Impeachment in Vermont
Over the course of Vermont's history, the term "impeachment" has been used to describe a broad variety of actions, including, at times, the removal of legislators.
[3] On June 28, 1781, John Abbot and Daniel Martin, both members of the General Assembly, were "impeached" and removed from office.
[5] Martin's removal ended later that day, as he was restored to his seat after showing "sorrow and repentance" before the General Assembly.
[5] The impeachment resolution alleged that Martin had sold Abbott discounted Vermont bills of credit at one-fourth their face value in exchange for hard currency.
[2][5] On October 16, 1783, the General Assembly received a petition from residents of Springfield requesting John Barrett (alternatively spelled Barret), justice of the peace of Windsor County be impeached for maladministration.
Barrett's impeachment charges alleged that he had, "excited and encouraged many needless & vexatious Law suits to enhance bills of Costs to the oppression of the People, to the great injury of the Common Weal and against the Peace and dignity of the freemen of the State of Vermont.
"[7] One accusation that Bradley made was that Barrett had issued a judgement in a case that he knew had already been settled by its parties.
[2] On June 11, 1785, the Governor and Council found Barrett guilty of maladministration, suspending him from office for six months and ordering him to pay the expenses of the prosecution.
Additionally, Barret acknowledged that he owed fifty pounds of the debt to the State Treasurer to pay for the expenses of the prosecution of his first impeachment trial.
It was additionally ordered by the court of impeachment that Lyon be fined 500 pounds if he failed to comply by delivering the documents.
[2] Similar to Abbot and Martin before him, Vermont General Assembly member Jonathan Fassett was handed an expulsion in an action that was referred to as an "impeachment".
[2][9] The legislature also ordered him to pay the expenses of Rutland County State's Attorney Darius Chipman, who had prosecuted the case against him.
[2] On October 20, 1785, Dr. Nathaniel Gott of Lunenburg filed a petition with the General Assembly requesting that they impeach Justice of Peace Abner Osgood (of Guildhall) for maladministration.
The petition was sent to a committee of the legislature, which on October 27 reported their findings and recommended that Osgood come before the General Assembly at its next session to argue against grounds for impeachment.
On September 7, 1786, Osgood petitioned for the General Assembly to delay such a hearing for another session due to the challenge of travel and limited time he would have to respond.
[2] In 1799, the Council of Censors adopted articles of impeachment against Bennington County High Sheriff William Coley for maladministration.
On February 4, 1976, former judge Don O'Brien was appointed to serve alongside legislative staff member William Russell as co-counsel for the committee's inquiry.
Much of the inquiry was conducted in closed session "in order to protect the sheriff and to prevent the premature hearing of the case by the Senate".
[16] A petition sent by Matthew Lyon was received by Council of Censors on October 11, 1792 calling for Rutland County Assistant Judge Lemuel Chipman to be impeached for maladministration.
[17] In December 1979, a grand jury approved an indictment of Orleans County State's Attorney Leroy Null.
[18] House Appropriations Committee Chair Henry Carse expressed concern that the impeachment proceedings might complicate budget plans for Orleans County funding, so on January 22, 1980, the resolution was ordered to lay "on the table" until after the House first passed a supplemental appropriation bill.
With the House disinterested in conducting a costly and lengthy impeachment inquiry, on February 15, 1980 it voted to withdraw the resolution.
20 was passed ordering that the House Judiciary Committee conduct an impeachment inquiry, citing reasonable grounds to believe that Kroger had committed impeachable acts including perjury under oath and had made false allegations of wrongdoing against another county officer.
[19] Despite the lack of further impeachment action in the legislature, the matter continued to develop, as in October 1996 a four-member majority on the Judicial Conduct Board judged that "certain public statements made by [Kroger] were false, deceptive, and/or misleading."
The matter was then referred to the state's Supreme Court, and in March 1997 Kroger took a leave of absence from her office.
The investigation into John Lavoie is focused on allegations of workplace harassment that include having made racist and sexist remarks to employees.
