Jody Herring’s lawyer says the state violated her constitutional rights when they interrogated her in jail about the deaths of three relatives without letting her speak to a lawyer first.
David Sleigh, the defense attorney handling Herring’s case for the Defender General’s Office, says officials interrogated her on Aug. 8 despite her requests to speak to an attorney and may need to throw out the evidence they obtained.
The Vermont Attorney General’s Office filed an affidavit in Washington Superior Court on Thursday that gave an account of an interrogation of Herring at Chittenden County Correctional Facility in Burlington.
The affidavit in question accuses Herring of three counts of aggravated homicide for three relatives who lived in a farmhouse in Berlin. (Herring has already been arraigned for first-degree murder of Lara Sobel, 48, who was a social worker for the Department for Children and Families.)
Near the end of the affidavit, the document describes Herring’s interaction in a lawyer’s room with Vermont State Police trooper Todd Baxter, as transcribed from trooper Angela Baker’s tape recorder. The conversation allegedly went like this:
· Herring sat in the chair farthest from the door and told Baxter, “The thing is, why am I in here talking to guys without a lawyer?”
· Baxter then “immediately informed Jody that we were not there to talk about Barre. I informed Jody that I knew she was represented by (public defender) Kelly Green.”
· Herring then said the state “supposedly got me David (Sleigh), a private attorney.”
· Baxter replies, “OK. For Barre? Correct? Because, I’m not here to talk about Barre, what happened in Barre City, yesterday.”
· He later repeats, “You are charged right now with, being held without bail for the homicide of the DCF worker in Barre City. That’s what you are here for, and I’m not here to talk to you about.”
· At the end of the back-and-forth interaction, Herring mentions the deaths of her three relatives in Berlin, not Barre: “The way I look at it, they fucking deserved it too.”
Sleigh says the interaction in question was the latest constitutional issue raised in the case. He has already sought to have the case held in Burlington, and to have Herring’s medical records sealed from the public view.
“According to Baxter’s very own description, not only did she invoke, but she named two lawyers who were representing her,” Sleigh said in an interview. “Literally, I got to the jail 20 minutes after Baxter did, and I walked into the room.
“I told them that it was over, that it was in violation of my client’s right to counsel,” Sleigh said. “Baxter sat there for a minute, and I said, ‘It’s time for you to leave,’ and he did.”
The Sixth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution provides a right to an attorney in a criminal case. The Fifth and Fourteenth amendments provide for due process. Vermont’s Public Defender Act has broader implication to the right to an attorney, according to Sleigh, and, in his opinion, was violated.
He said the event “undermines the confidence that anybody should have in our systems’ ability to try and convict (someone) in compliance with our laws and our values.”
“If the state has competent evidence that will persuade a jury beyond a reasonable doubt that Jody Herring committed these crimes, then she will be convicted,” Sleigh said.
Attorney General Bill Sorrell declined to comment on the merits of Sleigh’s arguments. “We’ll litigate the case in court,” he said. Officials for the Vermont State Police were not available for comment Friday.
“The defense can make its motions, and we’ll respond, and the court will ultimately decide,” Sorrell said. “We look forward to defending the very good police activity in this investigation.”
Herring’s arraignment on the three aggravated murder charges against her relatives is on Tuesday at 1 p.m. in Barre.
