This story was updated at 3:39 p.m. on June 21.
[T]he state of Vermont has reached a $50,000 settlement in a lawsuit challenging the legality of a traffic by a Vermont State Police trooper of a black man in Rutland County more than five years ago.
The settlement with Gregory Zullo was announced late Thursday night in a release from the Vermont State Police.
“It’s a huge weight lifted off me,” Zullo said Friday morning of the settlement. “It’s been such a big rollercoaster from way-back-when to now.”
He added, “It does send a message that if your constitutional rights are infringed you do have an ability to challenge that.”
The case has been winding its way through the court system for years. The Vermont Supreme Court issued a {ruling earlier this year} holding that police can be liable for discriminatory searches and seizures.
In its ruling, the high court did not specifically find that the trooper engaged in racial profiling, but, instead sent the case back to the lower court where those claims can be explored.
According to the state police announcement, the settlement followed a lengthy mediation session Thursday evening in Burlington.
The settlement states: “To resolve Gregory Zullo’s claim arising from the unreasonable stop and seizure conducted by former Trooper Lewis Hatch, the State of Vermont agrees to provide Mr. Zullo $50,000 and all costs of mediation. Mr. Zullo acknowledges the Vermont State Police’s longstanding commitment to fair and impartial policing and in exchange for the relief specified above, Gregory Zullo shall execute a General Release of the State of Vermont.”
Zullo, of Rutland, was represented by the American Civil Liberties Union of Vermont. The ACLU-VT contended in its lawsuit that Zullo’s rights under the Vermont Constitution protecting him from unlawful search and seizure were violated.
Lia Ernst, a staff attorney with ACLU-VT, said Friday morning that it was critical to Zullo to include language in the settlement about his “unreasonable” stop and seizure.
“Although the Vermont Supreme Court has already ruled that the stop and seizure were unreasonable to have the state say the same was very important to Mr. Zullo,” Ernst said.
Ernst said the parties arrived at the $50,000 settlement through negotiation, offering different figures until they “eventually coalesced around around a number that is mutually agreeable.”
Ernst called the settlement a “win” for Zullo and all Vermonters.
“It made new law that ensures that the state can be held liable for its employees’ unconstitutional acts,” Ernst said, “And, just as importantly, unconstitutional racial discriminatory stops will not be tolerated.”
Vermont Department of Public Safety Commissioner Thomas D. Anderson praised the resolution of the case in a statement.
“This settlement resolves this years-long litigation in a fair manner for both the state and Mr. Zullo,” Anderson said.
The case was appealed to the Vermont Supreme Court after Rutland Superior Court Judge Helen Toor granted judgment to the state, effectively throwing the case out.
Toor ruled that Trooper Lewis Hatch’s stop of Zullo’s vehicle was not a violation his state constitutional rights regarding searches and seizures.
The case highlighted issues of whether the trooper who pulled Zullo over, then searched and seized his vehicle, was engaging in racial profiling. It also raised the legal question of whether catching a whiff of pot justified the trooper’s actions.
The ACLU, in its appeal, challenged police authority to keep using the “sniff test” in light of the 2013 state law decriminalizing possession of an ounce or less of marijuana. Decriminalization reduced the penalty for possession to a civil fine.
Since the filing of the case, a new state law went into effect last year legalizing adult possession of up to an ounce of marijuana, as well as possession of a small number of marijuana plants.
Zullo was never charged with a crime stemming from the traffic stop.
Hatch, the state trooper who made the traffic stop, had a history of questionable searches often involving black men, according to a Seven Days report. He was fired from his job in 2016.
According to court filings, Zullo, then 21, had left work on March 6, 2014, at Pico Ski Resort in Killington. He was traveling to Wallingford to visit a friend when he was pulled over by Hatch as a result of snow that allegedly covered the vehicle’s registration sticker on the license plate, according to a filing.
In filings, ACLU-VT alleged that in choosing to pull over Zullo’s car, the trooper was engaging in racial profiling.
After being pulled over, ACLU-VT stated in its appeal brief, Hatch ordered Zullo to exit his car based on the alleged faint odor of burnt marijuana.
“Hatch seized Mr. Zullo unnecessarily for an hour and had Mr. Zullo’s car towed to the barracks for a search, which revealed no contraband,” the ACLU attorneys wrote.
“To retrieve his car,” the filing stated, “Mr. Zullo walked and hitch-hiked eight miles home through sub-freezing temperatures, waited several hours at the barracks, and was forced to pay a $150 fee.”
State police referred questions about the case to the Vermont Attorney General’s Office, which couldn’t be reached Friday morning for comment.
The video of the traffic stop, posted on YouTube by the ACLU, has had more than 67,000 views.