A Vermont judge on November 3 told a New Hampshire man pleading guilty to nine crimes that he was lucky to be in a Vermont courtroom instead of facing sterner justice his home state.
Judge Michael Kainen’s remarkable admission about Vermont’s criminal justice system was reported by Caledonian-Record editor Dana Gray in the Nov. 4 edition of the daily newspaper.
Presiding in Vermont Superior Court in St. Johnsbury, Kainen was preparing to impose a suspended sentence on George Phelps, 42. The New Hampshire counterfeit bill passer had agreed to plead guilty to nine crimes (false pretenses, counterfeiting, unlawful trespass, aggravated disorderly conduct, criminal threatening, two retail thefts, violation of an abuse prevention order and violating a release condition, the Caledonian-Record reports) committed over four years. In exchange, Phelps would leave the courtroom a free man with a suspended sentence, probation, and with 15 other charges dismissed.
But before reading the lengthy list of no-sentence convictions and the even lengthier list of dismissed charges, Kainen told Phelps he was getting a much sweeter deal on the western side of the Connecticut River because “we keep letting you go.”
“Had you been across the river in New Hampshire, if you keep committing crime, allegedly, after you’re out on conditions of release, they can just revoke bail, even on misdemeanors,” Kainen reportedly said. “Here, we don’t have the ability to do that, and so we keep letting you go.”
Vermont’s lenient bail laws have allowed Phelps to inflict ongoing pain on the citizenry despite repeated arrests, Kainen told him.
“It’s unfortunate that you’ve racked up a number of new victims in the meantime because we kept letting you go and allowing you to go out and commit new crimes,” said Kainen.
Kainen expressed the hope that the two weeks served pre-trial might have encouraged Phelps to mend his ways.
“You do two weeks in jail, and hopefully that’s enough to send the message to you that you can’t be passing a counterfeit bill; you can’t be threatening people, and you can’t be stealing from people. If you got that message with the two weeks in jail and now you’re on probation, it all works … I’m hoping you don’t want to be in jail anymore and you’re going to straighten out and fly right. If you do, this sentence makes sense,” Kainen is quoted by the Caledonian-Record.
When told of this incident by VDC at a November 6 press conference, Gov. Phil Scott said he would be working with the Legislature to tighten Vermont’s bail laws.
In the State House, bail reform (or the lack if it) will be heavily influenced by the new chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Longtime chair Richard Sears (D-Bennington) died earlier this year. Sen. Nader Hashim (D-Windham), a lawyer, former state trooper, and executive director of an LGBTQ educational organization, is considered a front-runner. GOP Sen. Robert Norris, a former Franklin County sheriff, also reportedly is in the running.
Committee selections will be made by President Pro Tem Phil Baruth, Lt. Gov. John Rodgers, and a third senator to be selected on the first day of the session. Sen. Ginny Lyons (D-Chittenden) may have the inside track.
Sen. Ruth Hardy and others have said the Vermont Constitution forbids significant bail reform.
