This story by Aaron Calvin first appeared in Stowe Reporter on April 20.
In a so-called Giglio letter issued earlier this month, Lamoille County State’s Attorney Todd Shove called former Stowe police officer Ben Cavarretta “untruthful,” which could effectively end his career as a police officer.
Prosecutors issue a Giglio letter, also known as a Brady letter, when an officer’s conduct is called into question. By accusing Cavarretta of lying, Shove has cast doubt on the reliability of his testimony in a court of law.
Shove wrote the letter after reviewing an internal investigative report by Stowe police chief Don Hull.
The Stowe Police Department did not announce Cavarretta’s quiet removal from its ranks, and both Hull and town manager Charles Safford have refused to discuss the matter.
In the letter, Shove wrote that Cavarretta was specifically “untruthful in reporting the events related to a traffic stop on December 5, 2022.”
According to police records, Cavarretta pulled over Theodore K. Garrison, 58, from Barre, on Route 2 in East Montpelier at 5:58 p.m. Garrison was arrested for driving under the influence after refusing to submit to a sobriety test.
It was the final traffic stop Cavarretta made as a Stowe police officer. The Giglio letter confirmed that he was fired following the completion of the investigation.
What occurred during the stop and how Hull determined Cavarretta had been untruthful remains a mystery.
On the advice of town lawyers, the department and Stowe refused to provide the investigative report compiled by Hull or any records related to the traffic stop in question, citing that some of the records have been submitted to Vermont Criminal Justice Council, which exempt them from disclosure under Vermont law. Officials even refused to acknowledge the existence of any documents concerning the investigation, as Vermont law allegedly “indicates that the identity of an officer who is the subject of an internal investigation which has been submitted to VCJC is confidential.”
The results of a wide-ranging public records request concerning Cavarretta filed with the Stowe Police Department over a month ago is still pending.
Single incident
With previous experience with the Berlin and Hardwick police departments, Cavarretta had a fierce drive to prosecute intoxicated and impaired drivers, and spent a majority of his time in Stowe patrolling Mountain Road or in the village, watching for unsteady or speeding drivers to pull over and subject to roadside sobriety and breathalyzer tests.
Cavarretta — who was also a drug-recognition expert, which gave more weight to his court testimony around drugs and alcohol — claimed his mission was to “make a dent in the ongoing and increasing problem of drugged driving” and expand his role as an “impaired driving enforcer through traffic stops, education and training” after his promotion to senior patrolman in 2020.
A review conducted by the Stowe Reporter of cases involving driving under the influence or negligent driving charges brought by Stowe Police Department officers who were arraigned in Lamoille County court since last September found Cavarretta was the arresting officer in over half of them.
Two have been dismissed, nine are currently ongoing and two cases ended in guilty pleas. A third driving under the influence charge following an arrest made by Cavarretta in October has also been dismissed.
In the Giglio letter, Shove stated that his “office is not aware of other allegations of untruthfulness or that reports filed by Officer Cavaretta [sic] are not accurate,” even though a lawyer representing another one of Cavarretta’s arrests has called for his client’s case to be dismissed based on body camera footage that conflicted with the former officer’s testimony.
Cavarretta pulled over Colchester resident Perry Mason, 54 in Stowe just over a month before the Montpelier traffic stop and arrested him for driving under the influence after a series of field sobriety tests and Mason’s admittance to having suboxone, a legal drug used in opiate addiction treatment.
The motion filed by Mason’s lawyer claimed Cavarretta’s body camera footage captured him harassing Mason and vocally assuming his guilt before calling in a K-9 unit to search Mason’s vehicle, which turned up no illegal substances.
Cavarretta hadn’t mentioned calling in a K-9 in his own affidavit testimony for the case.
Mason’s lawyer claimed that Cavarretta violated his client’s constitutional rights by expanding the traffic stop into a search for drugs despite a clear lack of probable cause.
Like Mason, Garrison has a criminal history in central Vermont, the same region where Cavarretta was once an officer for several years.
After his most recent 2020 arrest, Garrison pleaded not guilty to a felony count of impeding a public officer and misdemeanor counts of hindering arrest, aggravated disorderly conduct and disorderly conduct following a fight between a group of people and police at a Barre apartment complex, according to The Barre Montpelier Times Argus.