The Vermont Attorney General’s Office is reviewing a state police report involving allegations of misconduct against Vergennes Police Chief George Merkel.
The report was drafted by state police detectives following their investigation of a complaint filed by Addison County Sheriff Peter Newton.
That complaint, originally presented to city officials and the Vermont Criminal Justice Training Council, alleged that Merkel had signed official documents containing “erroneous and patently false information” and knowingly failed to report demographic data for all of his traffic stops.
The initial charge included a claim that the chief had filed hours with the city while also logging time with a state highway safety program and being paid twice for the same hours.
The sheriff also says the chief failed to properly report traffic stop data. The sheriff’s report said that of the 131 stops Merkel had recorded between July 1, 2018, and May 1, 2020, only 57 were entered into a collection system required by Vermont’s Fair and Impartial Policing policy.
A study published in 2017 by the University of Vermont, titled “Driving While Black and Brown in Vermont,” lists Vergennes as having the highest instances in the state of pulling over people of color compared with their percentage of the population.
“In all but a few towns, the Black stop rate exceeds the Black share of the driving population,” the study reads. “At the extreme is Vergennes, where Black drivers are stopped at a rate that is almost 3 times their estimated share of the county population, followed by Bennington, where the Black share of stops is almost 2.5 times greater than their share of the county population.”
Charity Clark, chief of staff for Attorney General TJ Donovan, confirmed receipt of the state police report, but would not comment on which of the allegations are being investigated.
“The Attorney General’s Office has received an investigative report from the Vermont State Police and is in the process of reviewing it. Beyond this, the Attorney General’s Office does not comment on ongoing investigations,” she wrote in an email.
Newton’s 16-page report, obtained by VTDigger, grew out of a review of public records obtained March 25 from the city that involved Merkel over the last five years.
The sheriff had met with then-Vergennes Mayor Jeff Fritz, an unnamed Vergennes city alderman, and the sheriff’s captain, Brent Newton, to discuss Merkel’s performance. Brent Newton, who is not related to the sheriff, had worked under Merkel at the Vergennes Police Department from 2009 until 2017 and has been openly critical of the police chief.
According to the report, the four participants in the February meeting “agreed and described Merkel as being out of control” and “wanted advice on how to proceed.”
With assistance from the Middlebury law firm of Lynch and Foley, Sheriff Newton requested the public records connected to Merkel’s actions and collected them on March 25.
Before reviewing the documents, the sheriff met with Addison County State’s Attorney Dennis Wygmans, who told Newton he was within his rights to investigate, according to the report. Wygmans advised the sheriff and captain to compile their findings from the documents into affidavit form.
Once Newton had reviewed the records from the town, he asked City Manager Daniel Hofman to meet and suggested the city should conduct an internal investigation into the actions of the chief.
“I can only presume that you have made these allegations following your review of records provided by the City of Vergennes in response to your February 28 2020 open records request,” Hofman wrote back. “The City provided you with thousands of documents related to Chief George Merkel.”
Later in the email, he wrote: “I draw your attention to 13 V.S.A. § 1754, which provides for substantial criminal penalties for any person who knowingly gives false information to any law enforcement officer with purpose to implicate another. I am concerned that the vague allegations you have made here, without any factual basis, may fall within the ambit of this statute.”
Hofman did not accept the sheriff’s invitation to meet.
Sheriff Newton said he aimed to pass the information to a department better suited to handle an investigation, particularly because of Capt. Newton’s employment history at the Vergennes Police Department.
“I sang to the highest hills,” Capt. Newton said, “somebody needs to look at this other than me. I’m not the right guy.”
Wygmans, who works with the police chief and expressed concerns about conflict of interest, agreed that the investigation should be handled by an objective third party.
“I would refer it to another prosecutor’s office,” Wygmans was quoted in The Daily Beast. “I have an obvious conflict of interest. Chief Merkel is an officer under my direction. It is important for an outside agency without any biases to investigate these things.”
On May 1, Wygmans called Capt. Newton to tell him that the Vermont State Police and Attorney General’s office were launching a joint investigation, to be monitored by the Vermont Criminal Justice Training Council. Newton was asked to terminate the Sheriff’s Department’s investigation.
Adam Silverman, public information officer with the Vermont State Police, confirmed Thursday that an investigation took place.
“Earlier this year, the Addison County sheriff made a report to the city of Vergennes and the Vermont Criminal Justice Training Council,” he wrote in a statement. “That report included allegations about compliance with reporting requirements related to bias-free policing data, and accounting related to grant funds. The training council referred the report to the Vermont State Police.
“An exhaustive, comprehensive review of the allegations and the evidence was conducted by detectives from another area of the state,” Silverman wrote. “To ensure transparency and a thorough, independent review, the state police has turned over its complete investigative report to the Vermont Attorney General’s Office. As that review is ongoing, we are unable to comment further at this time.”
Merkel declined to speak with VTDigger.
Police oversight
Earlier this summer, a conversation about police oversight in Vergennes was a focal point of discussion when then-Mayor Fritz and three aldermen resigned following a city council meeting gone awry. Due to the resulting loss of a quorum, the city government has been defunct.
Previously, a citizen review board exploratory committee had been tasked with determining whether Vergennes citizens should form a police oversight group, similar to those in other Vermont towns such as Rutland and Burlington.
The city council had given the committee until Aug.11 to decide whether it would recommend such a group. That day the committee produced a short, two-page report with its recommendation.
“As a Committee, we agree that some form of citizen review/advisory body will be beneficial to the City of Vergennes,” it said before requesting more time to develop a fuller proposal “based on thorough study and investigation.”
The committee will have to wait until the city regains a quorum to restart its work. A special election for new members of the city council is scheduled for Sept. 22.
Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly described the circumstances of a claim concerning the reporting of traffic stops in Vergennes. The Addison County sheriff’s report said Police Chief George Merkel failed to properly record the data.