Vermont’s top judiciary officials won’t be deposed in Orleans County to explain their actions in banning jury trials due to Covid-19 concerns, according to a judge’s ruling.
Judge Robert Mello wrote that such depositions would take officials away from “rebooting” criminal trials and create further delays that are at the heart of a defense attorney’s complaint.
But the attorney, David Sleigh, is still vowing to interrogate the court system’s top brass — even if he has to call them to the stand.
Mello, in a ruling Wednesday, shot down a request made by Sleigh and supported by Orleans County’s top prosecutor to depose high-ranking court system leaders about their decisions’ impact on Orleans County Superior criminal court in Newport.
“[I]t appears that granting Defendant’s discovery request would unnecessarily divert the time of administrators, thereby further delaying and disrupting attempts to schedule criminal trials,” Mello wrote.
“There are defendants in virtually all of Vermont’s counties awaiting trial,” the judge wrote. “Allowing the depositions of state employees responsible for rebooting criminal trials would unnecessarily detract from their ability to implement the trial the Defendant seeks.”
Depositions generally involve questioning people under oath in advance of a court hearing.
Mello added that his decision does not preclude attorneys from directly calling the officials to the stand during a hearing itself.
Sleigh said he expects to do so — and that the process may end up taking more time.
“Had we been able to do this outside the courtroom we could have done it in a measured and thorough fashion,” Sleigh said on Thursday. “I suspect what I’ll do is just call witnesses that I wanted to depose and have a rambling, free-ranging examination which is likely to be less efficient and more time-consuming.”
Sleigh made the filing last week seeking to depose Chief Superior Court Judge Brian Grearson and Patricia Gabel, Vermont’s court administrator, in a criminal case that had been brought against one of his clients.
That case, as well about two dozen more in which Sleigh represents defendants in Orleans County, has been pending since before Gov. Phil Scott took emergency actions last year in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The governor lifted that emergency order in June. Still, Sleigh said, his clients’ cases have not been brought to trial.
Many courts around the state are fully open. However, some, including the one in Orleans County, are not open for jury trials. Court officials have said that the Newport courthouse lacks the necessary HVAC equipment to safely hold trials in that building.
Sleigh, in his filing, raised questions about the judiciary’s use of more than $7 million in federal Covid-19 relief funds as they worked to reopen the court system across Vermont.
Orleans County State’s Attorney Jennifer Barrett submitted her own filing in support of Sleigh’s request.
Mello, the judge, rejected that request, saying the testimony of top court officials is not relevant to the pending criminal case.
“In this case,” Mello wrote, “neither party has proffered the premise that the delay in this case is deliberate and in any way related to the State’s attempt to hamper the defense.”
