Newport
Kibbe, 31, intends to take a plea deal on Monday in Sullivan Superior Court and plead guilty to two misdemeanors: one count of unsworn falsification and one count of obstructing government administration, according to court documents.
The plea agreement calls for a capped sentence of up to 90 days in the house of corrections, so the prosecution and defense will argue for a sentence length ranging from zero to 90 days, according to email correspondence in his case file in the Newport courthouse.
Kibbe, a Springfield, Vt., resident, is scheduled to enter his plea on Monday but will be sentenced at a later date.
Kibbe’s case remains scheduled for jury selection, but Assistant Attorney General Geoff Ward called that “common … if for whatever reason, that plea did not go through.”
Kibbe’s attorney, Eric Wilson, declined to comment on the case.
The former police sergeant pleaded not guilty in May to a total of six charges, including felony counts of conspiracy to commit perjury and attempted perjury, and two counts each of misdemeanor unsworn falsification and obstructing government administration.
Kibbe is accused of lying in official reports about how he discovered weapons during a search of a felon’s bedroom in Claremont in February.
The felony counts allege Kibbe falsely claimed in an affidavit that he’d found the weapons “in plain view” during the search. Prosecutors assert Kibbe unlawfully opened a suitcase and bag to uncover a baton and a handgun.
After the search, a state police officer who was with Kibbe, as well as Claremont officer Mark Burch, spoke up about the allegedly botched search.
Burch, who also has resigned from the Claremont police department, talked to investigators under a proffer agreement. He told them that Kibbe unlawfully seized items from Christopher Ratcliffe’s room and that he and Kibbe then went back to the station and falsified their reports, according to court documents.
That information then was used to charge Ratcliffe.
Burch, who had been with the department for less than a year, hasn’t been charged. Ward said he couldn’t comment on what the implications of Kibbe’s expected plea could mean for Burch.
In September, Kibbe lost a bid to have his two most serious charges thrown out.
Kibbe was the Claremont police officer who shot and killed Cody LaFont inside LaFont’s home in 2016, an act that the Attorney General’s Office ruled legally justified.
Following Kibbe’s criminal charges, the Attorney General’s Office reopened the LaFont case.
Ward, the assistant attorney general, said on Wednesday that the review still is ongoing.
Kibbe’s plea hearing is scheduled for 8:30 a.m. on Monday.
Jordan Cuddemi can be reached at jcuddemi@vnews.com or 603-727-3248.