Grand Isle Sheriff goes into the community to find jurors.

By Mike Donoghue

NORTH HERO – The Grand Isle County Sheriff’s Department had to circulate in the community to find enough potential people Thursday to fill out the jury for the upcoming assault trial for Franklin County Sheriff John Grismore.

Judge Sam Hoar Jr. directed Sheriff Ray Allen to go out into the highways of Grand Isle County on Thursday afternoon to find more local residents to help fill the jury box after running out of people.

Grand Isle County State’s Attorney Doug DiSabito, defense lawyer Robert Kaplan and the judge either excused or objected to several potential jurors for assorted reasons as jury selection began in the morning.

Many the potential jurors were aware of the high-profile assault charge against Grismore, who also faced an impeachment attempt in the Vermont Legislature.

Allen said Hoar gave him about 5 minutes of instructions and the sheriff, along with a deputy sheriff went out in front of the courthouse on U.S. 2 and began stopping motor vehicles.  They were directed to bring in 12 to 18 persons to fill the shortfall.

Allen said over the course of a half hour 16 county residents were directed into the courthouse. The people had to meet certain standards, including being U.S. citizens, at least 18 years old and be residents of the county, Allen said.

The longtime sheriff said it was the first time he had to do the task.  Failure to respond to the directive can net a fine of up to $200.

Grismore has pleaded not guilty in Vermont Superior Court to a misdemeanor charge of simple assault after he used a foot to kick or shove an intoxicated, uncooperative and cursing prisoner to take a seat at the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office in August 2022, records show.

By late Thursday afternoon a jury was in place.  The trial is planned for up to three days starting July 22 at the historic courthouse in North Hero.

This marked at least the second time in the past year that not enough people responded to their jury summons in Grand Isle County.

Failure to appear for jury selection can lead to the presiding judge finding the absent person in contempt of court.  However little, and mostly never, is done about people who ignore a state summons, a citation or many court orders in Vermont.

The case began when two Franklin County deputies were asked by the mother of Jeremy Barrows, then 42 of Winooski to remove him from her residence because he was disruptive, records show.  Grismore had stopped into the office on the Sunday afternoon to do some administrative work when he said he saw Barrows out of control. Grismore later put a spit guard over the head of the prisoner to protect the two arresting deputies.

Grismore, who was the department’s chief deputy at the time, was fired by retiring Sheriff Roger Langevin after a short internal investigation. Grismore won both the Democratic and Republican Primary Elections. He later refused calls by some party leaders to forego the nominations and was overwhelmingly elected by county voters in the General Election in November 2022.

After nearly 11 months by the Vermont legislature, efforts to try to impeach Grismore fizzled. A special 7-member House investigative committee, which held most of its hearings behind closed doors, eventually said last April it lacked adequate evidence to act and noted the prisoner incident happened before Grismore was sworn in as county sheriff in Feb. 1, 2023.

Grismore agreed to testify before the House Committee, but only if it was done in open session. The sheriff said he agreed with the Vermont Press Association, Vermont Association of Broadcasters and others supporting transparency that had argued earlier for a public process.

Grismore later urged the two primary leaders of the House Impeachment Committee to resign from the legislature: Reps. Martin LaLonde, D-South Burlington, chair of the House Judiciary, and Rep. Michael McCarthy, D-St. Albans, chair of the House Government Operations Committee.

Preliminary estimates for the nearly year-long impeachment effort was put at $1 million for taxpayers.

The incident was captured on a department security camera at the office on Lake Road in St. Albans Town.

The Vermont Criminal Justice voted 15-1 last December to permanently revoke Grismore’s law enforcement certification for using excessive force. It did not rule on the assault claim. While Grismore is prohibited from carrying out any certified law enforcement duties, the sheriff is still the chief administrator of the department, including overseeing contracts with county towns.

Seven of the 14 elected sheriffs also had asked him to step down, but Grismore said he would fight until the end.

Grismore asked that the trial be moved out of Franklin County and it landed in Grand Isle County, where DiSabito, who was specially assigned, is the elected prosecutor. Grismore, who has said he has strong support in his home community, asked in March for reconsideration to have it moved back to Franklin County, but the judge rejected the move.