JURY: MCALLISTER GUILTY OF ONE MISDEMEANOR, NOT GUILTY OF FELONY
By Gregory J. Lamoureux
ST. ALBANS: A jury concluded on Friday that former Vermont Senator Norm McAllister is guilty of promoting prostitution, but not guilty of exchanging sex for rent or sexually assaulting his tenant.
In a saga that has been playing out in the Franklin County Court System for more than two years now with six charges, including two felonies, McAllister has been exonerated on five of the six counts.
After the two and a half days long trial, which surprisingly included testimony from McAllister himself, the jury sided mostly with McAllister.
With opening arguments on Wednesday afternoon, the State outlined a case of manipulation on the part of McAllister, saying that he used housing for his alleged victim as means of exchanging sexual favors.
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Defense attorney Robert Katims denied that view of the case and said that McAllister was a lonely man who was looking for a relationship which only started months after the alleged victim moved into the mobil home tenement housing, located on the farm, and after McAllister’s late wife passed away.
Thursday morning the accuser, a woman in her 40’s, took the stand to tell her side of the story, a graphic representation of trust and betrayal that, according to her, lead to McAllister sexually assaulting her on at least one occasion.
She also told of a sexual relationship that began from the first time they met, at an interview as a milker on his goat farm.
According to Norm McAllister’s son though, Norm was not with the woman alone that day.
Instead, it was Heath McAllister that spent much of the time with the woman during the initial day on the farm, which consisted of milking and taking care of the goats for the evening, Heath McAllister testified.
The woman also told the jury about a time which she says her electricity power was going to be turned off for failing to pay the bill. She went down the road to see McAllister and beg for money to pay the outstanding balance of about $70, she said.
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According to her testimony, McAllister gave her the money and later organized for a man to have sex with her to pay it back.
McAllister denied that accusation, on the stand Friday, when he testified in his defense.
According to McAllister, the two were sitting down at his kitchen table talking when she noticed a St. Albans Messenger on the table. On the front page was a story about a man that had been arrested for transporting women to farms to have sex with migrant farm workers.
McAllister said that it was her idea to do the same thing to pay back her debt, however, her testimony conflicted with that.
McAllister’s attorney cross examined the woman on the stand, asking her about prior cases in which she was caught lying on the stand or in sworn statements to police, including a time that her husband was in jail for a domestic assault that she later told police never happened.
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That is likely the testimony that provided enough reasonable doubt to the jury that led to the not guilty charges.
Heath McAllister told the court that he confronted his father a few months after his mother’s death, asking why the woman was spending so much time at the house. Norm initially told his son that she was just helping out, but eventually told him that they were having a relationship, according to Heath’s testimony.
The County Courier has opted to leave out the most graphic parts of the testimony.
Norm and the woman told drastically different stories about the alleged sexual assault encounter. McAllister said it was consensual; she said “It didn’t feel consensual.”
According to testimony from both McAllister and the woman, McAllister showed up at the mobil home that she was residing in, around 7 am to ask her to do some farm work. She answered the door in a nightgown and during the conversation let the gown swing open and invited him inside for a morning fling.
He followed her down the trailer’s hallway to the bedroom where they proceeded to have a sexual encounter, which the woman said went farther than she ever wanted it to and that some aspects of it were not consensual.
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In closing arguments, the State made their case clear, that McAllister was a man seeking a sexual relationship with his tenant in exchange for rent, and that relationship led to sexual assault when she did not want to do things the way he did.
The defense closed with arguments that McAllister was the victim in this situation, saying that the accuser was looking for money in a civil case and she took advantage of him to do so.
“It just doesn’t make sense,” Defense attorney Bob Katims told the jury, “If she was raped, do you think she would continue to live just up the road from her rapist for another two years, in housing provided by her rapist?”
Ultimately, the jury decided there was enough evidence for a guilty verdict on the prostitution charge that alleged McAllister arranged for another man to have sex with her in exchange for money that would repay her electric bill, but there was not enough evidence to overcome the presumption of innocence in the sex for rent or sexual assault charges.
Prosecutor John Lavoie left the courthouse uncharacteristically quiet, saying only “no comment” to the media as he walked to his vehicle.
McAllister, though just being convicted of a misdemeanor appeared just the opposite saying, “It’s been an awfully long road and a long day, I’m awfully glad that I got to tell my side.”
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McAllister faces up to one year in prison or up to a $100 fine on the conviction charge, though the defense says that he will file an appeal on that conviction.
A one year sentence is highly unlikely as the court can only use the conviction as evidence towards a sentence. They won’t be able to use the accusations that never got a conviction to seek greater jail time.
“I’m very glad about my legal representation,” McAllister said, likely putting a jab in at the lawyers that he had fired midway through the court process.
Heath McAllister spoke with the media after the verdict was announced about his disgust of the legal system.
“The system is broken,” Heath said on the courthouse steps, “There’s a reason that a lot of people take plea deals and get forced into things and I believe that the state knows it. They will drag it out and hammer it out. There’re a lot bigger real issues out there to deal with and they chose this one. And I think they chose wrong, and obviously so did 12 jurors.
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