BRATTLEBORO — A judge has sentenced a former Vermont State Police trooper to 30 days in prison and six years of probation for lewd and lascivious conduct with a minor.
Todd Chisholm, 59, was originally charged with repeatedly sexually assaulting a child under the age of 16 in the Windham County town of Vernon some two decades ago, just after he left the police job he held for 13 years.
But under an agreement accepted in Windham Superior Court on Wednesday, Chisholm pleaded guilty to the lesser charge and received a sentence — four to five years in jail, with all but 30 days suspended — that was much shorter than the potential maximum of life imprisonment if convicted on the original counts.
“I don’t think that justice is being served completely,” the victim, now an adult, said in brief remarks to Judge John Treadwell.
But Deputy State’s Attorney David Gartenstein noted the agreement would spare the victim from having to testify publicly about the crime’s specifics.
“When survivors of sexual abuse come forward, punishment is not really what’s foremost in their minds,” Gartenstein said. “She wanted to make sure that other people were safe.”
The lawyer said although the prison sentence was short, it came with “a substantial period of supervision” through probation.
“Would we have liked more jail time or a conviction on a different offense?” Gartenstein said. “Yes, for sure. But in the end, it’s fair to say this is the most stringent consequence the parties were able to negotiate without the need for a trial.”
The judge said that although the sentence was a compromise, it offered all parties “resolution.”
Despite her brief appearance Wednesday, the victim is not identified in court papers. In an affidavit, she told authorities that she met Chisholm when he was associated with a family member of hers, sometime between 1998 and 1999. She said she was about to turn 10 when he started initiating sexual contact.
The victim said Chisholm told her “it had to be their secret,” the affidavit said. She reported her story to authorities shortly before turning 27 in 2019.
Chisholm, who went on to move to Massachusetts, was a Vermont state trooper from February 1988 to September 2001, according to police. Before he was handcuffed and taken to jail, he offered a one-sentence statement.
“My sincerest apologies,” he said, “to the victim, to her mother, to my family and this court.”
Read the story on VTDigger here: Ex-state trooper receives 30 days in prison for sexual conduct with a child.