St. Albans, Vt.
After a jury was seated in January for the former lawmaker’s trial on the second of two sets of unrelated charges, McAllister agreed to plead no contest to reduced charges.
Those carried a maximum sentence of seven years and would have required that he register as a sex offender.
The state had dropped the charges in the earlier trial after McAllister’s accuser perjured herself on a minor detail unrelated to the sexual assault allegations.
The trial that was scheduled to begin in January centered on accusations that McAllister repeatedly sexually assaulted a woman who was living in a trailer on his Highgate, Vt., farm.
Prosecutors described it as a sex-for-rent scheme.
The day after he entered the plea deal, reports emerged that McAllister was looking to back out. He then fired his defense team, hired new counsel and submitted his motion to withdraw his plea.
“We’re obviously happy with the court’s decision, and Mr. McAllister’s ability to have a trial in this case,” said Bob Katims, McAllister’s new attorney.
Katims said he hadn’t spoken with McAllister yet, because the ruling had just been released, but he added, “I’m sure he’ll be delighted.”
Deputy Franklin County State’s Attorney Diane Wheeler, who has handled the McAllister case, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In his Thursday ruling, Franklin County Superior Court Judge Martin Maley wrote, citing precedent, that the courts are to treat “motions to withdraw before sentence with great librality.”
Appellate courts have established that a motion to withdraw a plea must be for “fair and just” cause based on several factors. First, whether the defendant has asserted his innocence, which McAllister has throughout his case — even as he entered the no contest plea, Maley wrote.
A no contest plea is not an admission of guilt, but rather an acknowledgment that if the chargers were heard at trial the state may be able to prove its case.
The elapsed time after entering a plea is also a factor, Maley wrote, and McAllister took steps quickly to withdraw from his deal with the state.
Also at issue is whether McAllister received competent counsel from his defense team. McAllister’s previous attorneys, Brooks McArthur and David Williams, were called to testify in hearings on the motion to withdraw.
Both denied pressuring McAllister to accept the deal but said they advised him that they believed, given the evidence against him, that a plea deal was his best option.
McArthur, during his testimony, described a taped conversation between McAllister and his accuser in this second trial as “devastating” to his former client’s defense.
Maley wrote that McAllister “had the full benefit of competent counsel at all times. However, even the most competent counsel is useless to a defendant who, for whatever reason, does not comprehend the advice given or information relayed.”