Interim state’s attorneys will remain in place in Addison and Rutland counties until new top prosecutors are sworn in next year — but those new state’s attorneys could be the same people currently filling in for those roles.
Gov. Phil Scott on Monday declined to appoint prosecutors to fill those vacancies, citing a desire for continuity in the offices. In an email from the governor’s office to state officials, Scott’s manager of appointments wrote this was “in no way an expression of support or opposition to any candidate in the upcoming election,” even though both interim prosecutors have declared that they are running for the top jobs.
Peter Bevere, a deputy prosecutor in Addison County, will remain the interim state’s attorney there. He’s been filling in since Dennis Wygmans took a statewide prosecution job in May. Bevere ran against Wygmans for the office in 2018 and lost by just 10 votes.
Chief Deputy State’s Attorney Ian Sullivan will continue to serve in the interim in Rutland following the departure of State’s Attorney Rose Kennedy, who took office in 2015. Kennedy stepped down to take a position in the Vermont Attorney General’s Office earlier this month.
Bevere and Sullivan will keep their same interim titles, said John Campbell, executive director of the Vermont Department of State’s Attorneys and Sheriffs. Functionally, each of them will lead the department until the next state’s attorney takes office in January.
Both Bevere and Sullivan hope that they will be the ones getting sworn in next year. Sullivan, a Democrat, is running unopposed for the nomination in Rutland, according to filings with the Secretary of State’s Office. Kennedy endorsed Sullivan when she announced she would not seek re-election.
Bevere, who is running as an independent, will not compete in the primary, but said he intends to file as a candidate for the general election.
By state law, state’s attorney’s offices are required to have a succession plan in place. But generally, when a political position becomes vacant, the outgoing person’s local party committee sends a three-name shortlist to the governor. The governor then usually nominates from the list, resulting in a replacement from the same political party as the person who won the seat.
In Addison County, the local Democratic committee recommended — in order of preference — Tim Lueders-Dumont, who currently serves as a deputy state’s attorney in Washington County; Eva Vekos, a criminal defense attorney in private practice; and Dave Silberman, High Bailiff of Addison County and vice-chair of the Addison County Democratic Committee.
Lueders-Dumont and Vekos are also running for the Democratic nomination for Addison County state’s attorney in the upcoming primary.
Silberman on Monday took to Twitter to criticize Scott for subverting tradition and “putting his thumbs on the scales” in the upcoming election.
“The effect of not making an appointment is to sort-of appoint Peter, who is also running for office,” Silberman said in an interview Monday.
Scott’s team had previously said they would not place a candidate for the top spot into the role. Upon Kennedy’s departure in Rutland County, Rebecca Kelley, Scott’s communications director, told the Rutland Herald in an email that “Governor Scott does not think it is appropriate to tip the scale for any one candidate, so he does not plan to fill this vacancy with anyone who is running for this position in this year’s election. This is a principle he has committed to in the past and will follow through on with any other vacancies before the November election.”
Bevere approached the local Democratic committee in Addison County and interviewed for their recommendation, according to Silberman, even though Bevere is not a party member. However, the party declined to recommend Bevere for appointment “because he didn’t align with our values as Democrats,” Silberman said, citing differences of opinion on policies like cash bail reform.
Silberman was among the local party members who screened candidates for recommendation.
Because standard practice in this situation is to submit three names to the governor, “the county committee also elected to include the name of the current high bailiff of Addison County,” Silberman said, “Which is me.”
Silberman suggested Scott could have waited until after the primary to choose either Lueders-Dumont or Vekos — whomever wouldn’t continue on to the general election. Silberman also expressed concerns that leaving the succession plan in place would leave the State’s Attorney’s Office understaffed for the next several months.
At the governor’s weekly press conference Tuesday, Scott noted that this was “somewhat of a unique circumstance being so close to the election.” But his decision to leave deputies in charge was “as much about stability as anything else,” he said.
Jason Maulucci, a spokesperson for the governor also contested Silberman’s claim that Scott was breaking with a bipartisan tradition, as the last time the Addison County state’s attorney seat was vacant, then-Gov. Peter Shumlin appointed a Democrat — Wygmans — to replace an outgoing Republican.
Campbell, of the Vermont Department of State’s Attorneys and Sheriffs, said he supported Scott’s choice not to nominate new prosecutors.
“I believe it was a very smart way, a very wise way to handle this,” said Campbell, who previously served as president pro tempore of the Vermont Senate, where he was a Democrat.
Usually, after a new state’s attorney is elected, they would have months during the lame duck period to study the caseload, according to Campbell. Most local prosecutor’s offices are quite small, he said, with each attorney managing around 300 to 350 “significant cases.”
“If you took somebody and just put them in an office to replace the state’s attorney, without them having had any dealings whatsoever with that office before, that’s just a recipe for disaster,” Campbell said.
Shaun Robinson contributed reporting.
