WEST LEBANON — Windsor County Sheriff Ryan Palmer has long had a side hustle as a DJ, where he goes by the name DJ RPP, even after becoming sheriff.
It was through one of his gigs that he met one of the victims of his alleged sex crimes, according to the affidavit in support of sexual misconduct charges filed against him in late January.
Palmer now faces nine felony and misdemeanor charges related to sexual misconduct. Those charges stem from an investigation into Palmer’s conduct that began after police received complaints about economic malfeasance within the department, Vermont State Police have said.
Now bank statements recently obtained by the Valley News through a public records request shed some light on the sheriff department’s spending under Palmer.
State investigators have not yet come forward with criminal charges related to finances, but the financial records reviewed by the Valley News, which date to the beginning of Palmer’s tenure in January 2023, show patterns of questionable spending that ended immediately upon Palmer’s arrest this January.
Among the expenses the Windsor County Sheriff’s Department paid was a recurring monthly charge from 2024 to 2025 for $17.99 for “EPIDEMIC SOUND AB STOCKHOLM SE,” a Sweden-based music and sound effects platform, the bank statements indicate.
But the music subscription was minor compared to other unexplained expenses. The bank statements show payments for Amazon deliveries, hotels, food and flowers, as well as cash and check payments directly to Palmer himself.
In addition to the state police investigation, there are other indications of financial concerns about the sheriff’s department under Palmer. An audit of the department’s books is required by the state every two years.
But from the period of July 1, 2024 through June 30, 2025, a report could not be completed due to “difficulties encountered in performing the audit,” according to a letter from the accounting firm performing the audit to Palmer in late March. The difficulties included figures which were “unsupported” or “not traceable to documentation,” including over $500,000 across balances of accounts receivable, capital asset inventory, payroll and non-payroll, according to the letter.
Efforts to reach Adam Silverman, spokesperson for Vermont State Police, on State Police’s financial investigation were unsuccessful last week. In late March, he stated that the investigation was still ongoing.
Efforts to reach Palmer and his attorney Daniel Sedon were unsuccessful.
In January, Palmer pleaded not guilty to two felony counts of obstruction of justice, two felony counts of aggravated stalking with a deadly weapon, a felony count of lewd and lascivious conduct and two misdemeanor counts of soliciting prostitution.
Since then Palmer has remained in office — his four-year term ends early next year — but he has delegated the department’s management to Chief Deputy Claude Weyant while the court case plays out.
When asked about the department’s finances, Weyant said he could not explain the roughly $100,000 shelled out on Amazon, restaurants, stores, hotels and checks from the department to Palmer over three years. Weyant said his previous role in the department was as captain handling scheduling and civil process duties.
Amazon
Before Palmer’s arrest and going back to when he took office at the beginning of 2023, bank records show the department spent more than $30,000 on Amazon.
Since Palmer’s January arrest, the department has spent $47 on Amazon, bank statements from February 2023 to March 2026 obtained by the Valley News show.
The expense was for a cruiser computer charger, Weyant said last Friday.
When asked about department spending such as the $30,000 on Amazon and over $5,000 at Best Buy and Staples under Palmer’s leadership, Windsor County Clerk Pepper Tepperman said last week that those expenses were paid for by the department and were “totally separate” from county funds already allocated for office supplies, equipment and training for the department.
Windsor County allocated over $30,000 of county money in office supplies, computers, repair, training and equipment for the sheriff’s department for fiscal year 2023 and 2024.
For fiscal year 2025 and 2026, county funds for the department’s office supply closet and training expenses reached over $50,000.
Food, hotels and flowers
Under Palmer, the department spent over $40,000 on restaurants, grocery and retail stores and hotels from the Upper Valley to Cape Cod, Mass., Washington D.C., Louisville, K.Y. and San Diego.
Monthly restaurant expenditures during Palmer’s three-year tenure included Pizza Chef, Gusanoz, Jesse’s Steakhouse, Windsor Station, Longhorn, Big Fatty’s BBQ, the Windsor Diner, Frazer’s Place, McDonald’s and Domino’s.
Financial records also show numerous expenditures on restaurants in Louisville, K.Y., from Jimmy Johns to McDonalds to Mexican food to BBQ.
Charges in Louisville, from January 2025 through May 2025, also include over $400 at “U OF LOUISVILLE BKST,” over $700 at Best Buy and Staples, over $200 at “HIGHLAND CLEANERS,” and over $200 at “LOUISVILLE SLUGGER.”
Other expenditures outside Windsor County include: Over $900 for the Marriott Peabody Boston, over $800 at the Chatham Bars Inn and the “CHATHAM SQUIR” in Cape Cod, over $500 at the FBI Retail Store in Quantico, V.A. and the Capital Grille in Washington D.C., over $1,000 in hotel, restaurant and rental car costs in San Diego.
Financial records also show charges for hotels more locally, including hundreds of dollars at the Comfort Inn in White River Junction, the Woodstock Inn and Resort and the Village Inn in Woodstock.
Charges to the department also include a couple hundred dollars at the Fairbanks Inn in St. Johnsbury, over $500 at the Travelodge in Brattleboro, and over $1,000 at the Essex Resort and Spa in Essex Junction.
The department spent several thousand dollars at Price Chopper, BJ’s Wholesale, Dollar General, Mac’s Market and the Village Butcher.
Other charges include over $900 at Kohls, over $1,800 on eBay, over $200 on “FORGET-ME-NOT FLOWERS” and “STARLUCK FLOWERS,” over $100 at “JOHN P LARKIN COUNTRY WINDSOR” and “KILLINGTON GOLF,” over $100 at recreation.gov, over $8,000 at “AA COINS AND PINS WINTER PARK FL,” over $5,000 at pens.com, and over $2,000 at “UPPER VALLEY ENDODONTI WHITE RIVER J VT.”
Cash and checks
Financial records also show over a thousand dollars in ATM withdrawals, including $600 in withdrawals in December 2025, when the department’s Mascoma account, which is made up of revenue from town contracts, state funding and civil process and is used for paying salaries and benefits along with recurring bills for venders of supplies, equipment and technology, plummeted to a balance of -$80,000.
That same month, over $400 at Best Buy, over $600 at Staples, $1,600 at Walmart and $721 at Gusanoz are posted on the department’s bank statement.
Checks from the department to Palmer, who is paid a state salary of $100,000 annually, amounted to over $20,000 with memos such as “reimbursement” and “petty cash.”
In January 2025, the department wrote Palmer a check for $6,000 with a memo that reads “admin fee.”
In October 2025, Palmer received a $12,500 check from the department. The memo reads “5% commission.”
Vermont law states that sheriffs are entitled to up to 5% of their town contract revenue. The sheriff’s department currently provides patrolling services to over a dozen towns across Windsor and Orange counties.
“Annually, the sheriff shall submit to the assistant judges for filing with the county clerk a report of all written contracts, categorized by the contracting party, services rendered, date of contract, and amount received,” state law says.
However, for the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2025, Tepperman said that Windsor County only has records of three signed contracts with the Vermont towns of Reading, Barnard and Strafford, the Valley News previously reported.
This fiscal year, July 1 2025 through June 30 2026, officials from multiple towns said the department had been invoicing them for services without a signed contract since July.
Palmer is scheduled to be back in court Friday at 1 p.m. in Rutland on the new charges of lewd and lascivious conduct and solicitation of prostitution, Vermont State Police announced last week.
