A former Lamoille County sheriff’s deputy has been banned by a state panel from police work in Vermont after being accused of using booking photos and other images to make “trading cards” of suspects who had been arrested.
The same panel also agreed on a written warning to a member of the Rutland City Police Department who faced allegations of violating the state-required Fair and Impartial Policing Policy by contacting federal authorities to get immigration details about people in a traffic stop.
The Vermont Criminal Justice Council, the body that regulates police, took both separate actions during a meeting held over video Wednesday.
The council accepted a set of stipulations that included the sanctions both men had agreed to, avoiding contested hearings.
Filings in the proceedings stated that the men did not admit to the allegations against them but agreed to resolve the matters “without further time, expense, and uncertainty.”
James Griffin resigned his job as a Lamoille County Sheriff’s Department deputy in early 2024 amid an internal investigation into his actions, according to paperwork filed in his case.
Among the allegations against Griffin was that he used images without consent from booking photos and other law enforcement internal systems to create “trading cards” depicting more than a dozen people arrested by the sheriff’s department.
Griffin, the documents stated, initially denied making the “trading cards” but the investigation led to the discovery of a file with the cards on his work computer.
Several members of the sheriff’s department also reported that Griffin had shown them the trading cards.
A notice outlining the allegations against Griffin had been posted to the council’s website earlier this month with a contested hearing set for later this year.
However, Christopher Perkett, the council’s associate general counsel, said during Wednesday’s meeting that the parties had reached a stipulation to resolve the matter.
The council approved the stipulation that permanently revokes Griffin’s law enforcement certification in Vermont. The council agreed to the resolution of the case with no discussion or dissenting votes.
In the other matter, the council agreed to issue a written warning to Cpl. Tyler Tavares of the Rutland City Police Department.
The stipulation document said that during a traffic stop involving several people, Tavares allegedly violated the state-required Fair and Impartial Policing Policy. The policy generally prohibits local, county and state law enforcement from engaging with federal authorities in enforcing civil immigration matters.
Specifically, the document added, Tavares attempted to “obtain identifying information for the purpose of civil immigration checks” and contacted a member of the federal Department of Homeland Security “to determine immigration status for those individuals.”
Neither Tavares nor Griffin took part in the proceedings Wednesday.
A message seeking comment sent to an email address believed to belong to Griffin was not immediately returned Wednesday. Phone messages left for Tavares and Rutland City Police Chief Matthew Prouty seeking comment were also not immediately returned Wednesday.
