A Bennington teenager charged with assaulting her father when she was 15 has been given two years of probation. She pleaded guilty to twin felony offenses after the case made an unexpected reappearance in adult criminal court.
The girl, now 17, pleaded guilty to aggravated assault with a weapon and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in Bennington Superior criminal court in February, according to court records. The hearing came nearly two years after she was charged in criminal court as an adult; she was later reclassified as a youthful offender in family court, where proceedings are held in private.
The outcome of the case was not reported earlier as there was no notice given of the girl’s reappearance in criminal court, where proceedings are public by default.
Police accused the girl of severely injuring her father when she repeatedly struck him on the head with a pistol while her parents were fighting in 2022. Investigators also said the gun discharged beside her brother’s head as he was trying to wrestle it away from her.
VTDigger generally does not name criminal defendants younger than 18. The girl is named in court documents and has appeared in open hearings. The public proceedings included discussions of her placement in an adult prison back in May 2022 because the state didn’t have a juvenile detention facility in which to hold her.
On Feb. 9, she pleaded guilty to her two criminal charges after the court revoked her youthful offender status. Superior Court Judge Howard Kalfus ordered her to undergo two years of probation as part of her plea deal with state prosecutors for a deferred sentence.
If she completes probation, the convictions would be wiped from her record under a deferred sentence. But if she violates the probationary terms, she could be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison — the maximum combined penalty for her two aggravated assault offenses.
She was issued two dozen probationary conditions, including working with a mental health treatment provider, not using illicit drugs or alcohol, abiding by an electronic monitoring program, maintaining any curfew her probation officer puts in place and following reasonable housing restrictions.
“There are a lot of conditions here,” Judge Kalfus said. “You’re becoming an adult, which means, ordinarily you get to choose who you hang out with, where you live, who you live with, when you leave your home — and you’re not going to be able to do that.”
“Every one of these conditions is tailored to helping you become a productive member of our community and to succeed in life,” the judge said. “But at the same time, it’s a bit restrictive — appropriately so, I think.”
The girl declined to speak when given a chance, besides telling the judge she understood the meaning of a deferred sentence and believed she could abide by the probationary conditions.
Her attorney, public defender Zanna Bliss, said she was hopeful the teenage girl would successfully complete probation.
“It is a heavy consequence to have hanging over one’s head at such a young age,” Bliss said. “In a lot of ways, she was kind of forced to grow (up) very fast.”
It’s unclear what led to the girl’s case being sent back to criminal court, or what took place in family court. Family court cases are not only held in private, their records are also sealed from public view. The prosecutor, Deputy State’s Attorney Jared Bianchi, declined to comment on the case outcome.
Back in 2022, after the girl was reclassified as a youthful offender, Bianchi spoke about the designation in general terms. He said youthful offenders usually receive probationary sentences but that, if they commit serious violations, the presiding judge could move their case to criminal court for resentencing.
Despite the lack of notice about the girl’s criminal court appearance in February, the case file recently showed that the teenager pleaded guilty to two felony charges and got a deferred sentence.
After requesting an audio recording of the Feb. 9 hearing, VTDigger learned that the criminal court proceedings were held soon after the girl’s appearance in a “sealed” hearing before Judge Kalfus.
The court redacted the confidential portion of the proceedings and provided a recording that lasted around 12 minutes. There was no mention of the factual basis for the girl’s guilty pleas, usually part of plea-change hearings.
Vermont Deputy Defender General Marshall Pahl, who heads the public defenders’ juvenile division, declined to comment on the case, apart from confirming that the girl now has adult convictions.
Meanwhile, the girl’s mother is facing misdemeanor and felony charges connected with the family altercation in 2022. They include allegations that the mom aided in her daughter’s assaultive behavior. The woman, who pleaded not guilty, is scheduled for a jury trial in Bennington in May.
