The dairy farm of Sen. Norman McAllister, R-Franklin, on the Highgate-Franklin line. File photo by John Herrick/VTDigger
ST. ALBANS — One of the women Sen. Norm McAllister has been charged with sexually assaulting, whom the senator is trying to evict from a mobile home on his farm property, is countersuing to halt the eviction and seek damages.
McAllister, a Franklin County Republican who is suspended from the Senate, faces a criminal case alleging he coerced two women into unwanted sex over a period of several years. He has pleaded not guilty and is expected to go to trial in May.
The tenant in the mobile home filed a civil suit in September seeking damages for what she says were years of abusive sexual encounters with McAllister. A judge granted McAllister a stay in those proceedings until the criminal charges are resolved.
Then on Feb. 12 McAllister sued in Franklin County court to have the woman evicted. McAllister says the woman and her ex-husband, who has been living with her periodically since she moved there in 2013, never paid rent. The woman’s September lawsuit, however, contends that McAllister paid her $300 a month for work on his farm but kept half that as rent.
And now the woman has countersued, calling the eviction illegal because McAllister allegedly interrupted or terminated utility service, including water, to the home. The countersuit also accuses McAllister, as does the civil complaint, of human trafficking involving the woman.
The woman’s attorneys in the civil proceedings declined to comment Monday. They are seeking a jury trial as well as damages similar to those sought in the September lawsuit.
Norm McAllister. File photo by Jasper Craven/VTDigger
In an interview Monday, McAllister said he was unaware of the woman’s latest filing and denied interfering with utility service to the mobile home. He said he first learned of the situation when he was contacted last week by state police who asked if he shut the water off at the home.
The officers told him he needed to make sure the water was working, McAllister said, so he went with a witness to a storage barn on the property where a heated pump brings water to the mobile home.
McAllister said unbeknownst to him the ex-husband was using the storage barn as a garage and must have plugged something in that threw the circuit breaker.
“It was a matter of just resetting the breaker and the pump came right on,” McAllister said.
McAllister also denied the trafficking allegations. He struck the same tone Monday that rang through in a Seven Days report from October, when McAllister said he felt victimized by the public nature of the accusations against him.
He referred Monday to the human trafficking allegations as “crap” being peddled by his accuser. McAllister has said previously that the allegations of sexual assault materialized after he began to seek rent from the woman and her ex-husband.
The ex-husband’s mother, who has since died, was the first to go to police, accusing McAllister of seeking to have sex with her to cover her son’s portion of the rent. That led police to a third alleged victim, who worked as an intern for McAllister in the Statehouse.
“I’m not going to talk about (the human trafficking allegations). If that was true, the state would have kept the charges I would think. They didn’t,” McAllister said.
State police initially sought to bring a human trafficking charge against McAllister, but the Franklin County state’s attorney later dropped it. The state police affidavit forming the basis of the criminal complaint makes reference to a scheme by which the woman would have sex with farmworkers to make extra money.
After McAllister’s arraignment in May, State’s Attorney Jim Hughes said his office considered bringing human trafficking charges as well. Hughes said then that “the behaviors could have potentially been charged, but it really did not fit the spirit of the law.”
The criminal affidavit suggests that McAllister and the woman never executed the prostitution plan, but the lawsuit she filed in September says McAllister coerced her into having sex with a stranger who paid McAllister.
In a conversation between McAllister and the woman that state police recorded and included in the criminal affidavit, he also referred to her having had sex with a stranger as the two discussed the nascent prostitution scheme.
Franklin County Deputy State’s Attorney Diane Wheeler, who is handling the McAllister case, did not respond to inquiries Monday as to whether law enforcement is investigating the man who allegedly paid McAllister for sex with the woman or if the state is still considering human trafficking charges.
McAllister sounded like a politician Monday, slamming the media for reporting details from the civil and criminal complaints against him, which he described as half-truths or outright lies.
He said his lawyer in the eviction proceeding, Richard Gadbois, of Enosburg Falls, had told him the case likely would take four to six months to be resolved. McAllister said that’s because the courts in Franklin County are on a “shoestring” budget and the flood of child custody proceedings in family court driven by the opiate epidemic must take precedence.
McAllister accused his fellow lawmakers of underfunding the judiciary and thereby exacerbating the problems in the county he represents.
Asked if he planned to run for re-election, McAllister said he was unsure, adding, “I’ve taken almost enough abuse for a while.” Still, he said there are still constituents urging him to run and he would have to consider that. McAllister said he would likely wait until “the last minute” before the May 26 candidate filing deadline before making a final decision.
McAllister said it would be nice to have his legal troubles resolved before starting a campaign but acknowledged that’s unlikely. He said he still expects to be cleared of any wrongdoing at his criminal trial.
“I think when 11 (sic) of my peers see the facts and what’s gone on, and they know the type of people they’re dealing with, then, yeah, I’m confident,” he said.
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