WEST LEBANON — In Ludlow, Vt., where Ryan Palmer worked for five years before being elected Windsor County sheriff, Palmer faced three internal investigations for complaints about his behavior, records recently obtained by the Valley News show.
Ludlow was the last town to respond to Valley News requests for employment records after Palmer was charged with multiple felonies last month, though Ludlow officials withheld documents, such as annual performance evaluations, that other Palmer employers made public.
Even before he was hired in Ludlow in 2017, records show, Palmer’s law enforcement career in the Upper Valley was plagued by internal investigations, suspensions, resignations and termination during his employment with the Claremont, Canaan and Windsor police departments.
Palmer now faces calls for his resignation as sheriff and has had his law enforcement credentials suspended after being charged with sexual misconduct last month.
He pleaded not guilty to a felony count of lewd and lascivious conduct and two misdemeanor counts of soliciting prostitution, two felony counts of obstruction of justice and two felony counts of aggravated stalking with a deadly weapon.
Palmer has stepped down from day-to-day operations of the sheriff’s department but he has not resigned. He was elected to a four-year term in 2022.
Attempts to reach Palmer and his attorney, Daniel Sedon, for this report were unsuccessful.
The most serious allegation in Ludlow is detailed in a sworn affidavit from July 2023 by a woman, whose name and address were redacted by the town. The woman lodged a complaint against Palmer and the Town of Ludlow, asserting claims of battery, violation of her person, kidnapping, unlawful search and seizure, obstructing her liberty to travel freely, inflicting trauma caused from fear of harm and/or rape, post traumatic stress and deprivation of rights.
In the sworn affidavit, the woman said that on an evening in May 2022 she was driving in Rutland County when a vehicle that had been following her pulled up next to her.
“I was terribly frightened as I noticed that the vehicle was not from the town or even county I was traveling in,” she said. “Given that I was in a darkening remote area, I was afraid.”
While searching for a safe place to stop, she began trembling as the car kept following her, she said.
“The vehicle, whose driver I have come to understand is a Ludlow police officer named Ryan Palmer, continued to follow me north/west on VT route 103, through Mount Holly, Cuttingsville, East Wallingford, through to the city of Rutland,” she said.
“I felt like I was being stalked by Palmer,” she said.
When she stopped her vehicle at a red light, she “heard yelling outside (her) driver’s side” and “Mr. Palmer was pointing a gun at (her) head,” the affidavit said.
Then, Palmer “violently” opened her door and was “grabbing at (her) body,” dragging her out of the car and onto the road, she said.
“Mr. Palmer physically overpowered me,” she said, adding that during the alleged “attack” she was never told what she did wrong.
Vermont State Police subsequently responded and “one of three state police officers … assisted Palmer” in handcuffing her, she said. She alleged that Palmer refused to give her his badge number when she asked before being “shoved” to the back of his vehicle.
She said she pleaded to state police “that if I were to be forced to go somewhere, it be with the state police instead of Mr. Palmer.”
Palmer subsequently brought her to the “Rutland State Police building,” the complaint stated.
“After I was in the cell for what felt like an hour, Mr. Palmer came in and read the Miranda (rights),” she said. “I noted at the time to Mr. Palmer that reading these now was too late.”
Concluding her sworn affidavit, the woman asserted that “Mr. Palmer’s action violated my rights, obstructed my liberties, inflicted trauma and bodily injury and continue(s) to affect my mental health. I suffer from PTSD, loss of sleep and my ability to care for my disabled child has been significantly impaired as a result of Mr. Palmer’s violent behavior.”
She further requested “an internal and/or criminal investigation into his actions be taken immediately and I hereby provide notice that I will be seeking additional RELIEF in the form of $12,500,000 in damages for pain, suffering, ongoing trauma and the inability to care for my daughter.”
Despite pulling the woman over in Rutland County, Palmer cited her to appear in Windsor Superior Court on the citation he signed, which was obtained by the Valley News. “Rutland” is written on the slip as the location of the incident. The offense is unclear on the slip but the words “elude” and “resisting arrest” are legible.
The woman wrote, in a letter addressed to the court in White River Junction provided by Luldow police without a date, that she attended court on her assigned court date but the clerk was unable to find her name on the day’s docket.
The Ludlow Police Department provided no further documentation about the incident.
The person who hired Palmer, former Ludlow Chief Jeffrey Billings, retired in 2025 after over 30 years in law enforcement. Billings declined to be interviewed in an email last week.
Adam Silverman, spokesperson for the Vermont State Police, did not respond to requests for information about Vermont State Police involvement in the Rutland incident.
A way back in
During his campaign for Windsor County Sheriff in 2022, Palmer said that he had applied to “a bunch of places” after returning to Vermont in 2017, but the Ludlow, Vt., police department was the only agency that gave him a chance. Billings hired Palmer in October 2017.
Palmer’s hiring came just months after he was acquitted at trial on charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and reckless endangerment stemming from his time as a Windsor police officer.
Palmer left the Windsor police force in summer 2016 and had spent time working in private security in Kentucky before returning home.
In Ludlow, he worked as an officer on the third shift. He resigned in January 2023, shortly before taking office as Windsor County sheriff.
In response to a Valley News public records request, Ludlow police withheld “performance evaluations from July 2019, July 2020, July 2021, and June 2022.”
By comparison, Claremont and Canaan police provided performance evaluations on Palmer in response to public records requests. The records revealed poor performance.
Ludlow Municipal Manager Penny Wu did not respond to a request for an interview.
Chief took Palmer’s side
In Ludlow, Palmer faced two other internal investigations.
In July 2021, Billings sent Palmer a letter of reprimand concerning “inappropriate use of language” to a dispatcher from a police department, the name of which has been redacted from the letter.
The department took no further disciplinary action against Palmer, the letter said.
A December 2022 complaint alleged that Palmer had used his police powers to help a female friend avoid a DWI by warning her that Vermont State Police were on the lookout for her.
In January 2023, based on statements taken from both Palmer and the woman in question, Billings found “no evidence” to support the claims of the complainant, whose name was redacted.
Billings’ conclusion on the matter was further reinforced by speaking with the complainant over the phone, he wrote in the letter.
In response to a public records request, Ludlow police provided Palmer’s statement and heavily redacted call and text logs between him and the woman. In his statement, Palmer said he was off-duty and told the woman to call 911 to help her with a domestic situation.