This story by Mike Donoghue was published by the Other Paper on August 6.
A South Burlington coin and jewelry dealer will not go to prison for committing a lewd act on his 93-year-old, comatose mother-in-law in the final hours before she died two years ago.
Stephen J. Edwards, 72, received a suspended 6-to-12-month prison term in Vermont Superior Court on July 31 and was placed on probation for two years. If Edwards violates his conditions of probation, said Judge Martin Maley, he could be sent to prison.
The sentence was much less severe than some members of the victim’s family expected for Edwards, longtime owner of Vermont Coins and Jewelry in the Blue Mall on Dorset Street.
The case has been a “hot potato,” overseen by five judges in two years. Maley pointed out that jury trials have come to a halt during the COVID-19 pandemic — but could be starting again.
Edwards initially pleaded not guilty to a felony charge of lewd and lascivious conduct on a vulnerable adult in July 2018.
The victim, Marjorie Schumann Haggarty, was on her deathbed at the Burlington Health and Rehab on Pearl Street and was unable to communicate to alert anybody about being molested, police and family have said.
She died about 36 hours after the incident.
Edwards pleaded guilty in February 2019 to a felony sex charge. He could have been sentenced to up to five years in prison.
But Edwards later fired his defense lawyer and retained Stowe lawyer Chandler Matson. Edwards maintained there was nothing sexual about the act he committed. The defense team hired a psychiatrist and a psychologist who said, after interviewing Edwards, they thought the act was never sexual in nature.
Matson never filed the two full assessments with the court after Judge Sam Hoar said they would be public documents.
For his sentencing memo, Matson used small segments from both evaluations: a psychiatric report by Dr. Albert Drukteinis of Manchester, N.H., and an assessment by Thomas A. Powell, a Shelburne psychologist.
Deputy State’s Attorney Dana M. DiSano said the prosecution might have difficulty providing evidence for the felony charge that Edwards had become aroused or received gratification from his actions with the dying woman.
As Maley reviewed each element of the crime, he asked Edwards if he acknowledged it. In the end, Maley asked for a plea, and Edwards said “guilty.”
Maley noted it was not an accident, but intentional.
“It’s a word I am having trouble with,” Edwards said. “I’ll say yes.”
Family divided
The high-profile case has split the victim’s family.
Three family members thought prosecutors had turned soft on Edwards. They asked Judge Maley to reject the plea deal.
The victim’s son, David Haggarty, stated the evidence of guilt was great: A nurse walked in on Edwards while committing the lewd act; DNA evidence confirmed Edwards had improper contact with the dying woman; and Edwards confessed to the act in a recorded phone conversation.
Haggarty said his mother was robbed of her dignity. “We shall not forget. He assaulted our mother,” Haggarty said. “She’s the victim, not Mr. Edwards.”
One of the victim’s daughters, Sharon Palady, said she never understood how Edwards could have assaulted her “defenseless mom” on her deathbed.
A third sibling, Martha, who is married to Edwards, has stood by her husband during the two years the case has progressed through court. She claimed her siblings lacked a relationship with their mother, who lived with the Edwards family for a couple of years before being placed in the Burlington facility.
Edwards could have received up to one year in prison and fined $300 for the reduced charge. Maley did not impose a fine.
Maley told Edwards his name will be on the state’s Adult Abuse Registry.
Unlike the Vermont Sex Offender Registry, which taxpayers have free access at any time, the Adult Abuse Registry is fully confidential. The general public is prohibited from checking for names on the state’s abuse registry.
The prosecution and family members said Edwards is on already on probation for repeatedly accepting stolen property at his South Burlington store and failing to properly record the precious metals and other treasures so police could trace them, if stolen.
Read the story on VTDigger here: South Burlington man avoids prison in sex case.
