The law firm investigating Franklin County Sheriff John Grismore said it may need to go to court to enforce a subpoena it served him as part of the ongoing Vermont House inquiry into whether he should be impeached.
As a result, the House committee leading the impeachment inquiry approved a $12,000 allocation on Monday for its special counsel, Burlington law firm Downs Rachlin Martin, to cover the costs of a potential lawsuit to compel Grismore to comply with its requests.
Tim Doherty, an attorney with Downs Rachlin Martin, told committee members Grismore has expressed a desire to cooperate with the investigation, but noted that the sheriff said the firm was seeking a “voluminous” amount of records that would take “a considerable amount of time” to provide
At the same hearing, Michael O’Grady, the Legislature’s deputy chief counsel, characterized Grismore’s initial response as “not very cooperative.”
“Open-ended declarations that subpoenas will be responded to, without a timeframe, is not the normal order of business,” Doherty told lawmakers Monday. He said his firm would prefer “a pathway to obtaining these materials without litigation,” but wanted the resources to go to court if it can’t work out a timeline with Grismore that is “acceptable to everyone,” including the members of the committee.
Grismore indicated he’d seek legal counsel himself, Doherty said. The attorney said at least two weeks have passed since Grismore was served with the subpoena.
Grismore did not respond to requests for comment Monday afternoon.
If the special counsel goes to a judge to enforce the subpoena, it could delay the impeachment committee’s work. Doherty told lawmakers Monday that his firm would likely need until October, at the earliest, to finish its work, and committee members voted Monday to extend the deadline in the law firm’s contract from July 31 to Oct. 16.
That, in turn, could keep the committee from preparing articles of impeachment — if that’s what members decide to do — until November, said Rep. Martin LaLonde, a South Burlington Democrat who chairs the impeachment committee.
Monday’s meeting was the committee’s longest in a public session since early June, but members have met several times in executive session to hear testimony related to their investigation into the workplace conduct of Franklin County State’s Attorney John Lavoie, whom the panel could also decide should be impeached.
At Monday’s hearing, Doherty referenced an email that he sent to committee members, proposing a legal strategy for obtaining the documents Downs Rachlin Martin wants from Grismore. However, on Doherty’s advice, LaLonde said it wouldn’t be made public.
The committee held a nine-minute public session on June 20, during which O’Grady said Downs Rachlin Martin planned to review financial documents from the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office that, earlier this year, also prompted State Auditor Doug Hoffer to raise concerns over what he called “questionable” financial practices.
Under the firm’s contract with the state, Downs Rachlin Martin is investigating whether Grismore is “properly managing and accounting for the budget and finances of the Office,” or if he is “misusing the Office for an improper purpose or personal gain.”
Vermont State Police investigators are running their own probe into Grismore’s finances.
The law firm is also investigating the impact that an August 2022 incident — in which Grismore, then a deputy who was running for the top job, repeatedly kicked a detained man — has had on his ability to credibly serve in law enforcement, committee members have said.
The contract assigns the firm to investigate whether the sheriff has ever engaged in an activity that “violates the public trust or undermines the operation of government.”
Grismore has maintained that his actions were an essential use of force, though two other deputies in the room at the time later told a state police investigator that they thought Grismore’s actions were excessive and, according to one, unnecessary.
The kicks also landed the Republican sheriff in criminal court: Grismore was charged with simple assault stemming from the incident just weeks before the November 2022 election, in which he was the only candidate for sheriff to appear on the ballot.
Grismore pleaded not guilty to the charge and asked the court to dismiss the case. It remains pending.
