[S]T. ALBANS — Former state Sen. Norm McAllister has asked to withdraw a no-contest plea he made just before his second trial on sex charges was due to start.
McAllister, 65, of Highgate Center, pleaded no contest Jan. 10 to a reduced charge of lewd and lascivious conduct as well as two counts of prohibited acts.
The next day he told an NBC 5 reporter he was considering firing his defense team and withdrawing the no contest plea. In a motion filed Monday in Franklin County Superior Court, McAllister requested that the court allow him to withdraw his plea. He is now being represented by attorney Bob Katims.
McAllister is accused in this case of sexually assaulting a woman who was living in a trailer on his farm property in what prosecutors describe as a sex-for-rent scheme. He is also accused of soliciting sex from another woman in exchange for rent owed by her son.
The second woman died of natural causes shortly after McAllister’s arrest in 2015.
Monday’s motion states that McAllister has “steadfastly maintained his innocence on all charges” and that he accepted the state’s plea deal only after a long day of jury selection and “under pressure from his attorneys.”
Katims said he’s received no response from the Franklin County state’s attorney’s office to the Monday motion. No hearing on the motion is scheduled at this point, he said.
Katims declined to comment further, saying, “I’m just going to let the motion speak for itself.”
First Deputy State’s Attorney Diane Wheeler, who is prosecuting the case, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Neither did McAllister’s former attorney Brooks McArthur.
Katims is a prominent Burlington defense attorney with the firm Hoff Curtiss. He is also representing Steven Bourgoin, who faces five counts of second-degree murder in a wrong-way driving crash on Interstate 89 that killed five central Vermont teens.
The judge said at the time of McAllister’s no-contest plea that he would be able to reverse course prior to sentencing. McAllister faced up to seven years in prison and would have had to register as a sex offender had the plea gone forward.
Pleading no contest is not an admission of guilt, but it is an acknowledgment that the state may have sufficient evidence to prove its case at trial.
If McAllister is allowed to withdraw his plea, he will once again face the more serious charge of sexual assault, which carries a possible life sentence.
McAllister’s first sexual assault trial ended in June when the state dropped its charges because McAllister’s accuser in that case perjured herself on a minor detail. He remains free on conditions.
The former lawmaker still faces a civil suit from his accuser in the ongoing criminal case. It seeks damages for the alleged sexual mistreatment and subpar living conditions in the farm trailer.
