St. Albans
“No more continuances,” Superior Court Judge Robert Mello admonished the state’s attorneys and McAllisters defense attorneys at a hearing Friday. The case was previously scheduled for jury draw next Tuesday, but both sides agreed to the delay citing difficulty scheduling depositions.
McAllister still faces additional charges for alleged sexual abuse of a woman who was living and working on the senator’s Highgate farm, as well as charges that he solicited sex from that woman’s former mother in-law.
Mello granted a motion from McAllister’s defense attorney to have those charges heard at a separate trial that will occur sometime after the June trial, though no date was scheduled at the hearing Friday.
In total, McAllister faces three counts of sexual assault and three counts of a prohibited act. The former are felonies, which carry a maximum sentence of life in prison and up to $25,000 in fines.
The state’s charges broadly allege that McAllister coerced the woman working on his farm, and another woman who worked on the farm and as a paid intern in Montpelier, into unwanted sex in exchange for employment and housing.
Investigators first became aware of McAllisetr’s alleged sexual abuses when the mother-in-law approached state police telling them that McAllister was trying to extort sex from her in exchange for her son’s portion of rent on a trailer he was sharing with his ex-wife.
McAllister was arrested outside the Statehouse last year at almost exactly this time. He faced pressure from Franklin County residents and fellow Republicans to resign. When McAllister refused, the Senate stripped him of his committee assignments and later took the unprecedented action of suspending him.
McAllister has maintained his innocence, even denying having sex with one of the alleged victims, an assertion his defense attorney Brooks McArthur has said he won’t make at trial. McArthur has said he will argue that the sex his client had with the alleged victims was consensual.
The senator has said he’s still considering running for reelection, and said he is likely to make a final decision just before the May 26 candidate filing deadline. McAllister did not return a request for comment.
Deputy Franklin County State’s Attorney Diane Wheeler did not object Friday to having two separate trials. Wheeler told reporters after the hearing that McAllister’s motion was “legally warranted,” meaning statute gives him the right to have the charges heard separately.
Wheeler said her office has no intention of dropping charges related to McAllister soliciting the mother-in-law. The mother-in-law died last May. Wheeler said her office has not made a final decision as to whether it will file additional charges.
The alleged victim who lived and worked on McAllister’s farm states in a civil lawsuit that McAllister coerced her into sex with another man who paid McAllister for the sex. Her civil suit is on hold until the criminal charges are settled.
McAllister had sought recently to have the woman evicted from the trailer on his property that she’d lived in since December 2012. McArthur said Friday that the woman had since moved out-of-state. Wheeler said she’s still in contact with the alleged victim, but could not confirm that she’d moved.