[B]ARRE — The attorney for a Massachusetts man who entered into a plea deal on drug charges earlier this year says the case should be thrown out. An investigating officer, who is now the police chief in Northfield, lied in a sworn statement in the case, according to the defense lawyer.
The prosecutor told the judge during a hearing Monday in Washington County Superior criminal court in Barre that he is not objecting to that request.
If the plea deal is tossed, the prosecutor said, he will dismiss charges against 26-year-old Carlos Inostroza of Springfield, Massachusetts.
Judge Mary Morrissey took the matter under advisement and is expected to issue a written opinion.
At issue is whether Northfield Police Chief John Helfant, then a Berlin police sergeant, obtained the needed consent to search a backpack belonging to Inostroza following a traffic stop of a vehicle the Massachusetts man was a passenger in on July 12, 2018.
Helfant stated in an affidavit supporting the drug charges against Inostroza that he had been given that consent.
In Inostroza’s backpack, Helfant wrote in the affidavit, 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 near the backpack that contained 65 baggies of heroin.
Avi Springer, an attorney representing Inostroza, and Washington County State’s Attorney Rory Thibault both said in court Monday they have reviewed Helfant’s body camera footage from that stop, as well as footage from another responding officer.
And both attorneys told Judge Morrissey they don’t see or hear Helfant being granted consent from Inostroza to search his person or his backpack.
Helfant, who attended the hearing Monday, was not called by either side to testify. Asked after the hearing if he had obtained consent from Inostroza to conduct the search, Helfant replied, “Absolutely.”
He said he didn’t know why Springer and Thibault disagreed, adding that neither the prosecutor nor the defense attorney have asked to review the body camera footage with him.
Helfant declined further comment.
Thibault earlier this year asked the Vermont Attorney General’s Office to investigate the matter. The review remains ongoing.
On Jan. 15, Inostroza pleaded guilty as part of an agreement with prosecutors to felony charges of heroin and cocaine possession and misdemeanor marijuana possession. He was sentenced to time he had served for lack of bail since his arrest, 179 days.
A day earlier, on Jan 14, Thibeault said his office received the body camera footage and turned it over to Springer, Inostroza’s attorney.
It was Springer who went to Washington County Deputy State’s Attorney Ashley Hill, who was prosecuting the case at that time, and reported that he did not see or hear Helfant get consent from his client for a search in the video.
That next day, Jan. 15, a hearing had been set to review Inostroza’s bail.
Springer said Monday in court, he asked Hill prior to that hearing if she would be willing to dismiss the charges against his client in light of the recently reviewed body cam footage, or, if not, if she would agree to a plea deal of time served for his client.
Hill, according to both Springer, was unwilling to dismiss the case, but agreed to the plea deal of time served.
Thibault said in court Monday that his office didn’t want to throw the case out on Jan. 15, a day after discovering the discrepancy of the body cam footage, without reviewing the matter further, including seeking an enhancement of the sound.
The prosecutor said he also wanted to look at the body cam footage from another officer who responded to the traffic stop.
Having since done that, Thibault said, he doesn’t see or hear where Helfant obtained consent to search Inostroza’s backpack. As a result, he said, he is not contesting Springer’s request to toss out Inostroza’s guilty pleas, and if that happens, the prosecutor said he will dismiss the charges.
“I don’t think the state can survive a motion to suppress under the circumstances,” the prosecutor said.
“Had the state known the information that you now have, prior to the change of the plea, would the state have dismissed the case?” the judge asked Thibault.
“Yes,” he replied. “I don’t think we’d have any other choice under the circumstances.”
Thibault filed a motion ahead of the hearing laying out his willingness to dismiss the charges once, and if, Inostroza is allowed to withdraw his guilty pleas, and not only because of the issue over the consent to search.
“A full review of the body camera footage reveals a number of deficiencies with the stop,” Thibault wrote, adding, “They included the belief that the driver of the car was impaired but never screened; inconsistency about whether both occupants of the car consented to a search and failure to record consent in the presence of another officer.”
Springer said in court Monday that he had raised the issue of the discrepancy over the search with his client prior to Inostroza agreeing to the plea deal earlier this year.
His client, the defense attorney said, was faced with a choice of either getting out of jail by pleading guilty and receiving a time served sentence, or contesting the legality of the search through further litigation while remaining incarcerated for lack of bail.
In the end, Springer said, Inostroza choose freedom so he could go to Massachusetts and be with his young child.
Now, with the prosecutor having had more time to review the body cam footage and not objecting to his client withdrawing those earlier guilty pleas, Springer asked Monday the judge to allow Inostroza to do just that.
“This is incredibly unusual case,” the defense attorney said. “There’s a manifest injustice to be corrected here.”
Springer introduced a DVD of Helfant’s body cam footage into evidence as an exhibit in the case for the judge to review. However, it was not played in open court.
VTDigger has filed with the court seeking a copy of that DVD, but has yet to get a response from the judge.
Helfant retired after serving 28 years with Vermont State Police. He became Northfield police chief police last year, following a short stint with the Berlin Police Department. He is currently performing administrative duties only in his role as Northfield police chief.
Inostroza, who is now back home in Massachusetts, did not attend the hearing Monday, instead listening in to the proceeding over a courtroom phone.
