NORTHFIELD – Residents got their chance to weigh-in on the controversy surrounding Northfield Police Chief John Helfant and the Washington County State’s Attorney’s decision not to take some cases from the chief.
It also was revealed that the Vermont Attorney General’s office sat on the investigation into the chief for over a year and never told Helfant what the outcome was.
At its regular meeting Tuesday night, the Northfield Select Board set time aside to discuss the matter relating to the chief publicly.
K. David Maxwell, chairman of the board, said the board was “walking a fine line” in even having the discussion because this was a personnel matter between the town and Helfant, a town employee. Maxwell said the board met with State’s Attorney Rory Thibault in executive session last week to discuss Helfant.
About 70 people were in virtual attendance for Tuesday’s meeting.
In 2019, Thibault’s office dismissed two drug cases involving Helfant, who was working as an officer in Berlin when the arrests were made. In one of the cases, Helfant said in his affidavit he got consent to search a backpack where drugs were found. But the state’s attorney said the body camera footage didn’t show him getting that consent.
In the second case, Helfant said in the affidavit he had been given consent to search someone and drugs were found in their shoes. Thibault said body-cam footage from that stop appeared to show the defendant revoking that consent, but the shoes were searched anyway. Helfant has since argued he found psychedelic mushrooms, which are illegal to possess in Vermont, on the person before consent was revoked so he didn’t need consent to search at that point because the person was going to be arrested regardless.
Helfant has vehemently denied any wrongdoing in the cases and attributed the perceived consent issues for the first drug case to “a failure of the body cam technology and nothing more.”
Thibault asked Vermont Attorney General T.J. Donovan’s office to investigate the chief’s perceived credibility issues. In November, Donovan’s office said it would not be filing criminal charges against Helfant. But Donovan said he had referred the matter to the Criminal Justice Council for review to see if any sanctions were needed for possible policy violations.
The chief stated at Tuesday’s meeting he was told by the Vermont State Police the investigation had been completed and turned into Donovan’s office in August 2019. He had served more than 28 years with the State Police before retiring and taking a job as a full-time officer in Berlin for a few months in 2018. He was hired as Northfield’s police chief in fall 2018.
“I did not find out the results of their investigation until November of 2020 and I found out from the press. I did not even get a phone call, my lawyer didn’t get a phone call. I found out because the press asked me for a comment,” Helfant said.
It’s unclear why the investigation stagnated for over a year, or why Helfant wasn’t told what the outcome was. A spokesperson from Donovan’s office did not return a request for comment on Wednesday.
In light of the credibility concerns, Thibault has sent the Select Board a letter stating he is ethically and constitutionally bound to disclose the issues with the two drug cases, as well as their dismissal, to defense attorneys in future drug or traffic cases where Helfant might be involved. This disclosure has been labeled by at least one board member as a “scarlet letter” for Helfant and the board has asked Gov. Phil Scott to intervene, though the governor has so far stayed out of the matter.
Thibault also has said he won’t take some cases from the chief, mainly traffic and drug cases Helfant has investigated himself or assisted on, due to the credibility concerns Helfant could cause if a case went to trial.
Much of the discussion Tuesday revolved around Thibault stating his case for why he took the actions he did and Helfant defending himself.
But resident Rowland Brucken wanted to know whether the disclosure would have an adverse impact on the town going forward when it comes to the things like the town’s reputation, the department’s culture and the ability to attract and retain officers.
While some on the board want the disclosure removed, Town Manager Jeff Schulz said it appears Helfant and Thibault will be able to work through this.
“It’s not something that will limit the chief’s ability to continue working as police chief,” Schulz said.
Both Thibault and Helfant said they have come to an understanding and can still work professionally together. Helfant said at the heart of the matter, the disagreement between himself and the state’s attorney is over interpretation of the law. He said both the Vermont and U.S. Supreme Courts often have split decisions so interpreting a law differently isn’t uncommon.
Helfant said in 2019 he started strongly encouraging his offers to get written consent from those they plan to search so there is no question about that.
Resident Lydia Petty said she was glad a conversation about this was happening now, but said she wanted to know why it didn’t take place before the board decided to ask the governor to get involved. She took board members to task for rallying behind the chief and defending Helfant’s character.
“Which I don’t think is really at question. We’re concerned about the implications for our town and our community. We’re concerned about our reputation, our ability to maintain a police force. But I’m concerned about how you, as the Select Board, handled this situation. And I wish that, moving forward, you would invite more public participation when concerns such as this come up. And maybe have more conversations prior to jumping to writing something as dramatic as that letter which I think also affects our reputation in Northfield and how people view us as a community and what kind of place we are,” Petty said.
Maxwell said much of the discussion took place in executive session because Helfant is a town employee. He said the board took the position that it wanted to resolve the matter in a timely fashion and took steps to influence that. He said he was happy with the conversation that took place Tuesday, but the board wasn’t in a position to make any decisions because there is still more review needed.
Some of the concerns residents raised couldn’t be addressed, not only because this is a personnel matter, but because the matter isn’t resolved. The Criminal Justice Council still needs to reach a decision. That decision also is confidential. Schulz wouldn’t say whether the town would announce the decision. He said the town will take the matter “under advisement” and make its own decision at a later date. Helfant declined to comment on whether he would release what the council says, deferring to the board and Schulz.
eric.blaisdell @timesargus.com
