localmatters
Rutland, Orleans Prosecutors Face Challenges From Their Deputies B y m ar k d av i s
14 STATE OF THE ARTS
SEVEN DAYS
07.09.14-07.16.14
SEVENDAYSvt.com
T
hough they hold elected office, Marc Brierre and Alan Franklin could be forgiven for not seeing themselves as politicians. They are the state’s attorneys in Rutland and Orleans counties, respectively, holding positions that rarely generate vigorous contests and usually provide incumbents a job until they no longer want it. Not this year. Of Vermont’s 14 counties, seven will see battles for state’s attorney, either in the August primary or the November general election. Former senator Vince Illuzzi, who has held that job in Essex County since 1998, has a primary challenger. The state’s attorneys in Bennington, Grand Isle and Washington counties are also facing opponents, and two lawyers are vying to replace the retiring Joel Page in Lamoille County. “That is unusual,” said Robert Sand, a former Windsor County state’s attorney who never faced a contest during 15 years in office. “Long-term incumbents tend not to have strong challengers. That always surprised me: how state’s attorneys elections tended to fly under the radar, given that we make thousands of decisions a year that have a profound impact on people’s lives.” The most bitterly contested races are in Orleans and Rutland counties, where Franklin and Brierre are facing challenges from people they assumed were on their side — their own deputies. In Rutland County, Brierre fired Deputy State’s Attorney Rosemary Kennedy one day after she held a press conference announcing she was seeking his job. In Orleans County, Deputy State’s Attorney James Lillicrap remains on the payroll. Why is he challenging his boss, Alan Franklin? “Alan is a great person to go out and have a beer with,” said Lillicrap. “The criticisms I have were not involving Alan as a person. They involve Alan as a state’s attorney.” Before he faces Lillicrap in November, Franklin first has to survive a primary challenge from his former clerk, Jennifer Barrett. Both Kennedy and Barrett appear to have won the backing of key law-enforcement officials, and neither is hesitating to throw verbal grenades at their old bosses. They are fighting for a key post that is often poorly understood by voters
Politics
Top Row: Marc Brierre, Ben Luna, Alan Franklin and Rosemary Kennedy Bottom Row: Jennifer Barrett and James Lillicrap
— many of whom, prosecutors say, don’t even realize the position is elected. State’s attorneys serve four-year terms and have no boss, wielding complete autonomy to file or dismiss charges brought to them by police. They effectively control how criminal laws are applied in their county, which can result in a patchwork approach to how criminals are treated in Vermont. In recent years, some state’s attorneys have introduced alternative-treatment programs for repeat drug offenders, deciding to forgo criminal prosecutions and
send defendants to treatment; others have taken a more traditional punitive approach. The office can launch a prosecutor to a more prominent role. Patrick Leahy went straight from the Chittenden County state’s attorney’s office to the U.S. Senate, and T.J. Donovan, who currently holds Leahy’s old job, is viewed in political circles as a future candidate for higher office. But they are the exceptions. Most state’s attorneys aren’t well known — even inside their counties
— and their names rarely appear in the news. Many, such as Brierre and Franklin, are apolitical lawyers who view the gig as the pinnacle of their careers. Brierre started working as a deputy state’s attorney in Rutland County in 1983. When his boss, Jim Mongeon, retired in 2009, thengovernor Jim Douglas appointed Brierre to serve the remainder of Mongeon’s term. Brierre won his own four-year term in 2010 and settled into a job from which he would like to retire one day. But now he’s fighting with Kennedy, a Democrat. She is a Rutland resident who worked as a deputy prosecutor in Chittenden County for several years before Brierre hired her in 2013. She has criticized Brierre, a Republican, for not collaborating closely enough with law enforcement, including in community initiatives such as Project Vision, an alliance of government, nonprofits and citizens dedicated to beating back a surge of drug crimes and related problems in Rutland. “I think the state’s attorney’s office needs to be strong in the courtroom and outside the courtroom,” Kennedy said. Kennedy appears to have won some pivotal allies. Rutland Mayor Chris Louras introduced her at the press conference announcing her candidacy, and Rutland’s widely respected police chief, Jim Baker, sat in the crowd. Neither has formally endorsed Kennedy’s candidacy. Only days before her announcement, a jury returned a not-guilty verdict against a woman charged with attempting to murder a Rutland police officer — one of the highest-profile cases Brierre has ever handled. Jennifer Berube crept behind an officer in the booking room with a twoinch knife and flung her arms around his neck before she was disarmed. The officer suffered a small cut to his neck. The incident was captured on a video that was shown to the jury. At the conclusion of the trial, both Louras and Baker voiced frustration with the verdict, while Berube’s attorney has said that Brierre overreached