[R]UTLAND — A judge has refused to dismiss a charge against a former Vermont State Police trooper who prosecutors say drove a cruiser while under the influence of alcohol and on duty.
A trial earlier this year in the case against Eric Rademacher, 29, of Mendon, ended in a hung jury. His attorney, David Sleigh, filed a motion to dismiss the case “in the interest of justice.”
Rutland Superior Court Judge Cortland Corsones recently issued a ruling allowing the case to move forward to a second trial.
“(Rademacher) was an on-duty state police officer at the time of the alleged DUI. As a result, the case garnered significant publicity,” the judge wrote. “Dismissing the case after only one hung jury could have a very real impact on public confidence in the judicial system.”
The judge added, “This is the type of case best determined on the merits by a jury.”
Corsones referred to the case as primarily a “battle of experts” regarding Rademacher’s blood alcohol level.
“The state presented a qualified witness (a state chemist) who opined that the defendant’s BAC at the time of operation would have been significantly over the .08 BAC threshold,” the judge wrote. “The defense presented a qualified expert chemist who offered testimony in refutation of the state’s expert.”
In agreeing to allow the case to proceed to a second trial, Corsones wrote that it is up to a jury to determine the credibility of the witnesses who testify.
The charge dates to March 2, 2015, when Rademacher was home and called around 4:30 a.m. to respond to a vehicle crash in Killington.
Officers at the crash scene on Route 4 and at a later fight Rademacher responded to in Shrewsbury reported smelling alcohol on his breath. Around 9:15 a.m. in Shrewsbury, a police affidavit stated, a preliminary roadside breath test on Rademacher revealed a 0.085 percent alcohol level.
Later, at around 11 a.m., an evidentiary breath test on Rademacher at the state police barracks in Rutland Town revealed a 0.04 percent alcohol level, the affidavit stated. At the time he was called in around 4:30 a.m., a chemist for the state estimated, Rademacher had a 0.13 percent alcohol level, according to an affidavit.
The legal limit for driving in Vermont is 0.08 percent.
Rademacher has since resigned from the Vermont State Police.
Jurors were not polled after reporting to the judge that they could not reach a unanimous verdict in the February trial.
Sleigh, in his motion to dismiss and during an oral argument before the judge, said the jury count was, at best for the state, four to convict and eight to acquit. He said that statement was based on conversations with two jurors after the trial.
The defense attorney said Monday he was disappointed with the judge’s recent ruling. He said such a motion is more likely to be granted by a judge if there have been multiple hung juries in a case.
He said having to select a jury for another two-day trial in a case that carries only a potential fine is reason to dismiss the misdemeanor.
“(The judge’s) ruling wasn’t entirely unexpected,” Sleigh added, “so we’ll go through the whole dance again.”
The defense attorney said his client is being treated differently than others because he was a state trooper at the time of the alleged offense.
“There’s no question in my mind if he were Joe Citizen and blew a .04 with no evidence of erratic operation that the case likely would never have been charged, let alone pursued to a jury trial twice,” Sleigh said.
Prosecutors handling the case could not be reached Monday for comment.
Next, Sleigh added, he will be filing a motion asking the judge to exclude the state chemist’s calculation of what Rademacher’s blood alcohol level was at the time he was first called out about 4:30 a.m. to respond to the Killington crash. He called the chemist’s estimate “purely speculative.”
“It’s a whole lot of effort for a DWI-1 where there was no erratic operation, no accident, no injury,” Sleigh said. “It seems like much ado about nothing.”
