Gov. Phil Scott has appointed Zach Weight as a special prosecutor who will try cases against repeat offenders in Burlington as part of a new initiative to handle a rising backlog of criminal cases, Scott’s office announced on Thursday.
Weight will handle the cases in the Chittenden County Community Accountability Court, which Scott unveiled last week. The court will focus on trying people who have five or more legal cases pending against them.
Weight will temporarily leave his current position as deputy state’s attorney in Washington County to serve in the special prosecutor role, according to a press release from Scott’s office.
Scott announced the court last Friday, avowing that the initiative will surge resources toward addressing the backlog in cases in the county’s criminal courts. During a press conference Wednesday, Scott said the new court is the first part and “the major piece” in a 14-point plan to help Burlington.
Public defenders saw a large recent uptick in criminal cases in Chittenden County, Vermont Defender General Matt Valerio said last week. The number of cases from July through September increased 37% over the level of cases during those same months a year prior.
The day before Scott’s announcement, Valerio told lawmakers in an oversight committee that the increase in cases would put a major strain on the state’s court system.
Weight is now set to try some of those cases.
“I’m hopeful this short-term assignment will help address some of the issues facing Burlington and know Zach will serve Vermont well,” Scott said in the release. Weight graduated from Vermont Law School and has practiced as a criminal defense attorney in all 14 counties in the state, according to the release.
“My focus is to champion public safety, uphold due process for defendants, and provide compassionate support for victims,” Weight said in the release.
While pinpointing the cause of the recent increase in cases, Valerio said in an interview Friday the strain on the court system is in line with trends that started when the courts put everything on pause during the global Covid-19 pandemic in 2020.
“The earthquake happens a thousand miles away in the middle of the ocean. And then eventually a wave builds up and it hits on the shore. I think we’re kind of getting a wave right now,” he said.
Valerio said last week that there is no one factor that explains the recent increase in criminal cases. “This is definitely not a thing where there’s somebody to blame,” he said.
Chittenden County State’s Attorney Sarah George, in a press release last week, said the county is seeing a group of 50 to 70 people who are “repeatedly causing harm” and are “not succeeding in existing diversion and deflection programs.”
Scott announced the new court about a month after he said he had a plan to address concerns about public safety and drug use in Burlington. Scott’s plan came after Burlington Mayor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak said she felt like Scott wasn’t doing enough to help the Queen City battle persistent social and economic challenges.
Rachel Jolly, the assistant director of the Burlington Community Justice Center, said that most people who commit crimes repeatedly, and most people her organization interacts with, are lacking the resources to address their basic needs. In some cases, the center works with police after a crime is committed to offer an offender non-punitive methods to address the impact of their crimes.
“The whole state is struggling with good solutions for these really taxing needs. You know, lack of housing, lack of long-term substance use treatment, mental health treatment, that’s adequate to meet the demand,” Jolly said.
When those needs are unmet, it creates “unfavorable outcomes,” she said. Usually people who commit a crime or cause harm will repeat the behavior until they’re able to address their underlying motivation for those acts, Jolly said.
Those motivations vary for different people, she said. Some of the services her organization provides can help people meet their needs and prevent future incidents, she said.
Jolly isn’t sure how her organization will interact with the new court, but she’s happy the new court will add another tool to the toolbox, she said. She appreciates that officials are discussing “diverse responses to the scenario at hand,” she said.
Scott, in his announcements about the court, has said the court will connect people to “the services they need.” But he did not specify what those services will be.
Kathy Fox, a sociologist retired from the University of Vermont who has expertise in corrections, said that if the court’s named mission for accountability is simply to subject people to adjudications without addressing the underlying issues driving their behavior, then the court will not change crime.
She said a comprehensive public health approach would be better. If the mission is simply “to get people off the streets and into a custodial setting,” the court will be “a temporary fix at best,” Fox said.
