” Corbett wrote in the injunction ruling. 

While the injunction did not decide the merits or final outcome of the case, it did offer a prediction based on the court’s review of evidence submitted with the request for injunction, Corbett wrote.

“It appears from that review that the decision of the trustees will be reversed because the trustees did not apply the correct legal standard when making their decision,” he wrote. 

Linda Fraas, Swanson’s attorney, said the ruling was a “very promising sign.” 

The saga started in October after Swanson’s husband got into a verbal altercation with another driver during a traffic incident while Swanson was a passenger in the car. A citizen complaint was filed against Swanson regarding the incident. 

Two separate investigations following the incident found that Swanson did not commit wrongdoing. One of those investigations was conducted by the Vermont State Police and the other was by the Vermont Criminal Justice Council, according to court documents.  

Duffy also hired a private investigator to interview police department employees about Swanson’s conduct, said Jeffrey Kahn, vice chair of the Board of Village Trustees. Duffy declined to comment on the case. 

After those interviews, Duffy decided to demote Swanson to police officer. Then, the trustees had a quasi judicial hearing to decide if they would support that decision. The hearing, made public per Swanson’s request, went on for more than 14 hours. 

During that hearing, “there was a preponderance of testimony by both police officers as well as dispatchers that it became clear that the chief did not have support within either department,” Khan said. 

Without that support, the trustees reasoned it was best for the community to remove Swanson as chief, Khan said. 

“The trustees’ interest throughout this has been what’s in the best interest of the municipality,” he said. 

Vermont law offers certain tenure protections to police chiefs — and the village has to meet certain criteria to remove them from office, Corbett wrote. In line with past interpretations of the law, the village would have to prove Swanson was “negligent or derelict” in his duties, engaged in “conduct unbecoming an officer” or was otherwise unable to perform his job, Corbett wrote. 

The trustees reasoned they didn’t need to meet that criteria because they weren’t firing Swanson altogether, they were merely demoting him. 

But chiefs hold a distinct rank, Corbett wrote, and removing anyone from that position requires that the village meet the legal criteria. 

“It validates what we’ve been saying all along, that this process was not correct,” said Fraas, Swanson’s attorney. 

Despite the court’s injunction, and the village’s subsequent inability to hire a new chief, the department is running smoothly with O’Keefe in the interim job, Khan said.

Corbett wrote that from his review of evidence submitted with the injunction, the case will likely be passed back down to the board of trustees. At that point, trustees would decide whether to remove Swanson as chief, within the bounds of state law. 

Correction: A previous version of this story misstated when Eric Duffy hired a private investigator and improperly described Swanson’s two legal actions against the Village of Woodstock. It also contained a photo caption that gave an outdated employment status for Joe Swanson.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Judge bars Woodstock from hiring new police chief amid lawsuit from former chief.

BURLINGTON — On Sunday afternoon, Burlington police officers found explosive devices in an apartment building on Pearl Street they deemed to be associated with a resident, Justin Perkins, according to a press release from the Burlington Police Department. The 40-year-old man was arrested Thursday for allegedly bringing a pipe bomb to his work site in Colchester the week before. 

Before he was arrested last week, Perkins had talked with his coworkers about building bombs and making ghost AR-15 rifles in his residence, according to court documents. 

Around 3:30 p.m. on Sunday, officers responded after someone reported explosive devices in the building. The road in front of the apartment, at 90 Pearl St., was blocked off for the afternoon. 

Residents were evacuated from the apartment building and “explosive devices were safely removed and neutralized,” according to the press release. 

Police officers were assisted by local firefighters, the Vermont State Police Bomb Squad, the Vermont Hazardous Materials Response Team and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, according to the press release. John Russel, who works at Leonardo’s Pizza across the street, said the employees watched responders climb large firetruck ladders to a window in the apartment building. 

Residents were assisted by the American Red Cross before they were allowed to re-enter the building after it was deemed safe around 11 p.m., according to the press release. 

The incident comes four days after Perkins was arrested for allegedly bringing a pipe bomb to a job site on Dylan Avenue in Colchester. Court documents state that Perkins brought the bomb, which was about the size of a water bottle, to work on Aug. 14.

That day, he brought the bomb wrapped in what looked like white rags or a trash bag and “was excited to show” it to his coworkers, explaining how it worked and alleging it was simple for him to make, according to court documents.  

Perkins’ criminal history includes three failures to appear, 15 felony charges with one conviction, 43 misdemeanor charges with nine convictions, and three assaultive crime charges resulting in one conviction, according to court records. 

Perkins’ employer alerted police about the bomb on Aug.15. After his arrest on Aug. 21, Perkins was granted $10,000 bail, but did not post it, according to court documents. As of Monday morning, he’s being held without bail, according to the press release. 

The Burlington Police Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in Burlington did not respond to multiple requests for comment on Monday. The Vermont State Police referred all comments to local police. 

Read the story on VTDigger here: Explosives in Burlington apartment allegedly connected to man with Colchester pipe bomb.

CHELSEA — On Thursday morning, the state moved James Perry, a man found not guilty by reason of insanity for killing his daughter, to a non-hospital mental health facility. 

An Orange County Superior Court judge decided at a hearing on Thursday morning that Perry, who had been detained in prison for four years, will now live in a residential setting while remaining under 24-hour care and supervision. He was taken immediately afterwards to a residential program run by the Clara Martin Center and Health Care and Rehabilitation Services of Southeastern Vermont, according to the court order. 

Prosecutors and Perry’s defense discussed the alternatives of putting him in a hospital setting, which would offer more intensive supervision, or releasing him with no direct oversight. Both sides agreed that it was appropriate to place Perry in a non-hospitalization level of care, an in-between to those possibilities. 

In the hearing, Judge Daniel Richardson grappled with where to place the 74-year-old man who shot and killed his daughter, Karina Rheaume, when she came to bring him cookies and check on him in May 2021. 

Perry was charged with second degree murder, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and reckless endangerment. But in April of this year, he was found not guilty by reason of insanity. 

At that point, with that finding, Perry couldn’t be sentenced to prison, so the case became a matter of managing Perry’s health. Thursday’s proceeding was a hospitalization hearing only, Richardson reminded members of the public, who filled over half the court room. 

“The court doesn’t have a free hand. The court is obligated to follow the law,” Richardson said. Because Perry is no longer considered a criminal, the court has to weigh his personal liberties against concerns that he could pose a risk to himself and others, he added. 

The violence of the crime leaves some to worry that Perry needs a more secure level of oversight. Calista Diane, a close friend of Rheaume’s daughter, stood outside the old courthouse and hugged the family after the hearing. 

“I’ve seen way too many people fall through the cracks,” Diane said as tears welled in her eyes. The court ruling devastated her. She thinks Perry belongs locked up in prison, she said. 

“His daughter brought him cookies and he slaughtered her,” Diane said. 

Rheaume’s family declined to comment after Thursday’s hearing. 

After the mental health treatment he got in prison, Perry appeared to be a changed man, Richardson said. But the judge still had a message for him. 

“I want to address you directly,” Richardson said, pausing to look at Perry from his bench. 

“You have to participate,” Richardson said — emphasizing Perry’s responsibility to keep himself and the public safe. 

Rheaume’s family asked the court earlier this month to keep him under more intensive supervision, citing concerns for their safety, according to reporting from Valley News. 

Diane said that she understands the family’s pain. “They’re terrified,” she said. 

Richardson explained that the court is charged with operating within the law no matter the pressures of public opinion. He asked people in the courtroom to remain respectful, reminding them it was not a town meeting. 

While everyone was silent, benches creaked as onlookers shifted their weight. Some took notes as the hearing went on. 

Crystal Barry, a mental health professional with Burlington’s Therapeutic Works Incorporated, testified before the court. Barry had personally spoken with Perry over a dozen times to discuss his mental state and placement options, she said. 

Barry considers the move to supervised residential care a “good step down for future observation,” she said. 

In the facility, Perry will live among six other patients, be monitored by staff around the clock and be accompanied by staff if he leaves the program’s facilities, Barry said. Perry hasn’t shown signs of delusional thinking for over a year. That’s partly due to the fact that he’s been in a social and regulated environment — something they want to continue, she explained. 

The court order stands for 90 days. After that, it must be revisited in family court, now that the case is no longer criminal. 

“I’m sure we’ll all be here in 90 days,” said Diane, the friend of the victim’s family, gesturing to the small crowd that lingered in front of the courthouse. 

Read the story on VTDigger here: Newbury man who killed daughter moved to mental health facility.

In Montpelier, city officials plan to remove the Pioneer Street Dam and restore a nearby floodplain. Together, the projects are predicted to have compounding positive effects that reduce flood risk in the city.  

The Pioneer Street Dam — an old mill dam — is about 1.3 miles upstream from the capital city’s downtown along the Winooski River. Not only is the dam filled with cracks, but engineers consider it a flood hazard. 

“It’s got about everything wrong with a dam you can imagine,” said Roy Schiff, an engineer who’s monitoring the dam. 

Nearby sits an 18 acre parcel of land at 5 Home Farm Way, where the Stevens Branch of the Winooski River joins the main branch. That land, which houses the Jacob Davis Farmstead, was historically a floodplain. Restoring it to such, coupled with the dam removal just downstream, could significantly reduce flood risk, Schiff said. 

The project offers a look at how recovery efforts from the 2023 flood are underway in the city. After years of monitoring water levels and studying the feasibility of the project, officials are starting to seek permitting and funding approval for their plans. 

“There is a real sense of forward momentum and progress,” said Jon Copans, executive director of the Montpelier Commission for Recovery and Resilience. 

The Vermont River Conservancy first pushed for Montpelier to take down four dams along the river back in 2021. Along with taking down the Pioneer Street Dam, they encouraged dismantling the Bailey Dam, the North Branch Dam and the Hidden Dam. Removing them could mitigate flood risk, improve river ecology and offer recreation opportunities, Randzio said.  

The four old dams hold back a large amount of sediment and a small amount of water, Randzio said. The sediment built up behind their structure pushes water levels even higher during times of peak flow. 

The conservancy selected consulting firm SLR International to perform feasibility studies of the four dams in 2021, she said. A grant from The Lake Champlain Basin Program paid for those studies, Randzio said. 

After floods pummeled the state in 2023 — and hit Montpelier especially hard — river experts pointed to thousands of what Schiff calls “deadbeat dams” around the state. Then, city officials and state lawmakers started taking notice. 

In Montpelier, Randzio’s proposals became a high priority. Necessary evaluations of the dams were already underway — putting the project on a fast track, Randzio said. 

The Pioneer Street Dam dates to when people used water to turn wheels or millboards or grind grains, Schiff said. But dams are expensive to maintain and they deteriorate fast, he said. 

Those working on the project anticipate the sediment built up behind the dam contains pollutants from an old coal facility that once operated along the riverbank upstream, Randzio said. Digging out that sediment while breaking down the dam is an iterative process, Schiff said. 

“You have to lower the water a little bit, remove some sediment, lower the dam a little bit,” to prevent sediment from being released downstream, he said.

Just upstream from the dam, at 5 Home Farm Way, sits The Jacob Davis Farmstead, a historic building declared a public safety hazard in 2019, according to The Barre Montpelier Times Argus. The city is currently working with The Preservation Trust of Vermont to remove the building from the property and restore some pieces of it, Copans said. 

That way, the 18 acre property would again be a floodplain. By using that land “we can create more flood storage to help protect the local area and store some more water to protect Montpelier,” Schiff said. 

The city’s also considering ways it can use the land for recreation and public enjoyment, Copans said. 

Schiff’s firm worked with city officials and employees at the regional planning commission to submit a list of projects to request funding from the state. The firm concluded the removal of the Pioneer Dam coupled with the floodplain restoration would offer significant flood mitigation risk compared to other proposed projects, and it made sense to tackle the two projects together. 

The city hopes to get funding from part of FEMA’s hazard mitigation grant program funding offered to Vermont, Copans said. So far, they’ve received positive signals from the state and remain hopeful, he said. 

Then, the project proposals must clear a number of Act 250 and permitting processes before a contractor is hired and work begins, Schiff said. 

But all acknowledge the project is just a piece of the puzzle. Randzio hopes the town can remove all four dams, especially the Bailey Dam by Shaw’s grocery store downtown. 

“Each one of these projects is a step forward and there are more projects sort of in the pipeline,” Copans said. 

Read the story on VTDigger here: Montpelier plans to remove Pioneer Street Dam and restore nearby floodplain.

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 .

BENNINGTON — Tucked into a nondescript strip mall downtown, Bennington’s new methadone clinic has seen about 70 patients walk through its one-way glass doors since opening in late June.  

Inside, the building’s four hallways form a loop, offering patients a literal road to recovery. First-timers walk in to their right and visit with doctors in offices along the corridor one by one. They can get their first dose of methadone, a medicine prescribed for opioid use disorder, that day. 

It’s the first time that people who live in Bennington County have access to the medication in their own backyard, which opens up access and provides stability for people, health officials and recovery coaches said. 

With the clinic’s opening, Vermont now has a methadone clinic in each region of the state after building plans were complicated for years, said Kelly Dougherty, deputy commissioner of the Vermont Department of Health. The Bennington clinic offers a glimpse of how methadone can help people in recovery.

In past years, it was a job on its own to get on meds for recovery, said Dylan Jonhson, a recovery coach at Turning Point in Bennington. 

One of Jonhson’s clients spent hours each day on the bus to a clinic in North Adams, Massachusetts. That trip would take up most of the client’s day, he said. And if they missed the bus, it could cause painful withdrawals and put their path to sobriety at risk. 

Now, that client goes to the local clinic in town, which has offered them much more stability. 

“They just got a job this week, and I guarantee you it’s because they didn’t have to go to North Adams,” Johnson said. 

Many others also made the trek to North Adams regularly, said Sean Cossey, the clinic’s director. Now, Cossey’s trying to slowly funnel those people to the new clinic to make their lives easier. About 20% of the clinic’s clients so far have never received treatment before, he said. 

“The only thing I can’t do is make them walk in. But if they do walk in, they’ll be met with respect, they’ll be met as a person,” Cossey said. 

The clinic’s opening has been mostly celebrated by the community, Cossey said. About 50 people showed up for a July 23 ribbon cutting ceremony, he said. Then U.S. Rep. Becca Balint, D-Vt., and Rep. Paul Tonko, D-N.Y., came to tour the facility on July 29. Their visit sparked a roundtable discussion among local recovery groups about treating opioid use. 

“Success rates in recovery are pretty low,” Johnson said. But methadone is considered the gold standard — and it’s important that people in town have the option for treatment, he said. 

In 2024, 183 Vermonters died from opioid-related deaths, and five of those deaths happened in Bennington County, according to data from the Vermont Department of Health. 

While many embrace the opening, there are still some in Bennington who have a stigma about methadone, Cossey said. He’s confident that stigma comes from a lack of education. 

“We’re giving out medication to people that suffer from a clinically diagnosed disorder,” Cossey said. 

It’s a highly regulated medication. The clinic was built around its pharmaceutical safe, Cossey said. That was just one required specification to follow regulations from The Drug Enforcement Administration. A $3.9 million grant from the state that lasts through July 2026 helped the clinic meet the requirements.

While methadone isn’t the only medication used to treat substance use disorder, many consider it to be the most effective. People who have been using opioids start by taking the medication every day at first, then wane off of it very slowly, Johnson said. 

“It’s basically impossible to quit cold turkey,” Johnson said. 

Methadone significantly reduces symptoms of withdrawal, which helps those prescribed the medication stabilize their life as they begin recovery, Johnson said. That stability can help people find housing, repair relationships in their life or gain employment, he said.

Johnson himself uses his experience in recovery to help others navigate the journey. He tried quitting without medications 15 to 20 times — but each time he “failed spectacularly,” he said with his eyes closed as he raised his hands in the air. 

He then started taking suboxone, another medication to treat opioid use disorder, and it has helped him remain clean for 6 years. Johnson said it helped relieve painful body aches and gastrointestinal issues he suffered as withdrawal symptoms.

Now, he considers himself a success story and tries to help others through their own recovery. Johnson said he continues to take suboxone in small doses and hopes to be able to discontinue the medication completely soon. 

Other facilities in the Bennington area, like small clinics or doctors offices, have offered other medications to treat opioid use disorder for years. But many think methadone has unique potential to help those in the early stages of recovery. 

The stigma comes from the fact that methadone is technically a psychoactive drug, Johnson said. But if someone has used heroin for years, they will not feel a high from the medication, he said. 

Other medications, like suboxone or buprenorphine, have blockers that stop people from feeling high if they continue using opioids while on the medication. With methadone, people can still feel the effects of other drugs. And that’s partly where the stigma comes from, Johnson said. 

Patients at the Bennington clinic are closely monitored and must provide urine samples regularly, Cossey said. Patients prescribed methadone also receive counseling resources and are assigned a case manager, he said. 

Patients take doses in a room about the size of a telephone booth in front of an employee who sits behind a counter. After the medication is ingested patients stay for about 20 minutes while medical professionals observe them. 

Cossey said the facility is still reaching its full potential. There are still a number of staff positions available that are proving difficult to fill, he said. With more staff, the facility will be able to serve up to 400 patients, he said. Whether it’s someone’s second or tenth time in recovery, there’s no judgement, Cossey said. 

“We try to meet them more than half way,” he said. 

Read the story on VTDigger here: Bennington Methadone Clinic offers look at opioid recovery underway in Vermont .

With temperatures climbing into the upper 80s on Tuesday, most of Burlington’s beaches and a couple in state parks are closed due to blooming cyanobacteria, also known as blue-green algae. 

Along Burlington beaches, cyanobacteria blooms in swimming water led to closures at both ends of North Beach, both ends of Blanchard Beach, Texaco Beach, Oakledge Cove and Blodgett Water Access Point on Tuesday afternoon.

Beaches were also closed in Kill Kare State Park in St. Albans Town and part of the beach at Lake Carmi State Park in Franklin. Warnings for low to moderate amounts of cyanobacteria have been issued along both ends of Leddy Park beach in Burlington and along three state park beaches. 

Beachgoers can often spot cyanobacteria with their plain eye. 

Blooms “most commonly look like pea soup or a blue-green paint spill on the water,” but they can also look pink, brown or red, according to Bridget O’Brien, an environmental health scientist with the Vermont Department of Health. 

When water is contaminated with cyanobacteria, it’s deemed unsafe for recreation and swimming. Cyanobacteria is a naturally occurring organism in the water that tends to “bloom” or rapidly multiply in the sun and when the water is warm — commonly in the late summer, O’Brien said.

The bacteria can produce toxins that cause skin irritations and gastrointestinal issues, but can also cause neurological symptoms like numbness and dizziness, O’Brien said. 

Officials advise that children and pets stay out of the water during warnings, as they’re more likely to get symptoms after exposure, O’Brien said. 

In addition to hot temperatures that have likely contributed to cyanobacteria blooms, the southern half of the state is experiencing very dry conditions, said Eric Myskowski, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Burlington. 

Those dry conditions are expected to get worse throughout the week, Myskowski said. On Tuesday, officials at the Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation forecasted a high risk of fire danger across southern Vermont and a moderate risk of fire danger across the northwest corner of the state.

For people in the Queen City looking to escape the heat, North Shore Natural Area is the only town beach that’s been green-lit to swim in without warning from Burlington Parks, Recreation and Waterfront. Red Rocks Park in South Burlington also remains open along with the town beaches in Colchester. 

Read the story on VTDigger here: Cyanobacteria warning closes most of Burlington’s beaches.

The Vermont Supreme Court is set to decide whether the case against Deven Moffitt, accused of murdering his ex-girlfriend, has been too mishandled to see trial. 

For over a year, Moffitt’s lawyer has tried to get the case tossed out for good — claiming the prosecution lacks sufficient evidence to take Moffitt to court. 

Earlier this week, on July 20, Vermont Superior Court Judge Kerry McDonald-Cady ruled to dismiss the case with prejudice, meaning Moffitt can’t be tried on those charges again. An appeal of that decision will bring the dispute to the state Supreme Court. 

Moffitt’s lawyer alleged the prosecution made missteps properly confirming the identity of the human remains in the case. The state medical examiner’s office originally identified the remains as belonging to Jessica Hildenbrandt before Moffitt was charged with her murder in the second degree back in 2022. 

But, in the years since, the prosecution failed to run more tests to confirm the original identification of the remains. 

“The state had more than two years to test the discovered remains and obtain additional DNA evidence for trial to confirm they were, in fact, the remains of Ms. Hildenbrandt,” wrote McDonald-Cady in the July 20 ruling. 

Back in January, prosecutors asked the judge to formally dismiss the case without prejudice, meaning they could refile the charge at a later date. In response, Moffitt’s lawyer motioned to dismiss the case with prejudice, meaning it could never be brought to court again. 

Deputy State’s Attorney Jared Bianchi argued against that motion. He explained that his office plans to press other criminal charges against Moffitt, and it would be most convenient to resolve them all in one trial, according to the ruling. 

That didn’t convince the judge. Over years, the state’s attorney’s office tried to press a number of additional charges against Moffitt, namely an alleged aggravated assault and multiple counts of obstruction of justice, court documents show. 

But on each count, the Bennington state’s attorney’s office had either failed to press charges swiftly enough, or the crime was committed in another county, putting it out of Bennington’s jurisdiction, McDonald-Cady wrote. 

Unconvinced by Bianchi’s arguments, the judge dismissed the case with prejudice, attempting to put the charge to rest for good.

“This Court recognizes the gravity of this decision for the State, the Defendant, the community, and especially the family and friends of Ms. Hildenbrandt,” wrote McDonald-Cady in her ruling. 

While permanently tossing the case out was an “extraordinary remedy,” she reasoned the prosecution had overstepped by drawing out the case, according to the ruling. 

Later this week, on July 23, Bianchi appealed McDonald-Cady’s ruling to the Vermont Supreme Court. There, justices can decide if Moffitt may be tried again for the same crime. 

Moffitt is still serving a 12 and a half year sentence for federal drug and firearm charges. 

Corrections: An earlier version of this story contained errors related to the date of the ruling and who was serving time in federal prison. It also incorrectly named Jessica Hildenbrandt.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Missteps with evidence bring dispute over murder trial to Supreme Court .

Pilot Dan Brown was flying over Fair Haven on Tuesday night when he spotted smokestacks billowing up from the woods around sunset. He alerted firefighters, and since then, they’ve been battling a blaze spread across 11 acres of forested private property. 

The fire first started when the property owner was burning brush to clear shooting lanes for hunting, said James Heller, Fair Haven’s Fire Chief. The property owner didn’t realize that he failed to put out the fire, he said. 

With pretty dry conditions, the fire grew in a remote part of the woods where people didn’t take notice. 

That is, until Brown was flying a private plane overhead before sunset. Struck by the quantity of smoke coming from the woods, he alerted the Fire Department in Castleton and sent over pictures of what he saw. 

Two days later, on Thursday afternoon, 35 state firefighters were on site, working alongside crews from Castleton, Rutland City, Poultney and Whitehall with help from the U.S. Forest Service, Heller said. 

The groups are trying to maintain a perimeter to contain the blaze. The fire is largely burning underground and is very far from any structures, Heller said. 

“They’re attempting to establish a water supply and get a hose line up to their fire line,” Heller said. 

Without road access to the area, crews have only been able to get to the fire on 4-wheelers. From above, state hazmat teams used drones and infrared mapping to pinpoint fire hot spots, and follow its movement. 

Crews of fire fighters have been cycling in and out to bring in “fresh troops,” Heller said. They thought they had the fire contained within 10 acres until a breeze on Wednesday morning spread flames further. Now, it’s looking like winds will push the fire to the north or northeast, Heller said. 

The blaze is what’s called a duff fire, which eats through plant material like leaves and bark that are compacted under the forest floor. 

“The only thing that’s gonna ultimately quench it is gonna be a good rain,” Heller said. 

It’s important for people to keep an eye on daily fire danger reports from the state because “while it may look green, it can be sneakily dry in the understory,” said Megan Davin, a spokesperson for the state’s Wildland Fire Team, which is fighting the fire. 

Fair Haven has been considered high risk for fires throughout most of the summer, Davin said. A strip of the state, including Fair Haven, keeps getting missed by rain while other parts of the state get hit, leading to unusually dry conditions. 

On Tuesday evening, when they heard from Brown, the pilot, firefighters in Castleton reached out to those in Fair Haven, who fought the fire for more than four hours on Tuesday night with crews from two other towns. 

When the fire spread beyond containment on Wednesday, crews from five different municipalities worked on-site for nine hours. And a number of statewide emergency response groups have chipped in resources, along with the U.S. Forest Service. 

With hot temperatures on Thursday, those fighting the fire are trying to stay cool, Heller said. He’s thankful for all of the resources they’ve gotten from around and beyond the state, he said. 

Tomorrow, they hope for rain. 

“Anything we get is gonna be a blessing,” Heller said. 

Read the story on VTDigger here: Vermont state and local firefighters fight 11-acre forest fire in Fair Haven .

For forty-some years, Henry Bonges worked amicably for the town of Milton on its recreation, planning and environmental committees. Then in April, he wrote an email to his state representatives, urging them not to vote on climate policies like “R automatons” — the R short for Republican. The fallout was swift.

Earlier this month, the Milton Selectboard, upon which those same state representatives Bonges emailed also happen to sit, declined to reappoint Bonges to two of three town positions, with the third pending until the board finds a replacement. 

“I was critiquing my representative in a personal email to them,” Bonges said at a public hearing in early June. “This is not a question of whether I am able to support Milton, but whether I pass an ideological purity test.”

The spat brings national climate politics to the local stage, and surfaces growing concerns over potential conflicts when representatives hold two offices at once.

In February, the prevalence of dual-role leadership positions in Milton and other municipalities drew media attention for the long hours, scant compensation and “often thankless work” that has limited the pool of qualified candidates. Last month, the chair of Milton’s Democratic committee voiced concern over such double-duty positions after another Republican representative became town manager.

The letter

Bonges’s environmental work began at the University of Vermont and Harvard University in the 1970s where he studied sustainability. He got involved in municipal government soon after that, and has over the past four decades represented Milton on the Chittenden Solid Waste Commission, the region’s recycling center board, and on Green Mountain Transit, the state’s transportation board. He has also served on the town and regional planning commissions. 

Climate change “is the most important issue of our time,” Bonges said.

In April, Bonges sent an email to all who represent Milton in the Statehouse. He said he felt compelled to write them after seeing an executive order from President Donald Trump that directed the U.S. attorney general to block enforcement of state and local laws that may be obstacles to fossil fuel roll-out. 

The subject line of the email was “Please support Global Warming Solutions Act (Act 153) and Climate Superfund.” In the email, Bonges wrote that he would not get into the details of climate science but would instead focus on “why certain people are resistant to the reality of climate change.”

He offered scattered arguments from books and moments throughout history. 

Bonges ended the email with: “I am asking the Milton reps to not be R automatons, voting with the party to accelerate climate change instead of reducing climate change and preparing for it (resiliency). Vote so you can look your children and grandchildren in the eye when stuff starts hitting the fan big time, that you did what you could to address the issue which will ruin their lives.” 

The email went to all who represent Milton in the statehouse as Republicans — including the three who sit on Milton’s Selectboard: Reps. Brenda Steady; Leland Morgan; and Michael Morgan. He also included Town Manager Rep. Chris Taylor. 

The meeting 

The blowback arrived about a month later at a May 19 Milton Selectboard meeting, when Bonges’s position on the Chittenden Solid Waste Commission was up for reappointment. Chris Taylor introduced the agenda item and Leland Morgan took the mic.

“You’ve made it very public that you hold at least four of the five of us in high disdain,” he said, referring to Bonges. “And it makes me wonder whether you could do a good job for us with the feelings that you have toward us.”

Bonges replied that he tried to separate politics from his work on the recycling board and went on for about two minutes about his willingness to give a community talk about climate change and misinformation. 

“I thought this was going to be easy,” said Darren Adams, the selectboard chair, in response to Bonges’s objections. He then asked Bonges if he would represent the board’s interests even if he personally disagreed with them on a matter. 

Bonges said he would put the board’s interests above his own. 

Leland Morgan then asked Bonges to withdraw his reappointment application to the recycling board to give the board time to also consider other applicants before taking a vote. Bonges agreed.

Leland Morgan did not respond to repeated requests for comment. Steady also declined an interview, saying “one little word will get people stirred up, and I care too much for Milton.”

The fallout 

At the town’s next public hearing on June 2, Bonges read a written statement that questioned whether Milton Selectboard members should be allowed to also hold state representative roles.

“I was critiquing my representative in a personal email to them, not trying to publicly shame them,” Bonges said.

Bonges described the Selectboard members’ comments and the decision not to reappoint him as a “choreographed effort” to oust him. He called them part of the “Republican cabal.” 

“This is not a question of whether I am able to support Milton, but whether I pass an ideological purity test, reflective of 1933 Germany or 2025 Washington,” Bonges said. 

He said he felt targeted because of his political opinions. He called into question whether or not representatives should be able to serve as Selectboard members if they can’t separate their jobs in each role. 

At the end of his statement, Adams thanked him, then Bonges stood and left the mic. 

Adams said his real concern is that Bonges wouldn’t represent the Selectboard’s interests. 

When someone represents the town, “they’re certainly free to give us their opinion and express that opinion, but then we expect them to carry out whatever the Selectboard’s decision is, and it seems like he was a little at conflict with himself on that,” Adams said. 

For that reason, the Selectboard should review other applications for the recycling center position, he said. Though Adams said he is unsure if anyone else has applied yet. 

Bonges said the scuffle is politically motivated. “I think the Republican attitude has been tainted by the national politics,” Bonges said. 

Adams claims it’s only about the job. “I’ve always liked Henry. He’s obviously dedicated to the community and he should be thanked for that,” Adams said. 

At a Milton Selectboard meeting on July 7, board members did not reappoint Bonges to any of the three positions he applied for. But Bonges will continue acting on the Chittenden Solid Waste District’s board until that position is filled. 

Bonges said he’s willing to put differences aside and hopes he will be reappointed to the positions. “I’m not gonna go off and pout,” he said.

Read the story on VTDigger here: In Milton, selectboard ousts a career public servant from committees over a climate change spat.

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 .

Described by advocates for youth as two trailers plopped in a parking lot, the Red Clover Treatment Center is Vermont’s temporary — and only — locked juvenile facility. 

The secure program, opened in October 2024, was meant to meet an immediate need, providing a crisis-ready option for children in the juvenile justice system requiring short-term care. 

The temporary facility in Middlesex bought the state time to build a permanent, secure complex in Vergennes. But now, plans for that project are up in the air, and officials are grappling with the limitations of Red Clover given that the program may operate longer than intended. 

Vermont’s scarce options for secure placement of youth are having immediate effects. Just last week, a 14-year-old boy was held at Marble Valley Correctional Facility in Rutland — an adult jail. The boy was charged as an adult with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and was later transferred to Red Clover, according to court documents.  

Advocates for youth and Vermont Department for Children and Families officials agree that Red Clover’s operator — the for-profit contractor Sentinel Group — is making the most of an imperfect space. They agree the facility functions well when children are held there short term. 

However, that doesn’t mean juveniles are receiving ideal care, and the experiences of youth reveal the constraints of Red Clover’s stopgap nature.

The state is often holding juveniles at the Middlesex facility for a month or more. Providing an education in such a restrictive setting can pose a challenge, and without a complete kitchen, the facility often relies on takeout — including fast food —  to feed residents.  

“In our opinion, Red Clover is suitable as a short-term facility. It’s not suitable as a long-term facility,” said Marshall Pahl, Vermont’s deputy defender general. “No matter what kind of programming they put in place, even if they had great meals there, it would not be a suitable long-term facility. It just isn’t built that way.”

A temporary building for short-term stays

Since the closure of Woodside Juvenile Rehabilitation Center in 2020, Vermont has been without a permanent, secure facility for youth where residents are locked in and closely guarded. 

To fill the niche, the Department for Children and Families proposed the Green Mountain Youth Campus. The 14-bed concept, originally slated to open in 2026, would be half the size of Woodside, serving children in a space designed to be therapeutic, not punitive. 

But the state pulled back its plan to build the permanent facility in Vergennes last month, running into local opposition and zoning obstacles. Though department officials assert the state still intends to construct the facility, they have not chosen a specific site. 

In the meantime, Vermont has Red Clover. The Middlesex program, itself a repurposed psychiatric facility formerly run by the Vermont Department of Mental Health, is intended to stabilize children in crisis through short-term stays. That means holding youth charged with or found guilty of violent offenses, many of whom may also be in mental health distress. The facility is designed for ages 13 through 17, although teens up to the age of 19 can be sent there in certain circumstances, according to the state’s contract with Sentinel. 

On average, the state has held teens there for 34 days, according to Aryka Radke, deputy commissioner of the department’s family services division. Eighteen children have been held in the facility at various times since it opened in the fall. 

“The facility itself lacks the size, expansion potential, and projected lifespan to meet the full needs of the state,” Radke said in an email. Otherwise, she said she’s confident in the quality of service the department has provided so far. 

According to Tyler Allen, the department’s high-end system of care director, youth held at Red Clover for extended periods of time fall into two broad categories: Vermonters whom the state cannot find a bed for at a different program and juveniles from out-of-state with court proceedings in Vermont. 

Since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, Vermont has lost about half of its youth residential treatment beds, Allen said. The decrease, driven by programs’ staffing shortages, has caused statewide capacity to slip from roughly 200 to 100, he said. 

In the web of residential placements, Red Clover is the only program required to accept any youth, space permitting, regardless of their legal record. 

Sometimes, another program might reject a youth because of their past behavior, according to Allen. And sometimes there just isn’t another place to put a child, he said, which has resulted in Red Clover’s longest stays. The department did not answer a request to provide data on the longest it has held a child at Red Clover. 

Out-of-state youth have also wound up with extended stays at Red Clover, in part due to the separate regulations governing them. The Interstate Compact on Juveniles outlines how states interact with each other when dealing with children in custody.

If a child from elsewhere is charged with an offense in Vermont — in family court or criminal court — the youth generally must remain in Vermont until their case is resolved. 

Adult criminal court proceedings for juveniles can be especially complex because they typically involve a serious offense, drawing out a youth’s time in Vermont’s custody. 

So far, four of the 18 children held at Red Clover have been housed through the interstate compact before being transferred to their home states, according to Radke. Most of those youth have been held for around 50 days, she said. 

To Vermont’s top juvenile public defender Pahl, much about Red Clover only causes concern if youth are held there for weeks and months rather than days. He praised Red Clover’s operators for making the most of the space and noted they offer youth more freedoms, such as extensive time outdoors, than other programs. 

However, the physical space poses limitations. A therapeutic program starts with designated treatment space — something Red Clover clearly lacks, Pahl said. 

“I mean, it’s literally sort of two trailers joined together in an L-shape with a courtyard between them,” he said. “They’re doing the best with what they got, but it ain’t a good space.”

Vermont’s children would benefit from more intermediate placement options in less restrictive environments, Pahl argued, and the state should focus on expanding access not just to the most secure youth treatment programs. 

Otherwise, Pahl fears youth will face the same issues they experienced at Woodside — like physical abuse, neglect and retaliation. 

“We will see those same kinds of problems again if youth wind up at Red Clover for way too long,” he said.

Takeout and fast-food

Red Clover’s licensing agreement grants the program special permission to bring in food from off site, including takeout. 

The kitchen has limitations, such as lacking ventilation for its stove, which prevents staff from cooking meat, according to the Department for Children and Families. Equipped with an oven, range and microwave, facility staff prepare cold foods and warm up precooked meals. 

The inability to prepare whole-cooked meals has worried advocates.

Patrick Warn has served for more than eight years as a guardian ad litem — a volunteer who advocates for youth in court. He’s worked with two kids placed at Red Clover. 

“Basically, their dinner is they literally run out to McDonalds or Burger King or whatever,” Warn said. 

He acknowledged that giving youth the ability to choose their meals — including fast food — can be a tool to reward or incentivize good behavior but said it should not be an everyday practice. Pahl thinks similarly. 

“Is serving kids McDonald’s at a placement a problem? Maybe it wouldn’t be if it was actually a short-term placement, if kids were only at a placement for a day or two or three,” he said. “But it’s not just a food problem. It’s a problem because that place was never meant to be a long-term placement. It wasn’t built for that. It’s still not built for that.”

Allen, the department official who oversees Red Clover, rejected the idea that the program serves takeout daily. Instead, he said the program’s staff try to find creative ways to expand dining choices for youth. That includes offering food from local restaurants, such as Thai, Chinese and more-upscale establishments, noting that fast food is one of the less frequented options.  

He acknowledged that the program serves takeout “more often than your average family.” While he did not know the exact frequency, Allen estimated Red Clover serves takeout “probably three to four nights per week,” which he described in positive terms. 

“Having some choice in meals is, I think, one of the things that we’ve appreciated about the program,” Allen said. “They’re willing to make that investment of time and energy to tailor it to kids.

Pahl and Warn also identified similar concerns with the education youth receive. 

“Courts have always held that kids are entitled to their education, whether they are in DCF custody (or) incarcerated,” Pahl said. “My understanding from our clients is that they are getting some educational services. Is it as good as we could have if we had a more permanent, better-staffed, well-structured program in place? Definitely not.”

Warn, who’s worked with kids held at placements across the state and country, said programs often struggle to provide an education when they are not attached to an actual school. To him, Red Clover is no different. 

He compared the schooling to when a substitute teaches a class — an interruption to the educational flow. 

In contrast, Allen described Red Clover’s educational tutoring as adaptable and a stabilizing factor for youth entering the program, some of whom weren’t regularly attending school beforehand. 

Public versus private accountability

When Vermont closed Woodside in 2020, state officials declared it the end of an era. Since then, Department for Children and Families leaders have said the state should no longer both run and oversee a facility themselves. 

Instead, they would turn to private contractors to run secure programs in the future. That way, the state could serve as the watchdog, ensuring accountability, officials said. 

As Allen described it, the Woodside model involved a conflict of interest. 

“That inherent conflict creates a gap that can limit the power of your regulatory intervention,” he said.

But advocates for youth in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems have argued the opposite. They are skeptical that privatization will bring increased accountability. 

The state tapped the for-profit company Sentinel Group to run Red Clover and help create the still-to-come Green Mountain Youth Campus. The company’s owner operates other youth facilities around New England, including the Vermont School for Girls in Bennington and Mount Prospect Academy in New Hampshire. 

At the Bennington school, some staff have faced criminal sexual abuse charges. As recently as March, an employee was charged with repeatedly sexually assaulting a student. In New Hampshire, Mount Prospect Academy faces more than 100 lawsuits by current and former students alleging, among other claims, physical and sexual abuse, Seven Days reported 

Vermont pays Sentinel about $343,500 a month to run Red Clover, according to the state’s contract. 

Some advocates for juveniles think a tarnished reputation is inherent to any secure facility. 

Mike Maughan, who’s lived in Vermont for more than a decade, grew up in foster care and youth shelters in Pennsylvania. At age 15, he was stuck in a juvenile detention facility for a year and a half when officials could not find a therapeutic setting to treat him in, he said. 

The secure facility was not designed to heal him but rather contain him, Maughan said. Grouped together with violent kids, he suffered a traumatic brain injury when he was caught in the middle of an altercation and hit by a chair that had been thrown, he said. 

He doesn’t want the same thing to happen in Vermont. Maughan doesn’t think it’s possible for a company like Sentinel to run a facility that’s truly therapeutic, he said. 

He finds the design of Red Clover and the Green Mountain Youth Campus to be problematic — “it’s just the perfect environment for abuse of youth and staff,” he said. 

He sees the abuse as a symptom of the model. In that setting, kids are always in a vulnerable position and at the hands of a power imbalance, Maughan said. Sometimes that imbalance becomes dangerous for everyone. 

“When you go into work and you have the same youth try and punch you in the head and call you an asshole everyday for six months or so, there’s a good chance — and I’ve definitely seen it — staff will just snap,” Maughan said. 

The harm is greater when the company running the facility is not held responsible. 

“They are experts in deflecting accountability,” Maughan said. 

Warn, the legal advocate for youth, agrees. 

Rather than a privately run facility, Warn said he would prefer the state construct and run its own program, as it did with Woodside. As a guardian ad litem, he’s able to inspect any state and court records related to the youth he works with, but he cannot access records solely held by a private program like Sentinel. 

Though he’s had a positive experience with Red Clover’s staff, he views reliance on any private provider as flawed. 

“The fact that it exists is a big failure in our system,” Warn said. 

Read the story on VTDigger here: Vermont keeps youth for weeks at a temporary locked facility that ‘just isn’t built’ for long-term stays.

Whenever it rains hard, Sutton Fire Chief Kyle Seymour finds himself driving around town, keeping a watchful eye on local roads and rivers. 

“Thunder wakes me up now,” he said. 

The floods that pummeled Vermont on July 10, 2023, caught Seymour by surprise. They were called historic at the time — until history repeated itself on the same date a year later, surprising Seymour again.

But this year, he was on guard. 

“It’s no longer paranoia,” he said. 

Late Thursday afternoon, heavy thunderstorms hit the state again but on a smaller scale than previous years. The impact from Thursday’s rain was largely concentrated to a handful of towns in the Northeast Kingdom and Addison County, hitting West Burke and Sutton the hardest, according to Robert Haynes, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Burlington. 

“Yesterday’s events coming on the anniversary — that is a slap in the face, right? That is very hard to accept mentally,” said Doug Farnham, Vermont’s chief recovery officer, who was appointed by the governor after floods in July 2023.

People are grappling with the trauma of floods from past years, both in physical loss and in mental health effects, Farnham said. Some of the homes hit by Thursday’s floods in Sutton were also hit hard last year — and the year before, Seymour said. 

The July 10 floods two years ago devastated towns across Vermont, such as Ludlow in the south all the way up to the Northeast Kingdom. Last year’s floods hit many of those same places again before they could fully recover. 

“The scale and scope are certainly less compared to the last two years,” Haynes said.

In Sutton, localized rainfall washed away road surfaces and beds around town — leaving only exposed rock underneath. Calendar Brook Road, which crosses over its namesake, was especially hard hit, Seymour said. 

Throughout May and the first half of June, Vermont saw much higher precipitation than average, according to Lesley-Ann L. Dupigny-Giroux, the state’s climatologist. That moisture “primed the pump” by saturating the ground just before Thursday’s rain. Similar conditions contributed to flooding in 2023 and during Tropical Storm Irene in 2011, she said. 

Climate change also contributes to the increased moisture in the air, later leading to higher precipitation, Dupigny-Giroux said. The changing climate also contributes to “troughs or dips in the jet stream,” she said, which can lead storms to persist over Vermont.

When asked why the event might be occurring the same time every year, meteorologist Haynes said July tends to be an apt time for hot, moist air that moves slowly. Those conditions tend to create thunderstorms that hit hard, rather than moving along, he said. 

Then, locally, Vermonters feel the effects.

“We’re unfortunately getting good at this,” Seymour said. Town officials in Sutton are ready to start filling out paperwork for FEMA applications — though they just wrapped up the ones from last year, he said. Similarly, Farnham said state officials are ready to work with towns in the next steps. 

“Our pencils are sharp,” he said.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Vermont has seen flooding on the same day for the past 3 years. For residents, the latest storm was ‘a slap in the face.’.

RUTLAND — On Friday afternoon, a woman in a red sedan waved and honked her horn as she pulled up to a stoplight in front of city hall, exciting a woman who held a sign reading “Honk 4 Kim.” The people gathered there were supporters of Kim Peters — and they were still making noise three months after the mayor put the longtime director of the city’s rec department on paid leave. 

Alaura McClallen, organizer of the group, recognized the driver as a fellow parent. She, like McClallen, sent her kids to a summer camp run by the recreation department. When the light turned green, other drivers sounded their horns, some pumping their fists out the window. 

It was the second demonstration of the week for the small group, and the most recent event in a long saga of controversy over the ousting of Kim Peters. 

After Rutland Mayor Mike Doenges’s reelection, he announced that he would not reappoint Peters as the city’s recreation superintendent this year, prompting a public outcry and confusion that has lasted for months.

In private, Doenges explained his decision to the city’s Board of Aldermen with claims that Peters didn’t do proper background checks of recreation department volunteers and employees, according to public records obtained by VTDigger. But Doenges hasn’t been forthcoming about that reason publicly. 

His statements to residents broadly cite his lack of trust in Peters, leaving many skeptical that he has a legitimate reason for forcing her out of the position. Now she remains on paid leave until the role is filled. 

With public disapproval simmering since March, the city’s Board of Aldermen recently sidestepped Doenges and voted to reappoint Peters on June 16. But soon after the city attorney said the vote was invalid — and officials are not on the same page about what happens next. 

Background Checks

Back in January, the Rutland Herald published a story that revealed two volunteers for the rec department have criminal records. In the article, Peters said she conducts background checks on all employees and volunteers in the department, but admitted she was unaware of one criminal charge before being informed by the newspaper. 

Doenges sent a letter to Peters on March 18 stating she was “placed on administrative leave effective immediately,” according to public records obtained by VTDigger. She would be barred from city buildings and unable to discuss her leave, but would remain on the city’s payroll until the position was permanently filled, records show.

Members of the Board of Aldermen were notified of her leave that day but not offered any explanation, according to city emails obtained by VTDigger. Many board members said they were struck by the decision and caught off guard. Shortly after, Doenges appointed April Cioffi as acting superintendent of the city’s recreation department. 

“This has been a very difficult time for Kim Peters,” said Larry Cupoli, a member of the Board of Aldermen and part of the search committee to fill Peters’ role. “Frankly, she’s probably the best thing that’s ever happened to the city,” he added.

Peters declined to comment. 

Doenges also declined to comment on his interactions with Peters. He said city attorney Megan LaChance advised him not to speak publicly about personnel matters. 

“There was a trust relationship that was broken between myself and the superintendent,” Doenges said in an interview. 

But in a March executive session, a meeting closed to the public, Doenges explained his reasoning to board members. He wrote a speech for that meeting in which, public records show, he alleged Peters lied about the department’s practice of running background checks. Doenges read the speech to board members, he said. 

“I was directly and intentionally deceived,” wrote Doenges in bold, with “deceived” underlined. 

In that written speech, Doenges said that after reading the Rutland Herald article in January, he dug into the city’s records and found out Peters hadn’t been doing proper background checks. Doenges claims Peters lied both to the newspaper and to him a number of times, then tried to cover it up afterward. 

“That’s not following procedure — that’s scrambling to fix the appearance of one,” Doenges wrote. 

“Imagine your child is coached by someone who seems perfectly fine. But we, as a city, skipped a critical step; and didn’t run a proper background check. // That coach hurts your child. And then you find out it could have been prevented,” he wrote later on. 

The city is an institution that must keep children safe — and without background checks, children are at risk, Doenges said. In his speech, Doenges cited the oversight lapses of the Boy Scouts and the Catholic Church, both institutions notorious for sexual abuse claims. 

VTDigger asked Doenges why he drew connections between those institutions and Rutland City. “It’s not based on anything,” Doenges said. The city is a trusted organization and officials have to “do our part at all times to make sure that we are taking care of the citizens that are in our care,” he said. 

In his written speech, Doenges said he refuses to be someone who looks the other way when child safety is neglected. “I imagined the worst-case scenarios — because that’s what the job requires,” Doenges wrote in his speech.

‘It still did not make any sense’ 

Even after Doenges’ explanation, many city officials said they couldn’t get behind his decision. 

“Some of us — most of us — didn’t buy it,” said Sharon Davis, who also sits on the Board of Aldermen, in a recent interview. “It still did not make any sense knowing Kim and the reputation she had.” 

On April 8, Peters reached out to Doenges and formally asked to be reappointed to her position, public records show. Then, on April 11, Peters emailed the city attorney to ask if she could communicate with city officials and recreation department employees — LaChance, the attorney, sent her a cease-and-desist letter, records show. 

That same day, Doenges published an op-ed in the Rutland Herald, stating that he didn’t reappoint Peters because he lacked trust in her. The op-ed never mentioned a specific concern related to background checks. 

McClallen, who organized the recent city hall demonstrations, thinks the whole dispute between Doenges and Peters feels personal. “It makes me sad,” she said.

“I never ever mistrusted her,” even after hearing Doenges’ concerns about background checks, McClallen said.

If McClallen had known Doenges wasn’t going to reappoint Peters, she said, she wouldn’t have voted for him. Dozens of other people have emailed city officials in the last few months urging them to reappoint Peters, according to public records obtained by VTDigger. 

In emails, some residents complain Doenges wasn’t more transparent with residents. Doenges thinks people are upset because they don’t have all the information about the situation, and advice from legal counsel has stopped him from sharing more, he said. 

A contested vote

Near the end of a June 16 Board of Aldermen meeting, member Paul Clifford made a motion to reappoint Kim Peters as recreation superintendent. He cited a section of the city charter that allows the board to make an appointment if the mayor doesn’t within 90 days. 

The council unanimously voted to suspend the rules to allow the motion, since it wasn’t on the agenda. After taking a short recess to review voting rules and talk to LaChance, the city’s attorney, the board members voted 7-3 in favor of reappointing Peters. Board President David Allaire was the last member to vote, casting his in favor of Peters’ reappointment. 

Doenges said that after the vote he called Peters and offered her the position. Then on June 18 LaChance sent board members a memo outlining a number of missteps in the voting procedure. 

Two of those missteps made the vote invalid, LaChance wrote. 

As board president, Allaire should’ve made the motion for reappointment and “since the nomination was not properly made, the vote is invalid,” LaChance wrote. The president also should not have voted, and “the vote was invalid because President Allaire could not vote on the motion,” she wrote. 

After receiving the memo from LaChance, Doenges called Peters and revoked the job offer, he said. 

Now some board members think the vote still stands. 

“The mayor can accept the fact that Kim Peters has been reappointed by seven members of the Board of Aldermen and move on,” said Davis, who voted to reappoint Peters. Otherwise, the mayor will have to take legal action, she said. 

Doenges said he was unsure what taking legal action might look like. “I’m proceeding as if the vote was invalid because that’s what my legal counsel has told us,” he said. 

Others have accepted LaChance’s legal interpretation and plan on working with Doenges to move forward. It would be possible for the Board of Aldermen to vote on the matter again, but some members think that move is unlikely.

The search committee to find a new superintendent is still active and ongoing, Doenges said. Clifford told VTDigger he decided to step down from the committee given all the fallout. 

Some have gotten sick of the controversy. “It’s not good for Rutland,” said Michael Talbott, a member of the Board of Aldermen who voted against Peters’ reappointment. 

City emails obtained by VTDigger show employees scrambling within the recreation department to fill Peters’ shoes, struggling with logistics and to find needed resources without contacting Kim. 

McClallen said that while she doesn’t like to be political, she thinks the majority of the town still supports Peters. 

The recreation department “needs a leader,” said McClallen that Friday in June in front of City Hall. 

“The only person equipped is Kim,” she said. 

Read the story on VTDigger here: Who will lead Rutland’s Rec Department? Mayor’s move sparks ongoing controversy..

Federal funds to build out electric vehicle charging infrastructure in Vermont are still on hold after a Tuesday federal court ruling opened up funds for other states. 

In the ruling, U.S. District Judge Tana Lin in Washington partially issued a preliminary injunction ordering the Trump administration to release funds that it withheld this winter. But the judge denied Vermont’s claims, deciding the state didn’t prove it would face “irreparable harm” if funds were left on hold. 

Some clean energy advocates in Vermont think the hold is harmful. 

“Americans in rural parts of the country — blue, red and purple — are worse off because these funds are not out the door,” said Ben Edgerly Walsh, Climate and Energy Program director for Vermont Public Interest Research Group. 

And now the state will have to keep fighting if it wants change. 

“The Attorney General is very disappointed with this outcome and will continue to explore legal options to protect Vermont’s interests and funding in this case,” said Amelia Vath, a spokesperson for the Vermont Attorney General’s Office, over email. 

In February, the Trump administration, through the Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration, withheld billions of dollars allocated by Congress to build out electric vehicle chargers in many states. In response, Vermont filed the lawsuit, along with 15 other states and Washington, D.C., in May against those two offices.

In the suit, the states bit back, claiming that both entities overstepped their authority by trying to interfere with funding that was designated by Congress. 

Before funds were put on hold, Vermont was set to receive $16.7 million in federal funding for charging projects across three years, according to court documents. 

Based on that award, the state originally planned to pay a total of $9.3 million to different contractors who would build out charging stations around the state. Now, without federal funding, “Vermont cannot fund all of the projects,” it claimed in court. 

“It’s absurd that the Trump administration is tying the law into knots in order to keep this money out of Vermont and these other states,” Walsh said. 

While Vermont has more charging ports per-capita than most states, it still has a long way to come, Walsh said. When more charging stations are publicly available, it’s more viable for renters and low-income Vermonters to own electric vehicles, he said. 

In court, Vermont, Minnesota and Washington, D.C., didn’t submit documents proving federal approval and reapproval of their state plans, according to court documents. The three were the only jurisdictions denied funding in the judge’s ruling.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Court offers no relief for Vermont EV funding freeze.

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.

Updated at 7:05 p.m.

Plans for the state to build a secure youth treatment facility are up in the air after officials withdrew a proposal in Vergennes, according to the Vermont Department for Children and Families. 

The news came a day after state leaders informed advocates for justice-involved youth and other stakeholders that Vermont would consider a variety of options in its effort to build a new facility, five years after the closure of the scandal-plagued Woodside Juvenile Rehabilitation Center.

In a statement, Aryka Radke, deputy commissioner of the Vermont Department for Children and Families, said the state’s withdrawal of the Vergennes plan signaled a “shift in strategy based on project urgency” and zoning struggles. 

The state is open to “all viable options — whether within Vergennes or elsewhere,” in building a new secure youth facility, according to Radke. 

Compared to the scrapped Vergennes plan, the state will explore sites with fewer regulatory hurdles, she said, adding that leaders were confident they could transition the completed planning and development work to a new location.  

In 2024, the state announced plans to build what it called the Green Mountain Youth Campus. Department for Children and Families leaders have said Vermont’s lack of a “secure facility for youth in crisis” has strained the state’s ability to care for juveniles, prompting the plans for the 14-bed project in Vergennes. 

The program is intended as a more therapeutic successor to Woodside but has faced uncertainty along the way. At one point, the state considered increasing the size of the facility to house 18 and 19-year-olds in the criminal justice system, but ultimately scrapped that idea earlier this year. Throughout the process — and again with Tuesday’s news — stakeholders have said they feel unheard.

The state had enlisted Sentinel Group, a for-profit organization, to help design the Vergennes location. The same company runs the temporary Red Clover Treatment Center in Middlesex, and its leader is connected to the nonprofit Vermont Permanency Initiative, which runs residential programs for youth in Bennington. Sentinel has signed a contract potentially worth more than $10 million with the state for its work.

Now, the Vergennes plans are “on hold” and the state is “taking a step back” while trying to figure out what to do next, Cole Barney, a Department of Buildings and General Services spokesperson, said Tuesday. 

Officials are currently unsure where the new facility will be located or if there are other plans in store for the plot of land in Vergennes, he said. And while he said he appreciated Vergennes’ consideration, “a lot of not in our backyard advocacy” stood in the way. 

The state considered a spot in South Burlington in 2024 before moving forward in Vergennes — now they might consider that location again, Barney said. 

Matthew Bernstein, Vermont’s Child, Youth and Family Advocate, said his office has felt left out during the planning process for the facility. 

“We don’t feel like DCF has been listening to the messages from children, youth and families and that’s a huge reason why this project failed in Vergennes,” he said. 

Bernstein said the state tried to “tack on” stakeholder input to check a box, rather than involving advocates and community members at the ground level. 

He took issue with the design of the facility, which he suggested was conceived around the needs and wants of the department and those who will staff the program, rather than the needs of children who will be held there. 

As proposed, Bernstein said, the facility seemed to be “an incredible misuse of state funds.” 

Decreasing the number of children who need to be in a secure facility starts with investing in communities — and the state will have to listen to advocates if they want to get it right, he said. 

In an interview Monday, Mark Koenig, the chair of a Vergennes committee negotiating with the state about the facility, said the city received a short email from Buildings and General Services Commissioner Wanda Minoli earlier this month “withdrawing” the state’s request for a zoning waiver to build the youth campus. 

But that zoning waiver, Koenig said, “wasn’t actually a legitimate request in the first place.”

To Koenig, the state’s decision to pull its request is just the most recent episode in a dysfunctional process.

Town officials documented their rocky relationship with the state over plans for the residential facility in a June 6 memo. 

“Since this process began, Vergennes’ concerns and requests have been dismissed or trivialized by State officials,” Koenig wrote in the memo. “We also note that, although the State says it needs this facility operational as soon as possible, State agencies have done very little over the past year to move it forward.” 

Correction: An earlier version of this story was incorrect about the amount Sentinel Group has been paid by the state so far for its work.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Vermont’s plans for secure youth facility are up in the air after Vergennes proposal withdrawn.

MONTPELIER — On July 4th, Rep. Mari Cordes is leaving Vermont for Nova Scotia in a move that also marks her resignation as a representative. 

“It’s the day of my own independence,” Cordes, D-Bristol, said Monday in a somber, shaky voice. 

As a queer person, a senior and a nurse at the University of Vermont Medical Center, Cordes had a whirlwind of personal and political reasons that spurred her decision to resign and relocate, she said. 

In her job as a nurse, Cordes is personally feeling the effects of staffing cuts across Vermont hospitals, she said. She simply isn’t getting enough work hours — and watching friends and colleagues make the move to Canada has inspired her to do the same, she said. 

As a lawmaker who sits on the House Committee on Health Care, leaving the state while its health care system faces many challenges is heartbreaking, Cordes said. “It’s not in my nature to not fight,” she said as tears welled in her eyes. 

But her pain is not without relief. Cordes has feared for her safety as a member of the LGBTQ+ community since President Donald Trump’s first presidential term, and in her past six years as a representative she’s received two death threats, she said. 

Besides homophobic attitudes, Cordes is also concerned that Trump will slash Social Security. “I am facing a very uncertain future as an elder,” the 66-year-old said. 

Now, she’s looking forward to starting a new nursing job at a hospital in Nova Scotia. The process has been easy, and a good friend of hers recently did the same, she said. Canada is opening up its medical practices to American doctors in response to Trump’s presidency, according to KFF Health News. 

Outside a doorway to the House floor, Cordes greeted Rep. Emily Carris-Duncan, D-Whitingham, who was walking past with a fellow representative. 

Carris-Duncan rested her hand on Cordes’s shoulder. “We only aspire to continue your legacy,” Carris-Duncan said. 

Read the story on VTDigger here: Vermont lawmaker is relocating to Canada, resigning her seat.

When Maria Rossi first started working as a doula 15 years ago, she immediately noticed a startling contrast in who was able to access her services. “It was so stark, the differences of what’s being offered to people who had means versus those who didn’t,” she said. 

That’s important because the benefit of doulas lies in their ability to work outside of the traditional medical establishment, she said. Rossi said doulas address the emotional needs of clients, rather than offering clinical medical services. 

Rossi started the doula program at Washington County Mental Health Services 12 years ago because she wanted to provide more birthing resources to Vermonters who aren’t white, are experiencing poverty, live in a rural area or struggle with substance abuse. 

For years, doulas across the state have told lawmakers their services can bridge the gap in resources. They’ve pointed to research that shows pregnant people who use doulas are more likely to have positive birthing outcomes. 

And they’ve asked lawmakers to make their services more affordable. 

Now, a new law signed by Gov. Phil Scott Monday, creates a roadmap to having Vermont Medicaid cover up to $2,100 in doula services. The state and federally funded insurance program would specifically pay for doulas to work with people before, during and after birth. The law also creates a certification program for community-based doulas who serve lower income and under-resourced populations. 

The time around birth can be very powerful, but has the potential to be traumatic, Rossi said. 

From 2012 to 2023, 29 people died from pregnancy complications in Vermont, according to an annual state report. Across those cases, researchers found that rural counties in Vermont have a maternal mortality rate three times higher than in Chittenden County — and 83% of Vermonters who died during the perinatal period were insured by Medicaid. 

Nationwide more than 80% of pregnancy-related deaths in the United States are preventable, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. National data also shows huge racial disparities. Black people are more than three times likely to die from a pregnancy-related cause, according to the CDC. 

Those statistics, along with input from doulas, inspired the law. 

If all goes as planned, a pregnant person working with a state-certified doula could have their expenses covered by Medicaid. But officials at the Department of Vermont Health Access, which operates the program, have “significant concerns regarding funding and implementation” of the law, said Alex McCracken, a spokesperson for the department. 

First, state officials must figure out how to certify doulas. The Office of Professional Regulation, which operates under the Vermont Secretary of State’s Office, is tasked with developing the certification process and carrying it out. The office wants a training standard that will teach doulas how to address the distinct needs of underserved populations, said Jennifer Colin, the office’s general counsel. 

Once the certification is designed, the Department of Vermont Health Access must seek federal approval to change its Medicaid plan by July 1, 2026. But health officials worry the “community-based” doula certification program as envisioned by the law won’t meet federal standards, McCracken said. 

In early May, McCracken cautioned lawmakers against any amendments to the state plan “given the current volatility and uncertainty in the federal environment.” Just days later, President Donald Trump announced billions of dollars in cuts to Medicaid’s federal funding. 

Upon signing the bill, Scott gave those concerns a platform.

“Outstanding operational concerns must be addressed before we seek to amend our Medicaid plan,” Scott said in a statement. He urged lawmakers to address any unresolved administrative stumbling blocks next year. 

Lawmakers who worked on the legislation understand those concerns. Sen. Martine Laroque Gulick, D-Chittenden-Central, the bill’s lead sponsor, said she’s optimistic state agencies can work together to get everything ready for federal approval. 

Officials at the Office of Professional Regulation supported the bill and are excited about its passage, Colin said. She said state officials across agencies can work together to create a certification the feds will green-light.

Creating a certification process aims to strike a balance between public protection and maintaining accessibility, Colin said. 

To Rossi, accessibility is what the profession is all about. 

Doulas that could be certified under the new law are “usually serving a higher level of need, and a more marginalized population,” she said. Rossi describes her work as more of a “behavioral intervention” that addresses a client’s emotional needs. 

Rossi sees the law as an important step in closing gaps in access birthing resources and improving maternal care. She said the issue is timely as some hospitals in Vermont consider closing birthing centers in response to expensive healthcare costs. 

Lawmakers recently passed another new law aimed at expanding options for pregnant people. The legislation creates a licensure process for freestanding birthing centers and reduces regulatory barriers for them to open. The law also directs state administrators to seek Medicaid coverage for their services, and requires private insurers that cover maternity services to include freestanding birth centers as providers. 

Doulas are essential in rural communities where there are fewer health care resources, Rossi said, and research shows their services prevent birthing complications and make cesarean sections less likely — ultimately lowering hospital costs. 

Other doulas echoed the sentiment in conversations with officials from the Office of Professional Regulation, according to a state study prompted by a related law last year. 

Those conversations are why administrators recommended that lawmakers create a voluntary certification process for doulas, rather than setting a higher bar like a licensure requirement. One certified nurse midwife, who was not named in the study, said they work with immigrants and refugees in Chittenden County. 

They said the needs of immigrants are not being met — and that access to culturally relevant doula services could create better birthing outcomes and overall more positive medical experiences.

Now, private insurance companies might consider covering doulas as well. BlueCross BlueShield of Vermont started a pilot program last year to gauge member interest in doulas and has seen positive results, said spokesperson Sara Teachout. 

While the pilot is still ongoing, the company could mirror the state and provide coverage for certified doulas down the line, Teachout said. 

Read the story on VTDigger here: New Vermont law creates roadmap for making doula services more accessible.

Starting July 1, a new law is set to expand unpaid parental leave for Vermonters — and for the first time, guarantee employees can take off work after the death of a family member. It also defines family relationships more broadly under the law, naming its intention to equitably include LGBTQ+ Vermonters. 

The law is designed to let employees take care of personal and family matters without fear of losing their jobs, said Rep. Emilie Krasnow, D-South Burlington, the bill’s lead sponsor. “It may seem like a small step, but it is very mighty because often our previous laws need to catch up with the world that we’re in today,” Krasnow said. 

Once the law goes into effect, employees can take up to 12 weeks of unpaid time off after childbirth, miscarriage or to take care of a new adopted or foster child. Vermonters will also be able to take off after the death of a family member for up to two weeks total, with no more than five consecutive days off. 

The law also introduces safe leave, which lets someone take up to 12 weeks off work if they or a family member are experiencing domestic or sexual violence. 

Oftentimes, survivors seeking help are “experiencing some of the worst times in their life and are not able to continue their lives as usual,” said Charlie Gliserman, the director of policy for the Vermont Network Against Domestic and Sexual Violence. The law could allow survivors in crisis the ability to access legal or medical services without fear of losing their jobs, Gliserman said. 

The law only applies to businesses with 10 or more employees who work more than 30 hours a week — and lawmakers attempted to strike a balance between offering employee benefits and being practical for business owners, Krasnow said. 

The law directly states an intention to include LGBTQ+ families and nontraditional family structures. 

“Everyone should have the same time off benefits regardless of who they are and who they love and who their family is,” Krasnow said. 

It will allow someone to take family leave for a child who isn’t biologically related as long as they have parent-like responsibilities. Vermonters can also take family leave for a domestic partner who isn’t a spouse as long as the relationship is “of a spousal nature.” 

Gov. Phil Scott signed the bill into law on May 22. His administration supports the bill “because of its good-natured intent.” 

“We’re hopeful this will have a positive effect on workforce retention in Vermont,” said Amanda Wheeler, the governor’s press secretary, in a statement emailed to VTDigger. 

Before the governor’s approval, the bill garnered near-unanimous approval in both the House and Senate. House lawmakers approved an earlier version of the bill in late March, before Senate lawmakers made a few amendments. 

In response to concerns from Megan Sullivan, who handles government affairs for the Vermont Chamber of Commerce, lawmakers in the Senate Committee on Economic Development, Housing and General Affairs reduced the number of days employees can take for bereavement leave. Now, the law only allows five consecutive days off instead of two full weeks off. 

“It’s almost impossible to temporarily fill that (position),” Sullivan said, and for some business owners, that vacancy can be tough. She pushed lawmakers to make the change. 

Senate lawmakers also followed Gliserman’s recommendations on expanding safe leave. After an amendment, the law lets people take off work to meet with a state’s attorney or law enforcement officer. The changes to the bill better “cover the situations that we see with survivors in our legal clinic and at our member organizations” Gliserman said. 

“We’re very supportive and excited about the bill,” Gliserman said, but unpaid leave will always be out of reach for most survivors. Most people her organization supports can’t afford to miss a paycheck, she said. 

Krasnow sees the bill’s passage as an overdue win. She hopes it keeps the conversation going, and she plans to continue to advocate for paid family and medical leave, she said. 

Read the story on VTDigger here: A new law opens up unpaid leave for Vermont workers .

For years Jason Struthers has made a living growing vegetables, raising ducks and cultivating cannabis in his Essex Junction backyard, but not without controversy. Neighbors argued first to the city, then later in court, that his half-acre farm has no place in their residential neighborhood — and the Vermont Supreme Court recently ruled in agreement. 

The May 30 ruling reversed a lower court’s decision, with justices reasoning that towns and cities in Vermont can regulate both cannabis cultivation and farming practices by enforcing local zoning laws. 

It’s the latest development in a long controversy over state versus local authority, and a win for Stephen and Sharon Wille Padnos, who live next door to Struthers and have advocated against Struthers’ farm. 

“I will say we had a good weekend,” said Stephen Wille Padnos. He and his wife are celebrating the hard fought win and hoping the next legal processes aren’t drawn out, he said. 

Meanwhile, Struthers is “absolutely gobsmacked” and confused, he said. The attitude expressed in the ruling disrupts a tradition of supporting agriculture in Vermont, Struthers said. And he’s talking to his lawyers about ways to fight the decision every way he can, he said. 

Struthers has a state license to grow cannabis on his property and is recognized by the Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets as a farm for his duck-raising and vegetable farming. But neighbors take issue with the smell of his plants and the sound of his ducks in their suburban neighborhood. 

The Wille Padnoses reason that he shouldn’t be able to run a farm or cultivate cannabis on their quiet cul-de-sac because they live within the city’s residential zone and within 500 feet of Essex High School property. In turn, Struthers argues that he’s exempt from the city’s regulations because he’s protected by state agriculture and cannabis laws. 

Legally, his farming practices and cannabis cultivation are two separate matters. But Struthers uses manure from his ducks to fertilize his cannabis plants. He sees any regulation of his ducks as de-facto regulation of his cultivation, he said. 

And many have tried to make sense of the legal ambiguities. 

Back in September 2023, the Essex Junction Developmental Review Board ruled that Struthers’ duck raising violated local zoning laws, while stating the city had little power to regulate or zone his cannabis cultivation. 

The decision raised frustration from both sides. Struthers appealed, arguing the city was out of line by trying to regulate his farming, according to court documents. The Wille Padnoses also appealed, but for the opposite reason. They argued the city wasn’t doing enough to regulate Struthers’ cannabis. 

At the next level of appeal, Thomas Walsh, a judge in the Environmental Division of Vermont Superior Court, ruled in Struthers’ favor on both matters in August. He said the regulation of farming and cultivation was out of the city’s hands. 

Then, last week the state Supreme Court reversed the judgment of the environmental court. In their ruling, justices wrote that the “landowner’s cannabis-cultivation operation is not exempt from all municipal regulation simply because he is a licensed outdoor cannabis cultivator.” In the same ruling, justices also said state law “does not prohibit all municipal regulation of farming.” 

Next, the case will be passed back down to the lower court, and Walsh can rule on the case again — this time bearing in mind the interpretation of the Supreme Court. 

After the ruling, city officials will decide what action they could take. “We will be carefully considering next steps to ensure we are consistent with this decision; this will likely include coordination with other regulatory authorities,” Regina Mahony, the city manager of Essex Junction, said in an email to VTDigger. 

Read the story on VTDigger here: State Supreme Court rules against Essex Junction cannabis and ducks farmer.

Charlotte Oliver is a reporter with the Community News Service, part of the University of Vermont’s Reporting & Documentary Storytelling program.

WILLISTON — Tim Cook’s eyes widened as he threw his hands up in exasperation. Sitting in his living room, the 78-year-old explained how much his community of manufactured homes means to him — and how frustrated he is with the state. 

Along the curved roads of Williston Woods Homeowners Association, most residents like Cook are seniors who get by on a fixed income. They cannot afford to make home improvements, Cook said. And some renos, like bathtub railings, are especially important for seniors, he said. 

Usually someone who lives in a manufactured or mobile home park can apply for state money to help pay for home-improvement projects. But Cook’s community, as a homeowners association, isn’t a mobile home park under Vermont law — so the state won’t list it on the registry that opens up those funds.

Cook is one of 47 residents in the neighborhood, a designated affordable housing community for seniors. As a member of the association, he can afford a multi-bedroom house adorned with matte white siding — and, uniquely, ownership of the land it sits on.

That’s why the state says the residents don’t face the same challenges, or need the same support, as people in traditional mobile home parks. Cook and his neighbors disagree. 

“The issue is that we’re not on the state registry — and it’s causing us a lot of grief,” Cook said. 

Association leaders have been pressuring the state for years to recognize their community. After talks this spring, Sen. Kesha Ram Hinsdale, D-Chittenden Southeast, wrote to the Agency of Commerce and Community Development, which manages the registry. She asked them for an exception and never heard back. 

“They are the only mobile home community that’s come forward in the state where they own their homes, they own the land underneath them and they own the park collectively,” Ram Hinsdale said. 

The agency told Community News Service that state assistance is meant to help people more vulnerable than the residents. Officials don’t plan on recognizing the park under current laws but said they will continue to work with residents on other ways to help them. 

The state offers grants for making repairs, installing foundations, hauling away abandoned homes and more. The manufactured home program has paid over $6 million in awards, the agency says.

To fit the state’s definition, at least two mobile homes have to sit on a piece of land owned by one owner. Right next door to Williston Woods Homeowners Association lives Williston Woods Cooperative Housing Corporation, a manufactured home co-op that functions almost exactly the same as the homeowners association. 

But the co-op itself owns the whole park, while the association parcels land out for individual ownership. And the distinction earns the co-op a spot on the registry. 

Most of the homes in Cook’s community were built in the 1980s, he said, and manufactured homes need more weatherization and frequent maintenance than traditional homes. Many people in the community can’t afford the repairs, said Cook, and getting maintenance done is often harder for older folks. 

Joe Yandow, a 73-year-old who joined the community a few years ago, said his house needed major improvements when he moved in. An older woman with mobility issues owned the house before him, and she just couldn’t keep up with the repairs, Yandow said. 

He said he had to renovate parts of the house and was denied funding at every step. Now he has a leak in the roof and needs the insulation in his attic replaced — but he’s not sure how to afford it.

“The state’s going to have to step up,” Yandow said, speaking for himself and his neighbors.  

Cook said recently a number of residents helped a woman walk up the stairs outside her home. She should be able to build a ramp or install a stairlift device without having to cover the cost, Cook said. 

Legislators tried to tackle the issue last year by proposing a bill to expand the definition of a manufactured home park. But officials at the Agency of Commerce and Community Development voiced concerns that a definition change would open the door for people who didn’t need the assistance. The bill was never passed. 

This February, Cook and another community leader, Gary Nowak, told a Senate committee about their frustrations. The men stayed in contact with their senator, Ram Hinsdale, and asked her again to take action. She wrote the agency requesting to make an exception on the registry for the homeowners association but got no reply, she said. 

The agency “legally cannot make an exception for Williston Woods as it does not meet the definition of a mobile home park,” said Scott Sharland, mobile home park coordinator for the agency’s housing department.

The state has programs to assist those in manufactured homes because they “do not own their land, which makes them particularly vulnerable to increases in lot rents and the possibility of evictions, park sales or park closures,” Sharland said, speaking on behalf of the department.

But residents at the homeowners association in Williston say they’re in need, too. “Just add us to the damn registry,” Yandow said. 

The agency wants to find “the best way to accommodate” the homeowners association, Sharland said, “without undermining the purpose of the mobile home park registry.” 

So far, it hasn’t.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Frustration stews at Williston senior community over state’s mobile home park rules.

Charlotte Oliver is a reporter with Community News Service, part of the University of Vermont’s Reporting & Documentary Storytelling program.

Since 2003, mothers in Vermont prisons have been able to visit their children in a room with carpets and couches and stay in touch free of charge through a partnership between the state and a nonprofit.

But the same services have never existed for incarcerated fathers. 

With 64% of the state’s prison population being parents, lawmakers are considering a bill that would change that. 

The bill, H. 219, would introduce the program at Northwestern State Correctional Facility in Newport. Fathers who partake would be able to virtually attend family court hearings, regularly call their children and visit with them in a plush, child-friendly space.

The bill takes funding from an existing pool of money in the Department of Corrections’ budget to pay for equipment and staff — meaning it doesn’t require new money from lawmakers. 

Lund, a social services organization, runs the program currently available only to mothers, called Kids-A-Part. Lund would expand the program as the first step, with intentions to take it statewide by 2028. 

“Fathers deserve to have access” to the same services as mothers, said Kim Laroche, who runs parent-child services for Lund. 

“It’s kind of one of those no-brainer bills,” said Rep. Troy Headrick, I-Burlington, the bill’s lead sponsor. But stakeholders in the program anticipate roadblocks with funding it in the future, as well as finding suitable spaces in old facilities. 

The bill passed the House late last month with near-unanimous support and will now be reviewed in a Senate committee. Under the bill, the Department of Corrections would both fully fund the existing program and its expansion — and write into law a mandate that the program continues. 

The existing Kids-A-Part program lives in a space distinct from the cold, hard surfaces of the rest of the women’s prison. In the room, two green couches sit atop a patterned rug, with a shelf of toys stacked against the wall nearby. 

Kids visit their moms in that space, and the program organizes two group visits a month in which multiple families get together in the space at the same time. 

Laroche, when she thinks about visitations she’s seen, said she pictures a teenager with her legs draped over her mom as they sit on the couch together. “And the daughter’s just filling her mom in on the drama of school,” she said. 

Headrick said legislators need to foster those relationships between parent and child. The bill’s primary intention is to help the kid whose parent was “taken from them” when they were incarcerated, Headrick said. 

Kids-A-Part also facilitates letter-writing and video calls between mothers and children. Those services usually cost inmates, but the program covers the fee. Inmates also aren’t usually able to attend most family court hearings, but program staff gives them the option to attend virtually. 

Some lawmakers think the bill is long overdue. “It’s embarrassing that it’s gone this long without being available to men,” Headrick said.

The department supports the expansion of the program and has partnered with Lund, but it has raised concerns about facility and staffing constraints. Finding a sizable space that can be designated for Kids-A-Part is difficult in many facilities, the department found when it studied the program. 

Space isn’t the only concern. Laroche and lawmakers mentioned the condition of buildings as a limiting factor. One year around Christmas, the Kids-A-Part space in Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility — the women’s prison — had flooded with sewage, said Haley Sommer, spokesperson for the department, in a March 18 committee meeting. 

The department also raised worries about the staffing shortage in Vermont’s prisons, as “staff who are able to facilitate programming may be pulled to oversee security operations,” department employees wrote in the same study. 

While you can’t “copy and paste” the program from the women’s prison to the men’s, expanding it is definitely possible, said Laroche. She’s hopeful the bill will pass. Once Newport has a suitable space, Lund can “bring in games and toys,” Laroche said. 

The goal is to “make sure that when the children arrive, that they see that space as special to them for their visit with their parents,” Laroche said.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Bill offers incarcerated fathers equal parenting support.

Charlotte Oliver is a reporter with the Community News Service, part of the University of Vermont’s Reporting & Documentary Storytelling program.

Early last month, legislators sat around their committee table and shared stories of loss. Rep. Mary Howard, D-Rutland, said she would wipe tears from her eyes on her morning drive to work after the death of her husband. 

Other lawmakers joined in — and no one was off topic. 

They were discussing a bill, H. 461, which could widen the circumstances under which employees can take unpaid time off. It would also expand the definition of family under state time-off laws to include more non-traditional family structures. 

The bill would guarantee employees in Vermont can take two weeks of unpaid time off from work after the death of a family member. It also introduces what’s often called safe leave — or 12 weeks of unpaid time off from work if they or a family member are experiencing domestic or sexual violence. In both cases, the bill applies only to employers with 10 or more workers.

The changes would let people enduring domestic or sexual violence to “attend to their most urgent needs,” said Anne Ward, executive director for Mosaic Vermont, which supports survivors of sexual violence in Washington County. 

Ward explained that taking safe leave could make someone more likely to file a protective order or seek medical services. 

“A bill like this gives you the opportunity to reach out for help, contact an advocate, let somebody know that this is happening,” she said, an opportunity that often comes only during the workday. 

The bill was assigned to a Senate committee on March 26 after clearing the House.

Ward said the bill would also allow parents or guardians to take off work to help their child in cases of sexual abuse. It would cause more harm if a child’s caregiver was put out of a job while trying to support them or trying to get help themselves, she said, especially since many people she works with live paycheck to paycheck. 

They’re going to use “the minimal amount of time necessary,” she said.

Legislators in the House Committee on General and Housing seemed to agree on the near equal importance of taking leave after the death of a family member. The bill would let Vermonters take two weeks of unpaid leave from work within a year of the death of a family member. 

The issue is personal to Rep. Emilie Krasnow, D-South Burlington, the bill’s lead sponsor. It’s one of the reasons she ran for office, she said. 

“I was a caretaker for my mother for many years before she passed away” two years ago, said Krasnow. The lawmaker’s father died when she was a child, and she remembers her mother taking a leave from work because of it.

The goal is for employees to take leave without risking or losing their jobs, Krasnow said. People dealing with loss “should be able to have the right to come back to work and take that time,” she said. 

In house committee meetings throughout the second week of March, lawmakers considered the potential strain on small businesses. 

A business would have to have at least 10 employees to be affected by the bill. Lawmakers seemed to concede that those businesses are large enough to bear the burden of employee leave. Multiple legislators suggested that employees don’t do their best work when dealing with trauma or loss. 

In March meetings, House lawmakers also seemed to agree on expanding the legal definition of family to include a much broader array of relationships. 

The bill would let employees take leave from work for a partner who isn’t a spouse — or for a child who isn’t biologically or legally theirs, as long as they have parent-like responsibilities. The expansions are especially meant to protect LGBTQ+ people, who are more likely to accept less common family arrangements.

Everyone should have the same time-off benefits “regardless of who they are and who they love and who their family is,” said Krasnow. 

Johanna de Graffenreid, the public policy manager for Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility, told lawmakers the bill would level the playing field. She pointed out that neighboring states like Maine and New York define family more broadly under the law. 

“We would be catching up,” de Graffenreid said.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Lawmakers look to expand unpaid time off .

Charlotte Oliver is a reporter for Community News Service, part of the University of Vermont’s Reporting & Documentary Storytelling program.

On a Sunday night Kelsey Rice found her abuser at her home again, out on bail after an arrest hours earlier. The courts had ordered him to stay away. He didn’t.

He assaulted her that March 2019 night, she said, threatening to kill them both — and not for the first time. 

Authorities should’ve told Rice that the man was getting out. She didn’t get a call till days later, she told state lawmakers this past fall.

Crime victims in Vermont have the legal right to get timely notifications about the movements of those charged with or convicted of harming them. It’s through a system called VINELink, which Vermont pays hundreds of thousands of dollars for and is managed by the state. But gaps are common, say victims and advocates, and Rice’s experience shows one of many ways those lapses can have dangerous consequences. 

“Every aspect of my life has been forever altered,” Rice said, “and I’ll continue to have to manage that for the rest of my life and the impact on my children.”  

State employees who work directly with victims concur the system doesn’t work as intended — and see it as part of a larger state failure to support victims of crimes. 

“I have several horror stories,” said Meghan Place, a victim advocate for the Department of State’s Attorneys and Sheriffs. She’s sure every advocate does.

Lawmakers got wind of issues last fall in a legislative oversight committee meeting. Now, some of them want to change how the system works in Vermont with proposals from victim advocates. 

Corrections officials disagree that the service doesn’t work, attributing gaps to data errors that their department tries to solve every day. They’ve recently marshalled a working group to assess the system.

Nobody at VINE, the Louisville company that makes VINELink, responded to three emails seeking comment across two days. Community News Service tried reaching reps for the company by phone seven times over the course of a week; the people who answered repeatedly referred questions to the same email address. 

Little confidence 

Notifications through VINELink are designed to give victims timely notice when their offender is released or transferred. The updates come via automated phone call, text or email. People can sign up after talking to a victim advocate or specialist — a state employee assigned to support survivors as they deal with the justice system. 

The service is used by 48 states in different ways, and Vermont first contracted for it in 2008. VINE — Victim Information and Notification Everyday — is owned by data analytics company Appriss Insights, itself owned by multinational credit reporting agency Equifax. 

The state paid $414,827 for a five-year contract with Appriss to provide Vermont’s victim notification service, up for renewal at the end of 2026. Officials tout its ability to eliminate human error and enhance public safety, offering services in different languages and live operators who work “around the clock.”

But most advocates with the state’s attorneys department have little confidence in the system, according to a survey prepared for legislators. Many avoid recommending victims sign up entirely because of the potential for inaccuracies, said Place, who has worked in the field for 17 years and helped assemble the survey.

Many victims have gotten incorrect calls telling them an offender was released — when the person had actually gone to a medical facility or been transferred, said Jennifer Poehlmann, executive director of the Vermont Center for Crime Victim Services, in Feb. 12 testimony to the House Committee on Corrections and Institutions. 

Victims have also gotten notices about people they don’t know or cases that aren’t theirs, she told legislators. Sometimes they never get a call at all, or sometimes it’s far too late, she said. 

“Getting that information at any point in time, even if one chooses, it is going to be traumatic,” Poehlmann said in a later interview. 

But getting updates about the wrong offender, or not receiving notice about your own, undermines trust in the system, she said.

No notice

It’s well known among experts that trying to leave an abusive relationship carries a high risk of violence for the person being abused, which is why many stay. Forty-four percent of homicides in Vermont from 1994 to 2023 were related to domestic violence, according to a government report released this year. 

Rice, who lives in the Brattleboro area, said she survived her partner’s abuse for years.

“But I reached the point where I knew someone was going to die, and we couldn’t continue to live this way. I needed to get us out,” Rice said. 

And getting out wasn’t easy. Court and police records obtained by Community News Service show as much. 

Reporting domestic violence — especially in full — carries a lot of shame, Rice said. But she sought help from police in 2018. In at least one episode, which the man later pleaded guilty to, he took away Rice’s phone during an argument so that she couldn’t call police. 

Then he grabbed her face with both of his hands, he said in a plea agreement. Rice said the violence was much worse.

Across that fall, the man had a court order to stay away from Rice. A few months later came the weekend in March. She didn’t tell police then about any assault — just that the man was violating court orders — fearful of him and wary after previous experiences with law enforcement. It would be years until she’d testify that he raped her those nights in March. 

Days after the incident Rice was back at work, “trying to keep all the balls in the air,” when she got the robotic call announcing the man’s release, she said. She ran to the bathroom to throw up. 

Then the number called over and over — until she typed in a code noting she had received the message, she said. “Every time it would ring, it would be another trauma reminder,” she said. 

She wonders whether the delay was just timing, human error. Maybe nobody put info into the system over the weekend. 

Whatever happened, she said, it was an “unbelievable gap.”  

Rice said she was never told she would get updates about the man and had never heard of VINELink before those first calls.

After the 2019 episode, she said she continued to get calls, and not all were accurate. 

One time the voice told her he was being released ahead of schedule, she said. “So I get this huge panic, huge trauma reminder,” she said — but then a later call would say he was only being transferred.

“That depletes me for the rest of the day and the week,” she said. “We need to change what that looks like — right?” 

Officials: ‘System is working as designed’

Place, the victim advocate, said errors in VINELink are why she encourages few victims to enroll. Most she works with have experienced serious “physical or emotional harm,” she said, often domestic.

For those survivors, receiving any info about their offender is “very scary,” Place said, let alone an automated message that may be incorrect. She tells survivors to call immediately when they get a message, regardless of its content. From there she works to find out what’s going on.  

She isn’t alone in her skepticism. The September 2024 survey asked advocates in the Department of State’s Attorneys and Sheriffs if they had confidence in the “operation and effectiveness” of the system. 

Eighty percent of respondents selected “no.” 

Place said problems with VINELink are both computer and human. Sometimes the system goes down, she said, and advocates have to manually update release or transfer dates. Other times human error causes info to go out incorrectly — or not at all, she said. 

“These are safety issues we’re dealing with,” she said. 

She cited one case where an offender was released without notice to the victim. “Her ex-partner and perpetrator came back and strangled her almost to death.”

That survivor didn’t get any notice until after her ex was rearrested, Place said. 

Victim advocates might not have capacity to check in every time a call goes through the system. It’s recommended that victim advocates handle about 300 cases at a time, Poehlmann said. But those at the Department of State’s Attorneys and Sheriffs usually handle about 600, she said, which “is just not acceptable.” 

After court, cases are usually passed off to specialists at the Department of Corrections.

Place left a job with the corrections department at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic because she was trying to manage almost 1,000 cases at once, she said. She went to work for the state’s attorneys department instead. 

“It just felt like something really dangerous was going to happen, so I had to step away for my own mental health,” Place said. 

Isaac Dayno, the executive director for policy and strategic initiatives at the Department of Corrections, said, “I think the system is working as designed,” after emphasizing that department employees are “constantly striving” to improve it. 

Dayno said the problem is that VINELink is used both before and after court. There’s a lot of “instability” before a case resolves, and whether someone is held or released can change quickly, he said. 

When state workers have high caseloads, it can be difficult to keep up, he said.

Dayno wasn’t sure how many cases department victim specialists manage but acknowledged that “there’s just not enough staff in this field that can handle the high volume of cases.”

Community News Service asked Haley Sommer, director of communications and legislative affairs for the department, to respond to claims that the VINELink system is flawed.

Sommer said problems with the system “often result from data errors as opposed to errors inherent to the VINE system itself.” In those cases, staff make an effort to provide victims with “accurate and complete information,” she said. 

Anna Nasset, a Vermonter by way of Washington state, has a very different experience using VINELink than Rice. She uses the platform through Washington’s system and said it gives her “great peace of mind.” 

In the 13 years she’s used the platform, she’s never gotten an incorrect notification, she said. 

Since Nasset’s stalker and abuser was arrested, she’s written a book reflecting on abuse and spoken publicly about her experience on national news networks. Her positive experience with VINELink has led her to volunteer on the company’s advisory council — and join the working group with the state corrections department, as did Rice. 

Nasset, who’s been part of the conversation around VINELink in Vermont, sees victims’ negative experiences as a result of the way the state uses the system, she said, rather than of a flaw in the platform itself. 

‘Not the voice that matters’

This legislative session, House lawmakers have been turning to victim advocates for recommendations. The Department of Corrections working group plans to review the system separate from the Legislature.

“When you hear testimony like that, then you need to do some follow-up action,” said Rep. Alice Emmons, D-Springfield, chair of the House corrections committee, referring to talks with advocates. 

The state must ensure victims get accurate and timely info, while responding to individual needs with a trauma-informed approach, Emmons said. 

Survivors and advocates want a more customizable system, said Poehlmann. That way survivors can choose to receive notifications only in certain instances and via a specific format. Giving survivors a choice is “really important to restore agency,” she said. 

Some take issue with VINELink itself. Rice found the repeated, robotic calls insensitive. Many victims share that qualm, Poehlmann said. 

“They went through a system where their voice really is not the voice that matters. It’s the state. It’s the defendant. The victim is a witness in our criminal justice process,” Poehlmann said.

Rice said she’s found healing in helping change the system by talking to law enforcement and legislators — and in her job providing mental health services for Easterseals. 

She wants her experiences and expertise to help others “navigating this maze” of uncertainty in the justice system, she said.

“I can’t change what happened,” she added, “but I can try to make a difference for future generations.”

Read the story on VTDigger here: Alerts to crime victims in Vermont are full of flaws.

Charlotte Oliver is a reporter with Community News Service, part of the University of Vermont’s Reporting & Documentary Storytelling program.

BURLINGTON — Historian Kevin Graffagnino looked over his shoulder at the four newspapers up for bid, each from 1927. 

“Flood Sweeps City, State” sat in large print across the yellowed front page of an old Rutland Daily Herald copy. Below read subheadings: “St. Johnsbury Roads Blocked”; “Bennington Flood Reaches Second Floor”; and “Man Saves Pie, Muffins,” among others.

“You have to be a Vermonter to find this compelling,” Graffagnino said. 

The papers, which all covered the November 1927 floods, the deadliest natural disaster in the state’s history, were among 475 items up for auction Oct. 12 from the private collection of Vermont Superior Court Judge Robert Mello, who currently presides in Addison County. 

William L. Parkinson Books of Hinesburg hosted the auction of Americana and state-focused Vermontiana that morning atop the plush patterned carpet of the Waterman Lounge on the University of Vermont’s campus. 

The event brought out a small group of bidders, about half of whom sat in the back row and seemed like good friends, joking and laughing during and after bidding wars. “This one better bring some bids,” Graffagnino said at one point — then cards started going up in the air. 

“It’s probably the best Vermont collection to come on the auction market in 20 years,” said Graffagnino, who started dealing Vermontiana at 17 and has worked with it ever since. 

What makes Mello’s collection stand out is the mix of artifacts from both Vermont and American history, said William Parkinson, book dealer and owner of the eponymous auction house. Among the items of national interest was an 1857 report from the U.S. Supreme Court case Dred Scott v. Sandford — when justices ruled enslaved people and their descendents weren’t U.S. citizens and couldn’t sue in federal court. 

Mello’s been collecting Vermontiana for some time and has been friends with Graffagnino and Parkinson for at least 30 years, said the latter. The Vermont judge decided to sell because “he was at a point in his life where it was just time,” Parkinson said. 

Among his collection, early maps from Vermont and beyond stood out as special because of their historical value and excellent condition, Graffagnino said. An engraved hand-colored folding map of Michigan bound in a red book cover sold for $10,000. 

A pale greenish globe on a small wooden stand titled “A New American Celestial Globe,” made by prominent early Vermonter James Wilson, went for the same price. Parkinson called it a “really extraordinary piece.” 

The crowd that Saturday was a combination of collectors and dealers, members of a small community, Graffagnino said. 

“Collecting is not a logical or intellectual process. It’s about your heart,” he said. For antique collectors like those gathered that day, it isn’t just about the thing and what condition it’s in — it’s also about the generational stewardship and who owned it before you, he said. 

“I need more people who are afflicted with collecting,” said Graffagnino, only somewhat in jest. He added later, “It’s the emotional and spiritual pull of having this real authentic stuff in our hands and on our shelves.” 

Read the story on VTDigger here: ‘It’s about your heart’: Bibliophiles bid on artifacts of Vermont history.

Charlotte Oliver is a reporter with Community News Service, part of the University of Vermont’s Reporting & Documentary Storytelling program.

Jason Struthers makes a living selling the cannabis he’s licensed to grow in his half-acre backyard in Essex Junction — but his growing and raising of ducks on his property has gotten him into tiffs with neighbors and tangled in legal ambiguity. 

In August, Vermont Superior Court Judge Thomas Walsh sought to put the question over the Taft Street backyard to rest, siding with Struthers after the Essex Junction resident sued when local officials tried to ban him from raising ducks last year. But now an appeal from Struthers’ neighbors could call the ruling — and legal precedent — into question again.

It seems straightforward to next-door neighbors Stephen and Sharon Wille Padnos, who say they shouldn’t have to smell Struthers’ cannabis or hear his ducks in their residential neighborhood. In turn, it seems straightforward to Struthers, who has legal permission from the state to farm and cultivate in his yard. 

Struthers sees his ducks as essential to his cannabis farming because he uses their manure to fertilize his plants, he told Community News Service last year. He sells their eggs, along with vegetables he grows, and says he meets the standard to legally label his operation a farm. 

Walsh, of the Vermont Superior Court’s environmental division, determined in August that Essex Junction officials can’t regulate Struthers’s farming or his cannabis growing because both are protected by state law. It was the first time the court had ruled on the two legal issues at hand, Walsh wrote in court documents. 

When city officials barred Struthers from raising ducks, they misconstrued language in laws about agriculture regulation in a way that “would upend” longstanding practices in Vermont, Walsh wrote in an Aug. 7 decision.

Now the Wille Padnos family is appealing the decision, opening up the case for review again. 

“I am very confident,” said Struthers, explaining he thinks the court will rule in his favor one more time.

But neighbors are still upset he’s allowed to farm and grow weed when he lives in an area zoned as residential by the city. 

“It’s been pretty tough,” Wille Padnos said, explaining that his wife didn’t want to be outside in their yard for a long time, so they paid to put up a new tall fence between the properties. In the past year the couple’s same qualms over the smell and sound still stand, he said, and not much has changed.

The saga came to wider attention when the Wille Padnos family and other neighbors complained in an Essex Junction Developmental Review Board meeting in September 2023. The city tried to stop his operation — before deciding they couldn’t fight his growing license from the state and renewing his license ever since. 

Then the city’s development review board decided last September that Struthers couldn’t have his ducks in a residential area. Struthers filed a lawsuit contesting the decision, which is what Walsh ruled on this past summer. 

In court papers from August, Walsh reasoned that Struthers’ duck raising is exempt from municipal regulation because it is a necessary farming practice protected by state law. The judge also reasoned his weed cultivation is protected by his license and exempt from local regulation. 

“It was basically a slam dunk,” Struthers said. But he also said the suit was more than he bargained for. “I want to focus my time on other things,” he said. 

Wille Padnos decided to appeal because “it seems wrong,” he said. He and his wife, who both grew up in Vermont and have lived in Essex Junction for years, are thinking about moving out of state if they lose the appeal, he said. 

Struthers could be forced to close his operation or relocate in the coming years even if he wins the appeal, once the city takes advantage of a state law passed this June. The law lets municipalities create cannabis cultivation districts for all outdoor cultivators to grow in those zones. 

Wille Padnos is hopeful things will go his way. “I hope he can make his business work,” he said of Struthers, “but where he should.”

Read the story on VTDigger here: Court appeal coming for Essex Junction weed and ducks case.