Updated 5:19 p.m.
MONTPELIER — Gov. Phil Scott said Windsor County Sheriff Ryan Palmer should resign amid the slew of sex crimes charges he is facing. And state regulators temporarily stripped Palmer of his law enforcement certification Wednesday.
The rebukes came the day after all nineteen Windsor County lawmakers publicly released a letter that asked Palmer to forfeit his duties in office as long as he continues to face criminal charges for sex crimes.
“From what I’ve seen and read, he’s lost the trust of folks in Windsor County, and he should step down,” Scott said at his weekly press conference Wednesday.
Last week Palmer pleaded not guilty to seven criminal charges including lewd and lascivious conduct, two counts of soliciting prostitution, two counts of aggravated stalking with a deadly weapon and two counts of obstructing justice.
Three women told police that Palmer paid to watch them perform a sex act in person or online, according to police affidavits. Palmer later allegedly stalked them by driving by them in his cruiser after he ended contact with them, affidavits stated.
The Vermont Criminal Justice Council, which regulates state and municipal police, unanimously agreed to temporarily revoke Palmer’s law enforcement certification, according to Seven Days.
He is able to continue serving in the elected office without the certification, but Palmer will only be allowed to perform administrative tasks. He will be barred from performing law enforcement duties like patrolling or making arrests.
After he was arraigned on the charges last week, Palmer told reporters that he would not resign from his office, but that he would hand over the day-to-day operations of the sheriff’s office to the county’s High Bailiff, Claude Weyant.
Anthony Leonard, a patrol officer in the sheriff’s office confirmed Wednesday that Weyant has been running department operations since Palmer was charged. Weyant was formerly the chief deputy in the office before being elected high bailiff, Leonard said.
In a letter to Palmer, lawmakers made a list of requests, the first being that he, “Temporarily step aside from the active duties of sheriff.” The charges facing Palmer pose questions about his office’s integrity and have the potential to distract him from his work, they wrote. They did not call on him to resign, though, acknowledging it was still an open legal matter.
“The community’s faith in its public servant, and by extension its public safety, is in jeopardy while these allegations loom,” the letter from the bipartisan group of lawmakers said.
Lawmakers, in their letter, had a list of requests for Palmer, including handing over “full operational authority” for both law enforcement and administrative tasks to someone else in the office.
They also asked him to remove himself from “financial decision making,” including from any work on budgeting and payroll.
State police officers discovered the allegations of sexual misconduct against Palmer after they began investigating a possible mismanagement of funds in the office, according to a police statement. Palmer failed to keep up with legally required paperwork in his office, sometimes waiting over a year to file necessary appointment documents for deputies he hired in his office, according to the Valley News.
Palmer did not respond to a phone call seeking comment Wednesday morning.
