BENNINGTON — A court ordered on Monday that a 15-year-old Bennington girl be released from adult jail, saying the prosecution hasn’t proven that the teenager would be a danger to herself and others.
In a written order, Bennington Superior Court Judge Cortland Corsones granted the girl’s request on Thursday to be released from Vermont’s only women’s prison, where she has been held since May 26 on charges of aggravated assault using a weapon.
The Bennington County State’s Attorney’s Office had asked that she continue to be detained due to her increasingly risky and violent behavior in the past year, including in front of law enforcement officers.
“The court determines that under the current facts and circumstances, the State has not proven, by clear and convincing evidence, that the defendant’s release poses a substantial threat of physical violence to any person, including the alleged victim, and that no condition or combination of conditions of release will reasonably prevent the physical violence,” Corsones wrote in a three-page decision.
The order came after the teen’s 18th day at the Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility, a women’s prison in South Burlington.
VTDigger generally does not name criminal defendants younger than 18. The girl is named in court documents and has appeared in open hearings.
The judge underscored an improvement in the teen’s reported behavior since May 20, when police said she severely injured her father by repeatedly striking him on the head with a handgun while in his driveway. Investigators said the girl, her mother and two other juveniles went to the Glastenbury home, and after the parents got into an altercation, the group of four assaulted the father.
Police said the pistol discharged beside her brother’s head as he was trying to wrestle the gun away from her.
“At the time of her alleged crimes, the defendant was actively using illegal drugs and was unstable mentally, emotionally, and physically,” the judge wrote. “The defendant is now significantly more stable, since being held, and has ‘sobered up’ while incarcerated.”
Corsones cited statements that the girl made during her bail-review hearing on Thursday, when she told the judge she is now willing to follow the rules of residential treatment programs.
“She is now amenable to treatment and to residing in a staff-secure facility,” he wrote. “The defendant understands that she runs the risk of being re-incarcerated, if she is unable to comply with her conditions of release.”
The teen was ordered released into the custody of a family-services worker with the Department for Children and Families. VTDigger could not confirm on Monday evening where she had been placed.
Under the conditions of her release, she is forbidden from illegally using drugs, using a deadly weapon such as guns and having contact with her father. She was allowed only phone contact with her mother, as long as they don’t discuss the criminal case.
The girl’s mother has pleaded not guilty to a misdemeanor charge of domestic assault, which is punishable by up to 18 months in jail.
The girl, on the other hand, is charged as an adult with two counts of aggravated assault, one more serious than the other. The maximum penalty is 15 years in prison on one charge, and five years on the other.
Since her arrest on May 26, the girl has been waiting to be transferred to the Sununu Youth Services Center, a locked facility in Manchester, New Hampshire, because Vermont currently has no secure facility for juveniles.
However, there has been no space for her at the Sununu center, and state prosecutors said Thursday it could take two more weeks before a spot opens up.
Woodside Juvenile Rehabilitation Center, the state’s only jail for juveniles, was shut down in October 2020, amid investigations of mistreatment of the young people held there, and a belief that the facility was obsolete.
Since that detention center in Essex closed, three other minors have been held in adult jails when no juvenile facility was available, the Department for Children and Families told VTDigger.
The department has proposed a holding center in Newbury for juvenile boys, but that plan has been held up because town officials declined to approve the project. The state has appealed. The state has offered no plans for a new holding center in Vermont for juvenile girls.
