This story was updated at 8:03 p.m. Thursday.
A Vermont inmate recently sentenced to more than two decades in prison on sex crimes pushed himself over a second-tier railing at the Springfield prison and has died, state corrections officials say.
It was one of three incidents over a two-week span on the prison’s second-tier involving inmates who tried to harm themselves by falling or hanging from that level, according to Vermont Defender General Matthew Valerio.
The other two prisoners suffered “severe” injuries requiring hospitalization, the defender general said.
“There is a recent phenomena of three inmates who threw themselves off the second-floor tier in their living units,” Valerio said. “I’ve been doing this for 18 years. I’ve never had this happen before. It’s become kind of an odd, almost a copycat, kind of thing.”
The Vermont Department of Corrections, in a release sent Wednesday night, reported that Thomas Badger, 42, of Grafton, died Wednesday at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, New Hampshire, from an apparent suicide.
The incident took place on Jan. 11 at the Southern State Correctional Facility in Springfield.
“Mr. Badger sat on a second-tier railing and purposefully fell off backwards,” Michael Touchette, DOC commissioner, said Thursday morning. “The cause of the death will be the result of blunt force trauma to the head.”
Touchette said the fall was about 12 feet.
“The video and the observation from our staff demonstrate that it wasn’t just an accidental fall,” the commissioner said.
Touchette said there were no “previous signs of distress” from Badger that would have prompted him to be placed on a suicide watch.
Badger was sentenced Jan. 4 to 25 to 30 years in prison on two charges of lewd and lascivious conduct with child, according to the state Department of Corrections.
The Vermont State Police is conducting an investigation, per protocol in such cases of an inmate death, according to the corrections department.
Later Thursday morning, Valerio, the state’s defender general, told VTDigger the Badger incident was the third such case in a two-week span.
On New Year’s Eve, Donald Harris, a prisoner at Springfield, had attempted to hang himself from the second tier, according to the defender general.
A correctional officer who spotted what was going on tried to hold Harris up until he couldn’t hold him anymore and ultimately Harris fell to the floor, Valerio said.
Badger was the second case on Jan. 11, and on Jan. 13, another inmate, Erik Averill, jumped from the tier, Valerio said.
The defender general said both Averill and Harris suffered “severe” injuries, including broken bones.
Valerio said his office, which houses the state’s prisoners’ rights unit, has been notified in each case and conducted preliminary investigations. He said he could not provide copies of those reports, citing attorney/client privilege, since his office legally represents those inmates.
However, he did say that he had “discretion” to share some details so the public has an understanding of what has been taking place.
“The common thread with all of them is that they had all shared identifiable signs of mental stress or mental illness,” he said.
One the men, Harris, had been identified as “seriously functionally impaired,” according to Valerio.
“There has to be some kind of impediment to having people being able to do that,” Valerio said. “You want to make sure you have line of sight so you can see what inmates are doing.”
Valerio said his office had suggested putting up netting to prevent such incidents or have more frequent intervention from mental health professionals.
Touchette, in an email Thursday afternoon, said he knew of only two inmates who had jumped from the tier over that two-week span, including Badger.
Valerio, asked later, said he wasn’t sure about the difference, adding he was going off a preliminary report from his staff. He said that the corrections chief may not be counting the hanging incident.
Touchette said in his email Thursday afternoon that DOC is considering several options to address the situation, including fencing along the tier in Springfield, as well as other facilities with such tiers, and having newly sentenced inmates check in with a caseworker.
No final decisions have yet been made, he added.
Badger’s sentencing earlier this month stems from a case dating back to April 2015 when he was initially arrested. The case has taken a winding, nearly four-year path through Vermont’s court system, with Badger having several attorneys throughout the process.
According to court records, a proposed plea deal in February 2016 would have sent Badger to prison for not more than 10 years. However, before a hearing could be held for him to enter his guilty pleas, Badger backed out, a court filing stated.
Badger did eventually plead guilty in March 2017 to the two lewd and lascivious conduct with a child charges following the start of a trial in his case, court records stated.
This time, according to filings, while Gartenstein agreed to drop the aggravated sexual assault charge — which carried a possible life sentence — the prosecutor kept the right to ask for the max on the two other charges, or 15 years each, for a total of 30 years.
According to court records, Badger had engaged in lewd conduct with a boy over a several year period from 2007 to 2014. Badger also had previously been convicted of committing a prohibited act with a 16-year-old boy.
Badger later sought to withdraw his guilty pleas, and a judge rejected that request.
The sentencing hearing took place Jan. 4 in Windham County Superior criminal court before Judge John Treadwell.
Windham County Deputy State’s Attorney David Gartenstein, who prosecuted the case, said Thursday that a factor in seeking the lengthy sentence was that Badger had, at one point, accepted responsibility for his actions, but then tried to get out of the plea deal.
The prosecutor said had Badger accepted responsibility for his actions he would have sought a “very different” sentence.
“He wasn’t taken any responsibility,” Gartenstein said.
The prosecutor said he couldn’t say what sentence he would have sought for Badger had he shown an acceptance of responsibility.
Gartenstein said the boy Badger was accused of assaulting was “horribly traumatized,” particularly because Badger was a “trusted figure” in his life.
“Circumstances of the matter from beginning to end were tragic is all I can say,” the prosecutor said Thursday.
Janssen Willhoit, a court-appointed attorney, represented Badger only during the sentencing phase of the case.
“He received a very punitive sentence,” the defense attorney said Thursday of Badger. “It was a rough sentencing.”
Willhoit said his client did not really participate at the sentencing hearing, still upset that he was not able to withdrawal his pleas. As a result, Willhoit said, he made no specific recommendation for a sentence.
Willhoit said he knows what it’s like to head to prison for significant prison term. He spent five years in Kentucky prison for bilking financial services clients out of more than $100,000.
Willhoit has since gained a pardon from the state’s governor, graduated from Vermont Law School, served in the state Legislature, ran for attorney general on a criminal justice reform platform, and is now a defense attorney.
“I have a unique perspective because I’m someone who has served time in prison,” the defense attorney said. “Like many people facing real hard time and also dealing with really bad crimes, he was battling demons.”
Willhoit added, “It’s a difficult place to be in, especially when you’re having to deal with the reality of — this is going to be my life for a really long time.”
