RUTLAND — The long-running case of the former attorney for the city of Rutland convicted and sentenced in a fatal hit-and-run crash more than four years ago was back before a judge Tuesday, with his lawyer laying the groundwork for his latest bid to get out jail.
The focus of Christopher Sullivan’s most recent challenge is the decision of his attorney at trial not to call an expert accident reconstructionist to the stand and to rebut evidence presented by prosecutors.
“That really is the premiere claim,” Seth Lipshultz, an attorney with the state’s Prisoners’ Rights Office who is now representing Sullivan, said during a hearing in Rutland County Superior Court.
Lipshultz, taking part in the hearing by telephone, told Judge Samuel Hoar Jr. he had contacted an accident reconstruction firm, Crash Lab Inc. of Hampton, New Hampshire.
That company, the attorney said, requested quite a bit of information regarding his client’s 2004 Lexus 330, the sedan Sullivan was driving when he struck and killed Jane Outslay, 71, of Mendon in April 2013 as she tried to cross Strongs Avenue in downtown Rutland.
The accident reconstruction firm also wanted to know, Lipshultz said, if the vehicle was “still available,” and “what condition it was in.”
Hoar issued an order, which prosecutor Ultan Doyle did not object to on Tuesday, compelling the Vermont State Police within the next 60 days to turn over to Lipshultz any information they have related to Sullivan’s vehicle.
Should that accident reconstructionist firm find differences from what the state presented at trial, “Then we’ve got something,” Lipshultz said.
The judge then talked to the parties about scheduling the next hearing in the case.
“When should we calendar this to keep everybody’s feet to the fire?” he asked.
Both attorneys agreed to setting the next hearing in about six months.
Sullivan is serving a 4- to 10-year sentence at the Springfield prison, and has already completed more than half of that minimum. His minimum release date is Aug. 5, 2019.
Sullivan was convicted in 2015 of drunken driving and leaving the scene of a fatal crash.
According to court records, Sullivan fled the crash scene in downtown Rutland, driving away in his Lexus, and didn’t tell police until a day later that he was behind the wheel of the vehicle that struck and killed Outslay as she left a restaurant and was crossing a street to get to a car.
Since Sullivan’s arrest, the case has been heavily litigated. What seemed like a victory for Sullivan before the Vermont Supreme Court in April 2017 turned out not to change much of anything for him in the case.
The high court vacated Sullivan’s sentence and ordered a new hearing. Judge Theresa DiMauro held that hearing a few months later and imposed exactly the same sentence.
The Supreme Court, in its ruling, said Sullivan should have been allowed more time to hire and present expert testimony at his original sentencing hearing. At the new sentencing hearing, a clinical psychologist did testify on Sullivan’s behalf, but failed to change the judge’s opinion.
On Tuesday, a hearing was held on Sullivan’s request for post-conviction relief, a civil process that involves challenges to actions that take place in state criminal courts at the trial level.
The civil relief action in Sullivan’s case takes aim at his convictions and the actions of attorney Barry Griffith, who represented him at that time.
Lipshultz, Sullivan’s attorney, said in court that in addition to the matter regarding accident reconstruction, other areas he is exploring to pursue include whether experts should have been called by Griffith during the trial regarding his client’s level of intoxication at the time of the crash as well as his psychological state.
Sullivan did not attend the hearing Tuesday in Rutland. He had served as either the city attorney or deputy city attorney in Rutland for nearly two decades.
Read the story on VTDigger here: Ex-city attorney challenges fatal hit-and-run ruling.