[A] Vermont judge has refused to throw out “in the interest of justice” a charge alleging that Norm McAllister, a former Franklin County state senator, prostituted a tenant living and working on his Highgate farm.
The case against the one-time Republican lawmaker — arrested in 2015 outside the Vermont Statehouse when he was still a sitting senator — will now head to a trial in Franklin County Superior criminal court. The trial is expected to take place in April.
“This is not a rare and unusual case with compelling circumstances that require dismissal to assure fundamental fairness,” Judge Michael Kupersmith wrote in the six-page ruling allowing the misdemeanor charge of prohibited acts against McAllister to proceed to a trial.
“To the contrary, the judge added, “the seriousness of the offense and the integrity of the judiciary and of the judicial process require that a jury determine the issue of guilt or innocence.”
McAllister took the stand at a hearing earlier this month on the motion filed by his attorney to dismiss the charge.
He spoke of the toll the case, as well as other sex cases that have either been dismissed or resulted in acquittals, have taken on both his reputation and checkbook.
McAllister testified that he spent more than $200,000 on legal bills, which are continuing to mount.
Robert Katims, McAllister’s attorney, argued at that hearing it was time to end the prosecution of his client “in the interest of justice.”
“Enough is enough,” the defense attorney said, recounting the past legal actions against his client that resulted in one misdemeanor conviction eventually overturned by the Vermont Supreme Court.
Meanwhile, Franklin County Deputy State’s Attorney John Lavoie contended that the matter should proceed to trial where a jury would determine the matter.
The case landed back at the trial court after the Vermont Supreme Court in November overturned the conviction on the prohibited acts charge.
The high court wrote in its decision, “The trial court committed reversible error when it admitted previously excluded prior-bad acts as evidence and when it retroactively instructed the jury to disregard admitted testimony during deliberation.”
McAllister, 67, had been charged with two felony counts of sexual assault, alleging he sexually assaulted two women who worked for him, including an intern at the Statehouse and the tenant farmhand.
He had also been charged with three counts of prohibited acts relating to prostitution.
McAllister has stood trial twice. Each case involved a different woman. In the first trial in 2016, one of the sexual assault charges was dropped after his accuser perjured herself on a minor detail during her testimony.
A second trial followed in 2017, and later the Supreme Court ruling sent the case back to trial with the one misdemeanor charge still pending.
Judge Kupersmith, in denying the motion to dismiss the case, wrote about the importance of public confidence in the judicial system.
“(McAllister) was a member of the Vermont Senate,” the judge wrote. “The Court must infer that he had a measure of political experience and power by reason of his attaining that office.”
Kupersmith added, “It would significantly erode public confidence in the judicial system if the public could infer that the Court dismissed the charge as an act of political favor.”
Katims, McAllister’s attorney, declined comment Thursday on the ruling. Lavoie, the prosecutor, could not immediately be reached Thursday for comment.
