Updated at 6:09 p.m.
A Vermont defense attorney has filed emergency motions seeking the release of two clients held at the Northern State Correctional Facility, the site of the state’s largest-yet Covid-19 prison outbreak.
David Sleigh, a St. Johnsbury attorney, said Monday that he has submitted separate filings on behalf of two prisoners for their “immediate” release from the Newport prison, where a total of 136 inmates and 12 staff members have been infected with the coronavirus.
In one of the motions, Sleigh argued that his client could suffer “immediate and irreparable harm” in a facility overrun by the virus.
“Due to the highly infectious nature of COVID-19 and the improbability of proper social distancing protocols in a prison facility,” Sleigh wrote, “it is reasonable to believe that the number of infected persons will grow with additional testing.”
In making his case, Sleigh cited the words of interim Corrections Commissioner James Baker, who in a press release last week said the facility was “being treated as a hospital.”
Orleans County State’s Attorney Jennifer Barrett said in an email Monday that her office had not filed a written response to the motions. She added that the court had scheduled a hearing Wednesday morning to take up “all the cases.” Asked in a follow-up email how many cases there were, Barrett did not immediately reply.
The Department of Corrections announced Monday that six more inmates and two more staff at the Newport prison tested positive for the virus during testing conducted last Thursday. That’s on top of the 130 inmates and 10 staff who had previously tested positive.
Rachel Feldman, a spokesperson for the department, said Monday that her colleagues were encouraged that the number of infections was not higher. She said the department was doing what it could to prevent further spread of the virus within the prison’s walls.
Twenty Newport inmates who had previously tested positive have since been released from medical isolation, according to Feldman. No inmates or staff are currently hospitalized for Covid-19-related reasons, she said.
Sleigh’s filings may be the first of many from defense attorneys seeking their clients’ release from the Newport prison.
Vermont Defender General Matthew Valerio said Monday he believed that public defenders and defense attorneys contracted with his office had filed such motions, or were looking to file them, though he wasn’t sure how many had already been filed.
“We put out guidance to our staff attorneys and contractors and they have to deal with them on a case-by-case basis,” Valerio said. “I think there should be some number, more than five but less than 200.”
He added, “People in the field, the staff attorneys, have to do an analysis about whether or not it applies appropriately to their case.”
According to the corrections department’s website, the Newport prison currently houses 240 sentenced individuals and 79 detainees.
One of the motions filed by Sleigh, the St. Johnsbury attorney, was brought on behalf of Mark Beezup, a former Vermont State Police trooper who resigned in 2011. Beezup is currently being held without bail in Newport for allegedly violating the conditions of his probation. He had previous convictions stemming from a sex case.
He is also being held on $50,000 bail on charges of first-degree aggravated domestic assault with a weapon, prohibited firearm possession, and false Information to law enforcement to implicate another.
According to Sleigh’s filing, Beezup is 63 years old. That places him “in a higher-risk group for serious illness, potentially requiring hospitalization, placement on a ventilator, and death,” according to the motion.
Beezup has been detained since August 2020.
Sleigh is asking a judge to strike bail and the hold-without-bail order and to “order immediate release” of his client.
Read the story on VTDigger here: Attorney seeks inmates’ release as Covid cases rise in Newport prison.