Updated at 8:02 p.m.
Vermont House leaders plan to pursue impeachment of Franklin County’s sheriff and state’s attorney, they announced at a press conference Thursday afternoon.
The announcement came days after allegations came to light that Franklin County State’s Attorney John Lavoie repeatedly harassed and discriminated against his employees, and cultivated a hostile work environment. The longtime prosecutor and first-term Democrat has repeatedly refused to resign despite calls from politicians and his colleagues — even after the state Department of State’s Attorneys and Sheriffs made the extraordinary move of initiating a public pressure campaign.
The Franklin County sheriff, John Grismore, has defied repeated calls to resign after being charged with assault for kicking a shackled man in custody in August.
When reached by VTDigger Thursday afternoon, Grismore and Lavoie said they still have no plans to step down.
Earlier, at a Statehouse press conference packed with reporters and onlookers, House Speaker Jill Krowinski, D-Burlington, announced that the chamber is initiating the process to pursue impeachment of both men.
“The people of Franklin County deserve justice and elected officials who they can trust to uphold the rule of the law and to represent their community with integrity,” Krowinski said.
But legislators’ ability to hold Grismore and Lavoie accountable, Krowinski said, is “very limited.”
Impeachment is a long and arduous process with little historical precedent in Vermont. If a House committee set forth articles of impeachment against either man and the full body voted in favor, his removal from office would still require a trial and conviction overseen by the Senate.
Nevertheless, Krowinski said House members have deemed it necessary to take the first of seven steps: introducing a resolution to form a seven-member, bipartisan committee to investigate both Grismore and Lavoie.
“We are not making — I am not making — a judgment,” Krowinski told reporters. “I am just moving forward a process for the investigation to happen.”
Reached by phone Thursday afternoon and asked about the House’s decision to advance impeachment proceedings against him, Grismore said it was the first he was hearing of it. Calling the news “disappointing,” he suggested that the process was politically motivated because he is a Republican.
“I’m very confident that once the facts are uncovered and discussed, I will be exonerated — and I will be vindicated,” he said. “Justice will prevail.”
The sheriff, who has maintained that his actions last August were a justifiable use of force, also claimed that his support among Franklin County residents is stronger than ever before. “I can’t go out anywhere without somebody saying that they’re glad I’m the sheriff,” he said. “And I really mean that. That’s the truth.”
Also reached by phone Thursday afternoon, Lavoie — who has long called for Grismore’s removal from office — said that he was “pleased that the House finally seems to be doing something about the sheriff’s situation.”
As for the pursuit of his own impeachment, Lavoie said he was surprised.
Just minutes before lawmakers announced their plans to begin the impeachment process, the Department of State’s Attorneys and Sheriffs released a redacted version of a 10-page summary of the investigation of Lavoie. The report details accusations of Lavoie calling colleagues crude names, such as “whore” or “slut,” and making jokes about colleagues’ body composition, sexual orientation and religion.
When the department began its public campaign to pressure Lavoie to resign on Tuesday, it kept details of the allegations vague, saying only that the longtime prosecutor habitually used discriminatory and derogatory language that targeted nearly every protected class, including women, LGBTQ+ people, people with disabilities and people of varying religious backgrounds.
The newly released report sheds light on what exactly Lavoie is accused of saying and doing in the workplace, and the impact several employees said he had on them. The names of employees and other witnesses are redacted.
The report wasn’t just new to the public. Thursday was also the first day Lavoie got to read it.
Lavoie categorically denied two of the report’s allegations, saying that he never used the N-word nor the C-word.
Of the other allegations, he told VTDigger on Thursday, “I’m really sorry that my behavior has upset people and I was unaware that my crude sense of humor was so upsetting to folks.”
Lavoie said that the culture of “locker room talk” didn’t start with him, and has been prevalent in the law enforcement profession throughout his 35-year career as a prosecutor.
“Ours is not the ‘good ol’ boy’ culture,” he told VTDigger. “Ours is the, I would say, the law enforcement culture.”
“The work we do is very difficult, and our senses of humor — and I don’t mean just mine — are pretty dark sometimes,” Lavoie said. “But I would also say that people who know me know that my comments are never malicious, and I am truly sorry that I hurt people.”
On March 13, Lavoie pulled off the badge a woman was wearing on a lanyard around her neck and then “stuffed it down the top of her dress,” according to the report. Lavoie confirmed this account to VTDigger.
According to the report, the employee told investigators that she was humiliated by the experience, but Lavoie told VTDigger that he had a longtime, friendly relationship with the employee and didn’t think she was offended.
A woman considering a legal career also alleged that Lavoie, in response to a question about where she should eat lunch, grabbed her midsection — “underneath her armpit, about two ribs from her breast area” — and told her, “I don’t think you need to eat lunch today.”
The woman told investigators that she cried throughout lunch, ultimately throwing her meal away, and later spoke to a school counselor about the matter. Lavoie said Thursday that reading how the incident made the woman feel “made me feel terrible.”
“To find out that she was so upset about the incident that she described, I mean, that was a surprise to me and I’m so sorry about that,” he said.
Lavoie admitted to investigators that he had what he considered to be a playful nickname for someone he worked with: “whore.” He told VTDigger on Thursday that he was not the first to come up with the nickname, and insisted that the colleague doesn’t find it offensive.
Employees in his office also reported that Lavoie loudly referred to a woman in the office as “that fucking slut bag.” Lavoie denied the account, but reportedly told investigators that he was “not sure” whether he referred to her as a “slut.”
Over the course of his interview with VTDigger, Lavoie mentioned that he has an adult daughter. Asked how he’d feel if he found out that someone talked about his daughter like that at work, Lavoie paused for 10 seconds before saying it would depend on the context. If she had a playful friendship with the colleague, as he said he does with some of his, “I wouldn’t be upset by that.”
“If somebody was making a derogatory comment about her meant to hurt her, I would be very upset about that,” he said.
The report states that Lavoie acknowledged having referred to people using slurs targeting people with intellectual disabilities. The report found that Lavoie has ridiculed defense attorneys who have disabilities, calling one “T-Rex” and gesturing in such a way to mimic their disabilities.
He also admitted to investigators that he would mimic an Indian accent, describing this as a reference to “The Simpsons,” and that he had imitated people who are deaf, according to the report.
It stated that Lavoie continued to make offensive remarks during the course of the investigation.
Two witnesses told investigators that Lavoie’s behavior had led them to seek therapy.
“One employee reported that she has a stomach ache every morning when she reports to work,” according to the report. “It is hard to watch SA Lavoie hurt her co-workers. She has difficulty focusing because she is always listening for what might be happening. She often leaves the office with a headache, and has cried on her way home.”
Lavoie reiterated again to VTDigger on Thursday that he has no plans to resign, thinks he deserves a second chance, and sees his potential impeachment as “the nuclear option.” Asked what other options are available, he said that the times have changed since he first entered the legal profession 37 years ago, and “I could use some education.”
In his decades-long career, he said he has never received formal anti-harassment or anti-discrimination training.
As for the impeachment process, House members will consider their resolution in a joint hearing on Friday, Krowinski said. If approved, the investigatory committee will meet throughout the summer, while the Legislature is out of session. It would have subpoena power.
Krowinski said the investigation will be “an open and transparent process.”
Upon completing its investigation, the committee would decide whether to bring forward articles of impeachment to a full House vote.
Gov. Phil Scott could call the House back to cast such a vote in a special session — a move that he signaled Wednesday he was willing to make. Krowinski, however, said on Thursday, “I don’t need the governor’s permission to do this.”
Before the legislative session concludes in the coming weeks, she plans to introduce a resolution that would call the Legislature back to the Statehouse before January to take up the question of impeachment. Krowinski said she does not have specific dates yet.
Shaun Robinson contributed to this report.
Correction: An earlier version of this story used an incorrect length of time for how long John Lavoie has been a prosecutor.
