McAllister guilty of prohibited acts, acquitted of sex assault

Elizabeth Murray
Burlington Free Press

 

ST. ALBANS - A jury of seven men and five women late Friday found former Vermont Sen. Norman McAllister guilty of one count of prohibited acts and acquitted him of another count of prohibited acts and sex assault.

The jury delivered the verdict shortly before 10 p.m. after two days of trial testimony and about four hours of deliberation.

Former staye Sen. Norm McAllister speaks with his attorney Bob Katims during a brief break on the third day of his trial after Katims made a motion for mistrial in Vermont Superior Court in St. Albans Friday morning, July 14, 2017. Judge Martin Maley denied the motion.

 

Outside the courthouse, McAllister said he was a little disappointed that the jury didn't acquit him on all three charges.

"I'm awfully glad that I got to tell my side," he said. "Obviously they believed most of it. ... I feel pretty well vindicated."

His lawyer, Bob Katims, said the defense plans to file an appeal of the guilty verdict. 

"We think there were several errors," he said. "We'll take what we got today. We're happy. I'm happy for Mr. McAllister, and we'll go home and get some sleep."

 

The charge on which McAllister was convicted states that he arranged with a friend to have sexual relations with his accuser for money. The money was used to pay the woman's electric bill. It was a misdemeanor and he could get up to one year in prison. McAllister originally faced up to life in prison.

Franklin County Deputy States Attorneys John Lavoie and Diane Wheeler declined comment on the verdict as they left the courthouse Friday night.

McAllister, 65, of Highgate Center, has maintained he is innocent. 

McAllister's son, who was also present for the verdict, said he knows his father is innocent. Heath McAllister appeared angry after the verdict was read, but his father tried to calm him down. Outside the courthouse, Heath McAllister said he was happy his father stuck with the case and withdrew from the plea agreement in January. 

Former lawmaker Norm McAllister waits for a question from the jury during their deliberations Friday night, July 14, 2017, at Vermont Superior Court in St. Albans.

 

"The system is broken," he said. "There's a reason that a lot of people take plea deals and get forced into things. I believe the state knows that. They will drag it out, they will hammer it out. There's a lot bigger real issues out there to deal with, and they chose this one. I think they chose wrong." 

He added, "I know the man. He talked like a pig, I said that before. It was an error in judgement there, but that was as deep as it went. He was taken advantage of as much as anything." 

Katims has argued that the relationship between his client and the female accuser was consensual. He said the woman lied about the level of consent in the relationship to avoid retaliation by her abusive ex-husband. 

State prosecutors say the former lawmaker solicited sex from the woman, who worked on his farm, in exchange for rent. 

Earlier in the day, McAllister took the stand explaining a consensual relationship he said he had with his female farmhand. Testimony by both McAllister and his son Heath McAllister disputed the woman's allegations. 

On Thursday, the woman had given her account of what she said was a more than two year sexual relationship. She said the sexual relationship was implied to be part of the deal when she was hired as a farmhand in 2012, and that he initiated that relationship when she came to the farm for an interview. She also described three phone calls that she had with Norman McAllister prior to coming in for an interview.

RELATED COVERAGE:

The Burlington Free Press does not identify people who say they are victims of sex crimes without their permission. The woman, now 42, has declined to give permission.

    'Just two needy people'

    Norman McAllister said he only spoke to the woman on the phone once before hiring her when she responded to a Craigslist ad. He also testified that he never was alone with the woman while she visited the home for the interview. He said the woman brought her infant child with her to the interview. 

    Heath McAllister testified that he took the woman down to the barn to see how she did milking goats. By the end of the interview, Heath McAllister determined the woman was not experienced enough, but that she could be trained. 

    The woman was eventually hired and allowed to live in the trailer on Norman McAllister's property, as long as she paid for utilities.

    Norman McAllister said that for much of the initial time the woman lived at the farm, he was in Montpelier in the Legislature. In the summer of 2013, his wife became sick, and he said most of his time was spent at the hospital. 

    Former lawmaker Norm McAllister enters Vermont Superior Court in St. Albans on Friday morning, July 14, 2017, for the third day of his trial.

     

    According to Norman McAllister, the sexual relationship with the woman did not begin until after Christmas 2013, after his wife died. He said she initiated the relationship when he was still mourning. 

    "After a little while, I said I didn't feel comfortable," Norman McAllister said of the first encounter. He said they continued to sit and talk, and the woman asked him, "Is this something you'd maybe like to pursue." 

    "I said, 'Maybe,'" Norman McAllister said.

    Norman McAllister said their relationship began to develop in the following weeks, but that they had trouble with trying to make it work while he was at the Legislature. Unlike the woman's testimony where she said Norman McAllister would typically seek her out, Norman McAllister testified that they would mutually look to initiate sexual relations.

    "It was going pretty good," Norman McAllister said. "We had a kind of closeness, but I guess we had an understanding that we didn't think it was love. It was just two needy people."

    The former lawmaker said that at some point, distance began to grow between the two of them. However, he said there was still nothing in her words or actions until they ended the relationship later in 2014 that would lead him to believe she didn't want to engage in a sexual contact.

    Norm McAllister's attorney Bob Katims briefly talks with Franklin County Deputy State's Attorney John Lavoie before Judge Martin Maley ruled, for a second time, on a motion for mistrial by the defense on Friday morning, July 14, 2017. The motion was denied.

    The relationship ultimately ended when Norman McAllister said he discovered the woman had been lying to him about her ex-husband's true identity. The ex-husband had been a frequent visitor to the farm and even did some work for Norman McAllister. 

    During cross-examination, the state was allowed to introduce allegations from one of the other accusers, who has since died. The woman had accused Norman McAllister of propositioning her to secure housing for her son in 2015. Her son is the ex-husband of the woman at the center of the second trial. A judge had initially barred the state from introducing this evidence, but the state argued successfully to include it on Friday. 

    Prosecutors have said Norman McAllister had told the mother-in-law about his relationship with the alleged victim when she balked at his proposition. Norman McAllister denied this during questioning by the prosecutors.

    Denying all allegations

    At one point in 2013, Norman McAllister said the woman was having trouble paying her electric bill. They had discussed a few weeks earlier an article he had seen where a person was arrested in a case where a prostitute was being brought around a farm of migrant workers. He said the woman asked him if he'd be willing to take her around to other farms. 

    "I said, 'It doesn't seem like a very good idea,'" McAllister said. "I told her, 'That's not something I would even consider doing.'"

    McAllister also denied arranging with the woman to have sex with a friend for money to pay off her electric bill. 

    The defense played for the jury for the third time an audio recording of a conversation between McAllister and the woman in which they discuss their relationship. The Vermont State Police obtained a search warrant to record the conversation without McAllister's knowledge. The state has said the audio recording proves the three charges that have been brought against McAllister. 

     

    Katims walked McAllister through the recording and allowed the defendant to respond. McAllister states he was confused through much of the conversation since he said they had not had sex for almost a year. He said he also was not familiar with one of the sexual terms the woman used, but Franklin County Deputy State's Attorney John Lavoie said McAllister did not try to clarify it.

    "I was trying to remember what she was talking about," he said.

    Later in the conversation, it shows that he had a sexual encounter with the woman about a week prior. 

    "I had let my guard down and done that with her one more time," McAllister said on the stand.

    This is the second of two trials against McAllister as he was originally accused by two other women. The charges related to those other women have been dismissed. 

    A first trial last year ended in dismissal after the woman who said she was assaulted lied on the stand while being questioned about an issue unrelated to her allegations against the lawmaker. McAllister had been accused of forcing the woman, who had served as an intern for him at the Statehouse, into sex acts at his home farm where she also worked.

    A charge related to the second woman, who died early in the case, was also dismissed.

    McAllister was originally arrested outside the Statehouse in May 2015. He remains free on bail. 

    Contact Elizabeth Murray at 651-4835 or emurray@freepressmedia.com. Follow her on Twitter at @LizMurrayBFP.