This article by Anna Merriman was first published in the Valley News on Dec. 23.
CHELSEA — The attorney for a former Randolph Union High School co-principal accused of sexual misconduct with a 16-year-old student nearly a decade ago said in court on Wednesday that a plea deal is in the works.
“We are very close to a resolution,” attorney Brooks McArthur said during the virtual status conference for David Barnett, 52, the former school official. McArthur declined to reveal details of the potential plea agreement during the status conference, which was held remotely in front of Orange County Superior Court Judge Thomas Zonay.
McArthur asked to hold the change of plea hearing and a sentencing in March, which Zonay supported.
“I’m looking at the age and the time of the charged conduct,” Zonay said of the case. “It’s important to get it moving.”
Neither McArthur nor Orange County State’s Attorney Will Porter responded to questions after the hearing regarding the potential plea agreement.
Barnett, who was not at the hearing, has been released on conditions since his 2018 arraignment and now lives in a mid-Atlantic state, Porter said.
The case against Barnett has stretched on for years. According to a police affidavit written by Orange County Sheriff’s Department Detective Lt. Scott Clouatre, the woman came forward in 2017 and said she and Barnett had struck up a friendship when she was a student at the high school during the 2011-12 school year.
She said she was struggling with depression and other mental health issues at the time and often confided in Barnett. She said the relationship turned physical and the two of them engaged in kissing and digital penetration several times in his office and in other parts of the school, according to the affidavit.
Though she said the interactions were consensual, she believed Barnett was “grooming her for future sexual conduct,” according to court documents.
Barnett denied the allegations, telling police he “never had inappropriate relations with a student,” according to court documents.
He pleaded not guilty in early 2018 to one felony count of sexual exploitation with a minor. He was fired shortly before his arraignment.
A charge of sexual exploitation of a minor in Vermont can arise if the person is at least four years older than the minor and is in a position of power, authority or supervision over the minor, according to state law.
After Barnett’s not guilty plea, the case remained largely stagnant until May, when McArthur filed a motion to dismiss the charge against his client, arguing that prosecutors didn’t have enough evidence to convict him.
But Porter responded in a filing in July, arguing that Barnett used his position as principal to form a strong bond with the student, which he then used to “take advantage” of her.
“The evidence reveals a methodical and patient plan of seduction that the defendant conceived and carried out in this role, thereby rendering (the student’s) ability to consent ineffective,” Porter wrote.
In July, Zonay denied McArthur’s motion.
