[T]he Vermont Attorney General’s Office is investigating allegations the Northfield police chief was “untruthful” in court records he submitted for a search warrant and later in support of charges in the same drug case.
Washington County State’s Attorney Rory Thibault asked Attorney General TJ Donovan to conduct the probe last month into Northfield Police Chief John Helfant.
David Sleigh, a St. Johnsbury attorney representing Helfant, said Friday that his client “vehemently” denies wrongdoing.
Thibault sent a letter late last month to defense counsel practicing in Washington County alerting them of the situation.
The letter sent by Thibault is termed a “Brady letter.” Under a 1963 U.S. Supreme Court case, Brady v. Maryland, prosecutors are required to turn over all favorable evidence material in a case to the defense, including evidence related to police dishonesty and issues with credibility.
“It has come to my attention that Chief John Helfant, of the Northfield Police Department, and formerly of the Berlin Police Department and Vermont State Police, is alleged to have been untruthful in an affidavit of probable cause and search warrant application sworn to during his time as a member of the Berlin Police Department,” Thibault wrote in the letter.
The prosecutor added, “This matter has been referred to the Office of the Attorney General and an investigation has been opened.”
The Times Argus this week first reported Thibault calling on the Vermont’s Attorney General’s Office to conduct the probe.
At issue is whether body cameras worn by officers at the scene of the drug bust, including Helfant, who made the motor-vehicle stop, showed that he got consent from both people to search the car as Helfant stated in the affidavit. A plea deal was reached in the case before the matter was brought up in court.
The Attorney General’s Office would not comment Friday on the investigation.
The allegations against Helfant stem from a case brought in July when he was a sergeant with the Berlin Police Department.
In the case, Carlos Inostroza, 26, of Springfield, Massachusetts, was charged with felony charges of heroin and cocaine possession, as well as a misdemeanor count of marijuana possession.
According to an affidavit filed in that case by Helfant, he was driving east on Highgate Drive in Barre City around 11 p.m. on July 12, 2018, checking registration plates for a vehicle involved in a earlier incident in Berlin.
Helfant wrote that he saw the vehicle pull into a parking space without signalling and pulled it over.
After the vehicle came to a stop, he wrote, he talked to the driver, Beth Preus, 27, of Middlesex, and saw a crack cocaine rock on the driver’s seat by her left leg as well as another crack cocaine rock in a dashboard “cubby.” Inostroza was a passenger in the car.
Both Preus and Inostroza consented to searches, according to the affidavit.
In Inostroza’s backpack, Helfant wrote, he found 1.8 ounces of marijuana as well as a small white box that contained 28.8 grams of crack cocaine. Also on the front passenger seat, Helfant wrote, he found a white plastic container with a blue cap that contained 65 baggies of heroin.
Both Preus and Inostroza were charged with drug offenses, according to the affidavit.
Another officer, Berlin Patrolman Benjamin Cavarretta, wrote in his own affidavit filed in the case, that he arrived at the scene after Helfant called for assistance with the traffic stop.
“All my interactions with Preus and Inostroza was captured by my AXON body camera and is available upon request,” Cavarretta wrote in his filing.
On Jan. 15, Inostroza pleaded guilty as part of an agreement with prosecutors to the three drug charges against him. He was sentenced to time he had served for lack of bail since his arrest, 179 days.
“We think this is an appropriate resolution,” Avi Springer, a defense attorney representing Inostroza, said in court, according to an audio recording of the hearing obtained by VTDigger.
“He has a young family that could use him being at home,” Springer added. “I’m hopeful that he’s going to go back home and use the opportunity to spend time with family and move on to a productive life. He’s a young man.”
Judge Mary Morrissey, before accepting the plea deal of a time-served sentence, did ask some questions about what prompted that recommendation.
Washington County Deputy State’s Attorney Ashley Hill, the prosecutor, told the judge that Springer had raised issues regarding the body camera footage, which the state had spent a great deal of time investigating.
“You had evidentiary concerns going forward?” the judge asked.
“That’s fair to say,” Hill responded.
The judge then said, “The court will go along with the plea agreement understanding from the state’s perspective there are evidentiary issues, potentially, with the case.”
Springer declined to comment on the matter Friday.
Sleigh sent his own letter to the Vermont Attorney General’s Office on Jan. 22 on his client’s behalf.
“John and I vehemently deny any wrongdoing, malfeasance, and/or misfeasance connection with his contact with Mr. Inostroza,” Sleigh wrote. “We’d be happy to review the chest camera recording of the encounter with you and/or your representative.”
Sleigh added, “Notably, counsel for Mr. Inostroza never filed a Motion to Suppress in the underlying case. Neither did any of Mr. Thibault’s deputies express concern when they allowed Mr. Inostroza to plead guilty to all three charges stemming from this seizure.”
Sleigh said he has yet to hear back from the Vermont Attorney General’s Office.
“I don’t think there’s any smoke, I don’t think there’s any fire,” Sleigh said Friday. “I think Rory got the cart before the horse. If he had concerns, the thing to do is an investigation and then come to a conclusion, not to come to a conclusion and then ask for an investigation.”
He then added of the prosecutor, “Rory is young and he’s new. I think he just got things backwards.”
Sleigh said he believes if the Vermont Attorney General’s Office reviews the camera footage it should clear his client, despite the limitations of the technology.
“The chest cameras are good, but they’re not perfect,” Sleigh added. “These things aren’t Hollywood, you don’t have three cameras and lighting and everybody’s mic’d like a reality show.”
He then said, “Is it perfect? No. But is there strong evidence to suggest or establish that there was consent consistent with how it was described by my client? Absolutely.”
Thibault said Friday the plea agreement in the drug case came about at the prompting of the defense attorney in the case, resulting in the defendant receiving a time-served sentence.
“The offer to plead in that manner was initiated by the defendant after disclosing the alleged inconsistency,” Thibeault said. “In the state’s view, (the defendant) seemed to prioritize immediate release over any further litigation of the matter.”
The prosecutor added, “How the case was disposed of, and whether or not the stop in question would have been suppressed, is not clear because it was not fully litigated.”
Thibault said he has not “prejudged” Helfant in calling for the Vermont Attorney General’s Office to look into the matter.
“An investigation is just that,” the prosecutor added. “It’s a process to determine the truth of the matter and I have confidence that the office of the attorney general will ensure that that’s done in a professional and impartial manner and that any conclusions made will be appropriate and based on fact, not speculation and innuendo.”
Helfant retired after serving 28 years with Vermont State Police. He then served a short stint with the Berlin Police Department before being named chief in Northfield last year.
Jeff Schulz, Northfield’s town manager, said Friday that Helfant is on “admin duties only,” declining further comment and calling it a personnel matter.