The Orange County Court House in Chelsea on Thursday, August 22. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger
The Orange County Sheriff’s Department no longer guards the doors of the Orange County Courthouse in Chelsea. That responsibility now belongs to the Windsor County Sheriff’s Department.
And while state judicial officials have been mum on why, emails obtained through a public records request reveal part of the backstory, showing courthouse staff grew frustrated with a deputy sheriff’s early departures and alleged conduct toward two people who did not speak English.
In a July 24 email, Samantha Spinella, Orange County’s court operations manager, wrote to Vermont Judiciary staff and Orange County Sheriff’s Department Captain Lenny Zenonos that two men who did not speak English had come into the courthouse after 4 p.m. asking about a hearing they missed.
“(The deputy), who was at the front door said he had to leave due to family emergency and left me here with the two men,” she wrote. “These guys seemed very nice, but I don’t know them, they are from Connecticut and there was no one else in the building or around outside even. (The deputy) only had to wait a few more minutes and they would have been gone. I was honestly shocked, and I’m pretty upset.”
Spinella mentioned a previous instance in which the same deputy sought to leave less than an hour early, but she stopped him from doing so, noting he was the “only officer with a gun.”
The next day, Spinella wrote again. “I wanted to check in because (the same deputy) is the front door officer again today and my staff and I are all in agreement that the confidence in his ability to protect any of us or take our protection seriously is completely non- existent at this point.”
Spinella also claimed that the deputy had “asked … two gentlemen what their immigration status is” and left the courthouse, leaving herself alone with the two men she mentioned the day prior.
“Staff is at the point where they don’t feel like they are safe and they are demanding results,” she wrote.
With limited exceptions, asking a person’s immigration status violates Vermont’s fair and impartial policing policy.
The deputy sheriff’s first name is found in the records. Neither the Orange County Sheriff’s Department nor the Vermont Criminal Justice Council would confirm the full name of the deputy, though the council did note that two people by the same first name work at the sheriff’s department. VTDigger was not able to confirm the deputy’s identity.
Asked about the events precipitating the contract change, Teri Corsones, the state court administrator, declined to comment, noting that the court’s contract with the Orange County sheriff had expired before the Windsor County Sheriff’s Department took over this summer.
Spinella did not directly respond to interview requests, and through Corsones, she declined to comment.
In recent years, the Orange County Sheriff’s Department has undergone substantial upheaval. Two years ago, Sheriff George Contois was elected to replace the former sheriff, Bill Bohnyak. That change in leadership proved messy and sparked a mass exodus of staff.
After taking office, Contois publicly bemoaned the woeful finances he inherited, and a company mandated to audit the department’s books later bowed out after discovering fiscal disarray.
On the topic of the court contract, Contois, in an interview last week, called the loss “collateral damage.”
While he refused to name the deputy, he said the deputy “denies … adamantly” that he asked anyone their immigration status. Contois also said that the officer received a call about a “family emergency” but still stayed at the courthouse “long after he was supposed to leave.”
According to Contois, there is an active “Act 56 investigation” into the officer, referencing the law that governs mandatory investigations into alleged police misconduct. The deputy remains employed, Contois said, and has his “complete confidence.”
Contois did agree to pass on a message to the deputy in question requesting comment, which was not returned.
His department would have had the contract renewed, Contois argued, but the judiciary decided otherwise at the last minute.
“After this fracas, (the judiciary) removed my name from the (security) contract,” he said. “They simply took one side of the story … I don’t think it was fair.”
Financially, though, the sheriff said the loss wasn’t much of a hit. The contract paid two full-time deputies, according to the White River Valley Herald, totaling $221,540.
The Orange County department maintains patrol contracts in Orange, Washington, Corinth, Williamstown and Strafford, Contois said, and continues to fulfill civil service obligations and fingerprinting.
Read the story on VTDigger here: After dustup, Orange County sheriff lost the county courthouse security contract.