The state of Vermont has agreed to a $400,000 settlement with a New Hampshire woman and her child in her lawsuit alleging that if state police had done their job she would not have been kidnapped or sexually assaulted by a man who fled from a drug treatment facility.
In a release issued Friday afternoon, Adam Silverman, Vermont State Police spokesperson, wrote that the state agreed to a settlement totaling $400,000, with $300,000 going to the woman Everett Simpson is charged with kidnapping and assaulting, and $100,000 to her child.
The state, according to the release, is not admitting wrongdoing in reaching the settlement.
The lawsuit filed in March in Chittenden County Superior Court in Burlington, named both the state of Vermont as well as OAS LLC, the parent company of the Valley Vista substance abuse treatment center, as defendants, as well as 10 other unnamed parties, or “John Does,” including employees of the facility and state troopers.
The lawsuit claims the defendants were negligent in their actions, or lack of actions.
Before the kidnapping, Simpson had been facing criminal charges in Vermont related to a car chase case. He was released from state custody on Jan. 3 after posting $3,000 bail and ordered to attend the Valley Vista treatment facility.
According to court records, Simpson left the Bradford treatment center on Jan. 4. The next day, according to police, he was at the Mall of New Hampshire in Manchester where he kidnapped the woman and her young son, pushing them into their car.
Then, court records state, Simpson drove them to a motel in White River Junction where he sexually assaulted the 23-year-old woman. Simpson then fled to Pennsylvania where he was arrested after crashing a second car that police say he stole.
State police later acknowledged that “additional steps should have been taken” in pursuit of Simpson, such as seeking a warrant for his arrest or alerting the public immediately after receiving notice that he left Valley Vista.
The status of the lawsuit’s claims against Valley Vista was not immediately known Friday.
The state was represented in the case by the Vermont Attorney General’s Office. The woman and her child were represented by the law firm Shaheen & Gordon of New Hampshire.
“The past couple months have not been easy, but the most important thing is we made it out alive, and my son was not physically harmed,” Celia Roessler of New Hampshire said in a statement when filing her lawsuit.
VTDigger generally does not identify alleged victims of sexual assault, but Roessler has come forward to speak publicly.
State and federal criminal charges are currently pending against Simpson, who is locked up while those cases are awaiting trial.
This story will be updated.
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