A sentencing hearing for a former St. Albans police officer who faces potential jail time for punching a handcuffed woman in the face was deferred after attorneys met with the judge in private right before its scheduled start.
It’s the latest delay in the case that has been pending for nearly three years against Jason Lawton.
Speaking from the bench of Franklin County Superior criminal court in St. Albans, Judge Martin Maley said he was “requested to meet with counsel briefly before we got started.” During the closed-door session, he said, he was informed of an “unexpected situation” that required the hearing to be delayed.
Maley did not give a specific reason for the delay, which he expected would last around 30 days, and didn’t indicate whether the prosecution or defense had sought it.
Lauren Jandl, chief of staff for the Vermont Attorney General’s Office, said in an email after the hearing that the Attorney General’s Office did not request the delay. She declined to reveal the cause.
Rebecca Otey, Lawton’s attorney, did not return a phone call Wednesday after the hearing seeking comment.
Maley said he was sorry for the inconvenience that the postponement would create.
“I apologize for that to all that appeared and are ready to observe or participate today,” the judge said, “but this was not anything that any of the parties had anticipated and it’s something that’s going to require the court to continue the matter for a brief period of time.”
Lawton, 34, pleaded guilty in May to a misdemeanor charge of simple assault for striking Amy Connelly of Highgate in March 2019 at the St. Albans police station.
As part of a plea agreement, Lawton’s sentencing will be contested. The prosecution could seek a jail term of up to six months. His attorney could argue for a lesser sentence.
The judge at that time ordered the state Department of Corrections to conduct a presentence investigation.
Video of the March 14, 2019, incident shows Connelly in a holding cell at the St. Albans police station with her hands cuffed behind her back.
At one point, Connelly stands up, appearing to raise a leg toward Lawton. The video shows Lawton shoving her onto a bench in the cell, grabbing her shirt near her neck, and punching her in the face.
Lawton and two other officers push her face-first to the ground and cuff her ankles.
“You guys are brutes,” Connelly can be heard telling the officers.
Connelly was later taken by ambulance to the Northwestern Medical Center in St. Albans where she received treatment for injuries to her face and bruising around her eye, according to court filings in the case.
Connelly contacted the Vermont Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, which filed a public records request for the camera footage of Lawton striking her. Seven Days first reported on the video in August 2019.
Lawton was later fired from the police department.
After the ACLU obtained the video footage, the Vermont Attorney General’s Office charged Lawton with misdemeanor simple assault in November 2019.
Connelly brought a federal lawsuit naming Lawton and the city of St. Albans among the defendants that’s still pending.