A Barre man accused of threatening to burn down the home of his Hispanic neighbors, in the first-ever federal hate crime charge brought in Vermont, spent nearly a year in prison, awaiting trial.
That’s long enough, Judge Christina Reiss ruled in the case of Stuart K. Rollins, 59, during a hearing Tuesday in federal court in Burlington. In imposing the time-served sentence, the judge ordered Rollins to spend three years on federal supervised release.
Rollins has been in jail since last November, when federal prosecutors leveled charges against him. He pleaded guilty to the hate crime charge in July.
According to court filings, Rollins threatened in July 2019 to burn down the family’s home while they were inside because of their race and national origin, and because they lived across the road from him. All but one member of that family is Hispanic. Rollins is white.
Rollins also shouted racial and ethnic slurs at the family, yelling at them to “go back to Mexico,” according to court filings, and exposed himself to one of the family’s children.
Christina Nolan, the U.S. attorney for Vermont, said last November that to her knowledge the case is the first federal hate crime prosecuted in the state.
“This is the first one that we’ve found the evidence to be able to prosecute,” she said.
Nolan, in a statement Tuesday, said Rollins made the Vermont family feel unsafe in their home just because of their race and national origin.
“As this case shows,” Nolan said, “Vermont is unfortunately not immune to hate-motivated acts. Our office will do all we can to work with our partners to end these vicious acts and, where they violate federal law, will not hesitate to take action.”
Specifically, the charge accused him of violating a part of the Fair Housing Act that makes it a crime to intimidate or interfere with any person’s occupation of a dwelling due to race or national origin.
Rollins was initially arrested in the summer of 2019 on state charges, including some with hate-crime enhancements.
Washington County State’s Attorney Rory Thibault said Tuesday he will continue to pursue some of the state charges against Rollins that do not overlap with the federal offense.
He said that includes a charge of lewd and lascivious behavior — Rollins allegedly exposing himself.
Thibault said it’s too early to say what type of sentence he would seek if Rollins were convicted on a state charge.
Rollins has a lengthy criminal record, convicted of sexual assault, domestic violence, sex crimes against children, witness tampering, and violating conditions of release.
Rollins, who has been diagnosed with schizophrenia, was seeing a mental health professional in Washington County at the time of the incident, according to court records. Also, court records stated, he had been undergoing drug and alcohol treatment.
Steven Barth, a federal public defender representing Rollins, could not immediately be reached Tuesday for comment.
