A retired police chief from Northfield has agreed to give up his law enforcement certification to avoid a hearing over an unprofessional conduct complaint. The complaint alleged John Helfant improperly directed a police officer from the force to investigate a death more than two years ago despite knowing that the officer was not qualified to do that task.
The Vermont Criminal Justice Council approved a stipulation during a meeting last week with Helfant in which he “voluntarily surrendered” his law certification “with no option of recertification.”
According to the stipulation, council staff received an unprofessional conduct complaint against Helfant related to an incident in January 2023 when he allegedly directed a police officer, Brian Gosselin, to continue an untimely death investigation when he was not certified to perform such an investigation.
“By this direction,” the stipulation stated, “(Helfant) knowingly directed an individual to conduct an investigation beyond their scope of practice.”
Gosselin’s training limited him to responding to alleged crimes in progress and lower-level offenses.
A hearing on Helfant’s certification could have taken place before the full council, according to Christopher Brickell, the Vermont Criminal Justice Council executive director, but did not as a result of the stipulation.
“In the interest of resolving this matter,” the filing stated, “(Helfant) and the State agree to enter this Stipulation and Consent Order, in lieu of proceeding to hearing.”
Helfant, reached Wednesday, said he agreed to voluntarily surrender law enforcement certification because he had retired from law enforcement more than two years ago.
“I don’t need it anymore,” he said of his law enforcement certification.
Helfant said the incident happened more than two years ago and he had no memory of it.
Helfant said it wasn’t worth challenging the allegation.
“I don’t need my certification. I haven’t been a cop since June of 2023 and have no intention of being one again,” Helfant said.
Helfant, a former longtime member of the Vermont State Police, served roughly four years as Northfield police chief before retiring in 2023.
While Helfant was working in law enforcement, the Washington County state’s attorney at the time, Rory Thibault, wrote what are known as Brady or Giglio letters in 2019 to defense lawyers that laid out concerns he had with Helfant’s credibility stemming from his conduct during traffic stops.
In one of the cases, the prosecutor threw out a drug case in 2019 when he couldn’t reconcile information from Helfant’s affidavit with body cam footage. Helfant denied any wrongdoing.
Helfant’s retirement as Northfield police chief in 2023 came shortly after several organizations called for his removal in light of credibility issues that had been raised and Helfant’s public statements disapproving of the local school district’s policies on the rights of transgender students.
At the time, Helfant denied that he was pressured into retiring, writing on a Northfield group Facebook page, “I could stay, but a bum shoulder that has me on light duty for the foreseeable future and 33yrs in VT Law Enforcement, just makes me want to do something different. It would be nice to be my own boss and take a break from supervising and managing others.”
