As a result of the request, a sentencing hearing set for Thursday for Christopher Sullivan has been put off. A new date has not been set.
Sullivan, 57, had his original four- to 10-year sentence overturned by the Vermont Supreme Court in April. The court did affirm his convictions for drunken driving and leaving the scene of a fatality in the April 2013 crash in Rutland that killed Mary Jane Outslay, of Mendon.
Sullivan’s public defender, Joshua O’Hara, has filed a motion seeking to have Rutland County Superior Court Judge Theresa DiMauro “disqualified” from the case, arguing that she has already “prejudged” the matter.
O’Hara, in his filing, pointed to comments DiMauro made at a hearing last month where the judge said the chances that Sullivan would have a time-served or substantially reduced sentence are slim.
“Such statements suggest the court has already discounted the likelihood that the evidence it hasn’t yet heard will change the Court’s mind,” O’Hara wrote. “This is prejudgment, and Judge DiMauro should be disqualified.”
The news came late Tuesday afternoon that a hearing will be set to determine if DiMauro should be taken off the case, postponing the sentencing. That hearing will take place in Chittenden County Superior Court, though the date had not been set.
Judge Dennis Pearson, who sits in Chittenden Superior Court, will hear the motion on whether to disqualify DiMauro.
O’Hara’s motion comes on the heels of a filing earlier this month asking the judge to reconsider the scope of the new sentencing hearing.
DiMauro has said she would limit the new sentencing hearing to just the testimony of a “mitigation” expert regarding why Sullivan fled the crash scene.
“The only thing that’s raised in his appeal relating to sentencing is the defendant’s inability to present a mitigation expert,” DiMauro said at a hearing in May. “That’s it.”
However, O’Hara has contended in filings that additional “mitigation” evidence should be allowed to be presented, including how Sullivan has accepted responsibility for his actions and rehabilitative steps he has taken since his original sentence was handed down two years ago.
The Vermont Supreme Court, in overturning the previous sentence, ruled that DiMauro should have allowed more time for Sullivan to hire and present expert testimony.
According to court records, Sullivan drove into Outslay, 71, as she tried to cross a downtown street, and he then fled the scene, turning himself in to police a day later.
Sullivan had served for many years as the city attorney in Rutland. He was in private practice at the time of the fatal crash.
He had served about two years of his original prison term when the Vermont Supreme Court overturned his sentence. He is free on $500,000 bail.
O’Hara, reached Tuesday, declined to comment on his filing. Vermont Assistant Attorney General Ultan Doyle, who is prosecuting the case, also declined Tuesday to comment.
