A self-avowed Bennington white nationalist was fined $1,000 Wednesday for violating his house arrest conditions in 2022, the result of a plea deal that leaves only his long-running firearm magazine charges unresolved.
Shortly before he was sentenced in Bennington Superior criminal court, Max Misch pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of violating the conditions of his release last year. He admitted to walking down the street, several blocks from his apartment, around 4:45 p.m. on Aug. 3 — when he was under a court order to be at home during that period.
Misch, 40, said “no comment” when Judge Kerry Ann McDonald-Cady gave him an opportunity to speak in court.
The court had placed him under 22-hour house arrest in January 2022 because of prosecutors’ concerns for public safety, given his mounting criminal cases at that time. At one point, he had 10 open felony and misdemeanor cases, including charges of illegally possessing high-capacity firearm magazines in 2018. (He was allowed to leave his home for two hours a day to shop for food and other necessities.)
The court lifted his house arrest order in August 2022, after he was sentenced to two years of probation for aggravated domestic assault and disorderly conduct as a hate crime. He resolved those cases, and three others, under a deal with the Bennington County State’s Attorney’s Office.
His plea agreement with the Vermont Attorney General’s Office on Wednesday included dismissing his three other pending cases of violating release conditions.
Judge McDonald-Cady approved the plea agreement, saying Misch’s $1,000 fine is the maximum monetary penalty that can be imposed for the offense. She agreed with public defender Fred Bragdon that a new probationary sentence was not necessary since Misch is doing well on his existing probation, and it wouldn’t address the offense he committed.
“Adding probation for a curfew (violation), I’m not certain there is a value in that,” McDonald-Cady told Misch. “This doesn’t relate to any substance use or any risk factors when you violated the curfew.”
She also credited Misch for cooperating with the police officer who stopped him on the street that day, saying Misch had admitted on sight to being in violation of the court order.
The judge gave him until Jan. 8 to pay $1,297, which includes court costs, after Bragdon said that Misch has limited income. The defense attorney said that Misch, a military veteran, has a disability and receives federal and state assistance.
His firearm magazine case is still being litigated. McDonald-Cady is currently hearing Misch’s latest motion to get the charges dismissed, arguing that the state ban violates his constitutional right to keep and bear arms. The attorney general’s office disagrees, saying the 2018 statute is consistent with U.S. historical tradition of firearm regulation.
Misch has admitted to racially harassing former Bennington state representative Kiah Morris when she was the only Black woman in the state Legislature. She resigned in the summer of 2018, citing racial harassment as a reason.
