White River Junction
Benjamin LaBelle, through his attorney, filed two motions with the court shortly after the April 22, 2015, verdict, including a motion for acquittal and a motion for a new trial.
Windsor Superior Court Judge Karen Carroll in September denied the defense’s motion for acquittal, but granted LaBelle a new trial on the basis that the lead prosecutor erred during his closing arguments.
LaBelle’s new trial was slated to start later this month, but Windsor County Deputy State’s Attorney Heidi Remick on Tuesday dismissed the felonious aggravated sexual assault charge, the same charge a jury convicted him of last year.
In a phone interview on Wednesday, Remick said she was left with little choice. The alleged victim and her mother, both of whom testified during the first trial, didn’t want to testify and go through the process again.
“Where I can, I really try to respect that,” Remick said. “Sometimes you can work out some other kind of deal, but sometimes you can’t, and this was a case where we couldn’t.”
“We are weighing what is the emotional harm to the child of doing that process against the need to prevail at trial,” she added.
The 34-year-old LaBelle had been lodged at Southern State Correctional Facility in Springfield, Vt., since his 2012 arrest. He was released from jail this week; he faced up to life in prison if convicted.
His attorney, David Scherr, said by phone on Wednesday that he and his client were ready to prove his innocence at trial. Now they don’t have to.
“He has maintained his innocence from the beginning,” said Scherr, who grew up in Norwich and is running for a Vermont Senate seat in Chittenden County. “We think that this is a fair outcome.”
Attempts on Wednesday to reach LaBelle were unsuccessful.
LaBelle was alleged to have drugged the young girl and inappropriately touched her at a Hartford home in 2009. The girl, who was preschool-aged at the time of the alleged assault, was known to LaBelle.
As a general practice, the Valley News doesn’t identify the victims of alleged sex crimes.
According to court documents filed in Windsor Superior Court, Carroll sided with the defense’s argument that then-Windsor County State’s Attorney Michael Kainen, who now is a judge, interjected his personal opinion during his closing arguments at the April 2015 trial, which could have tainted the jury.
During Kainen’s closing arguments, he provided a rebuttal to Scherr’s closing remarks and also spoke to LaBelle’s alleged guilt. Scherr told the jury that the state made a mistake by charging LaBelle.
“I try to do justice. I try not to prosecute people I think might be innocent. I don’t think the evidence that was presented to you in this trial causes me to change my mind. I will submit to you again Benjamin LaBelle is a guilty man … He’s guilty of aggravated sexual assault,” Kainen said during the trial.
In her decision, Carroll said Kainen’s statements were “problematic.”
“… The court finds it likely that these statements could reasonably have impacted the jury’s decision making,” she wrote. “The court concludes that the prosecutor’s statements in closing arguments deprived (the) defendant of his right to a fair trial and this requires a new trial.”
Carroll wrote that she could have given the jury corrective instructions regarding Kainen’s remarks, but said the defense didn’t object to his comments at the time, so no instructions were given.
According to a 2012 police affidavit, the victim first came forward in 2009, but authorities didn’t have enough evidence to pursue the case until 2012.
LaBelle previously was convicted in 2000 of prohibited sex acts with a victim under the age of 16, according to the affidavit. In that case, he was sentenced to nine to 12 months, all suspended, but was put on probation.
Jordan Cuddemi can be reached at jcuddemi@vnews.com or 603-727-3248.
Correction
Vermont prosecutors this week dropped their case against a Lyme man who had been charged with sexually assaulting a young girl. A headline in an earlier version of this story incorrectly described the criminal procedure in the case.