Should police have done more sooner to investigate online threats and harassment reported against a Vermont state representative?
Was it a failure by law enforcement — from the local police in Bennington up to the attorney general’s office in Montpelier? Did the complaints fall through the cracks because of a lack of a clear policy? Or were the reports impossible to investigate and not enough proof to prosecute?
Those are some of the questions being asked in the wake of Rep. Kiah Morris, D-Bennington, dropping out of the race for re-election this year, citing ongoing threats she said went back two years.
One key question raised is who should investigate allegations of online crimes.
There apparently are no clear policies or guidelines among law enforcement entities for referring such complaints to Vermont State Police Computer Crime Unit. The team is likely the only one outside of the state’s largest police departments with intensive training and experience in such investigations.
Morris ended her re-election campaign on Aug. 24 of this year. She cited online threats. The Bennington Police investigated initially, but, like many communities, its department lacks the computer training or personnel to investigate online crimes.
They did not ask state police to step in, but eventually state authorities were asked to get involved by the office of Attorney General TJ Donovan.
When local and state officials were asked recently about specific policies or procedures covering computer-related incidents, either in place or being considered, no specific guidelines or proposals were offered for when the VSP team should become involved in outside investigations.
A state police spokesperson referred in an email to a written policy for when state police could become involved in any local criminal complaint or investigation. The policy section stated in part:
“Within the limits of a village or city maintaining a police department as herein before described, State Police will exercise their police authorities, only upon the request of the local police, the mayor, the Attorney General’s office or that of any State’s Attorney … .”
Spokesman Adam Silverman did say that “current Vermont State Police policy provides a mechanism by which any town — or the Attorney General’s Office — that wishes to rely on the capabilities and expertise of VSP may request assistance.”
Asked about the situation involving Morris, Bennington County State’s Attorney Erica Marthage said in an email: “I received the [Morris] case review paperwork from [Bennington Police] on Aug. 1. After reviewing it, I started a conversation with a representative from the AGs Office on Aug. 2. I sent the case review to them and we discussed further steps.”
Marthage said it’s common for the AG’s office “to assist local law enforcement with forensic analysis of computers since hardly any local departments have a computer forensic analyst.”
She added, “There is not an official policy for when the AG or VSP computer analysts become involved. I cannot speak for other SAs, but in Bennington we request the assistance of the AG whenever it will advance the goals of our justice system.”
The attorney general’s office did not provide comment for this article, except to restate current policies for when the office could become involved in a criminal investigation.
Began in 2016
On Aug. 27, three days after Morris ended her campaign, the state police computer crime unit was called in by Attorney General TJ Donovan to investigate the threats and harassment allegations.
According to a release, the attorney general “opened an active, ongoing investigation into complaints of online threats made against state Representative Kiah Morris.”
Donovan said the office would “work with the Vermont State Police and appropriate computer forensic experts to ensure a thorough and complete investigation of this matter.”
At the time Morris withdrew from the campaign, a VSP spokesperson said state police had not yet conducted an investigation into the threats, independent of the local police investigations.
Morris, who is African-American, filed her initial complaints with the Bennington Police Department two years ago in the fall of 2016, and she had filed new, similar reports with the BPD beginning in July 2018.
She alleged in 2016 that online threats and harassment, along with vandalism and swastikas painted on trees near her home, likely directed at her.
During its investigations, the BPD did not find enough evidence to charge anyone with a crime, according to Police Chief Paul Doucette and Marthage, who said in August 2018 that they had consulted about the complaints and also with personnel at the AG’s office.
However, after Morris announced her withdrawal, pressure began building for the attorney general’s office to investigate. Among those applying that were Bennington lawmakers, Sens. Dick Sears and Brian Campion, and Reps. Timothy Corcoran and Mary Morrissey.
The lawmakers said in an email that they would ask Donovan and Bennington Town Manager Stuart Hurd, who oversees the police department, to “investigate the entire matter to determine whether laws were broken; and if so, determine why they were not enforced. With a report back as soon as practicable.”
The lawmakers said they were “further requesting that the Office of Attorney General suggest any laws that could or need to be added, changed or modified and at the same time do not violate the constitutional right to free speech.”
Legislative action?
Rights & Democracy also had posted a statement around the time the AG announced the VSP investigation, saying in part:
“We call on all legislative members to condemn these acts of intimidation and place the following among their highest priorities in 2019: expand the Human Rights Commission; create statewide Policy Racial Impact Assessments; implement Ethnic Studies in schools; and, remove slavery from Vermont’s Constitution.”
The advocacy group also called on the attorney general and the Human Rights Commission to “immediately conduct a top-to-bottom review of protocols used to respond to threats and harassment of people of color in our communities.”
Asked recently whether legislation relating to computer crime investigations was being consider in the wake of Morris’ withdrawal, Sears, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he wasn’t aware of any proposed legislation to enhance cooperation between local and state police.
He added “Normally, the Vermont State Police and local police work well together. Here in Bennington County we have the Child Advocacy Center, and both VSP and local officers work together. Normally, if it’s a case where local police need assistance, then VSP is often called in.”
The attorney general has the power through legislation to investigate any case, Sears said.
“The AG could actually take over any case from a state’s attorney, though it’s rarely done,” he said. “Because of the statewide nature of the Morris case, we [Sears, Campion, Corcoran and Morrissey] asked for the Attorney General to investigate this particular case.”
Campion said in an email, “Step one is for the Legislature to receive the results of the Attorney General’s investigation, which will hopefully serve as a guide for what kind of policy changes should be made by the Legislature.”
He added, “I don’t know the timing of such a report but have full confidence that the Attorney General will be thorough in his investigation. In addition to the AG’s report, the legislature should take its own testimony to see if current guidelines around investigations need to be changed.”
Chief responds
In a statement released Sept. 3, Chief Doucette responded to a Vermont Public Radio interview that aired Aug. 30 in which Morris was critical of the local investigations.
She had said in part that she and her husband, James Lawton, sought counsel and support from law enforcement after recent incidents, “but what was just happening was nothing, to be quite frank … it was a shoulder shrug and a ‘Good luck.’”
Doucette’s statement described instead a series of back and forth phone or other contacts between police and Morris and her husband that indicated possible breakdowns in communication concerning the complaints.
He also said the complaints were investigated by the BPD “appropriately and efficiently,” and said of the lack of charges being filed that he and Marthage conversed about the case several times, and they believed the case could “best be handled by the Vermont Attorney General’s Office.”
He added that at the time he spoke with the state’s attorney, “we only had the information from James Lawton and [computer] screen shots of information provided by Representative Morris. I didn’t feel there was sufficient evidence to charge anyone with a crime.”
The chief stated that, like many municipal law enforcement agencies, the BPD “does not have a computer forensics investigation unit. The computers had to be sent to the Vermont State Police, and that was accomplished once the passcodes were obtained.”
The computers were taken from the couple’s home as evidence and stored at the Bennington Police Department, Doucette stated, adding that the investigating officer had Morris “sign a consent to search the computers but she did not provide the passcodes.”
Morris “advised the investigation officer she would speak with her husband and then contact the officer with the passcodes,” Doucette stated. “Several days passed and Representative Morris failed to provide the passcodes.”
Doucette said he then received a call from the attorney general’s office inquiring about the computers.
“The computers were still in the Bennington Police Department evidence room as we did not have the passcodes,” he stated. “The investigating officer went back to the residence and obtained the passcodes from Representative Morris.”
Doucette added, “Within a few hours of the passcodes being provided by Representative Morris, James Lawton presented himself at the Bennington Police Department requesting the immediate return of the computers. The computers were not returned to him.”
The investigating officer then delivered the computers to the Vermont State Police for analysis, Doucette said.
Doucette has since declined further comment on the complaints and local investigation citing the ongoing state police investigation.
Local Democratic Committee members, with Morris voting on Aug. 29, selected Bennington Select Board member Jim Carroll to replace her on the ballot. There are no other candidates listed on the ballot.
