WOODSTOCK — A Windsor County Sheriff’s deputy who had been placed on leave after a domestic assault allegation will be returning to duty following dismissal of the charge.
State prosecutors filed notice to drop two misdemeanor charges against Windsor County Deputy Sheriff Kristinnah Adams on Dec. 10, the day before a jury was scheduled to be selected in Windsor County Superior Court in Woodstock, according to court documents.
Adams had been charged with domestic assault and interference with access to emergency services following an alleged incident at her White River Junction residence in June.
Adams, 41, a longtime Upper Valley law enforcement officer, had pleaded not guilty and denied any wrongdoing.
Prosecutors did not provide a reason in the dismissal notice as to why they decided to drop the charges. But Elisabeth Fainberg, Windham County deputy state’s attorney, said that the state “reached an out-of-court settlement with the defendant in this case.”
“We reached this agreement through conferring with the victim of record and seeking that individual’s input. Given the information and evidence available to the state, we are confident that the resolution is in the interests of justice, and in the best interest of the victim and those involved,” Fainberg said via email to the Valley News on Thursday.
(The case was being handled out of Windham County to avoid conflicts among parties in Windsor County where Adams has worked with prosecutors in criminal cases).
The out-of-court settlement is not subject to public disclosure, Fainberg said.
Adams’ attorney, Michael Shane, said via email that “this case involves sensitive and private family matters that are better left private. Kristinnah committed no crime and she looks forward to moving on with her life and career.”
Windsor County Sheriff Ryan Palmer said that Adams will be returning to duty as a deputy and that no restrictions have been placed on the work she will be allowed to do.
“We investigated this matter internally and found no basis for the allegations,” Palmer said on Thursday, declining to discuss details of the investigation because it was a personnel issue.
According to a police affidavit filed in support of the charges, Adams attempted forcefully to take away a phone from a juvenile in an incident involving physical contact on the evening of June 11 at her residence in White River Junction. Adams also was alleged to have prevented the juvenile from calling 911.
Adams, a 2003 Hartford High School graduate and a former Hartford police officer, has been at the center of policing issues and subject of controversy in the past.
She was one of the officers involved in the arrest of Wayne Burwell in 2010 when police responded to a report of a “burglary in process” at Burwell’s address in Hartford. Burwell was experiencing a medical episode. When he didn’t respond to police, he was beaten with a nightstick, pepper sprayed, handcuffed and hauled off in a blanket.
Vermont’s attorney general subsequently cleared Adams and another officer of criminal wrongdoing. But Burwell filed a civil lawsuit against the town in 2012, alleging excessive use of force and received a $500,000 out-of-court settlement.
Then, in 2020, while an officer in Hartford, Adams was the subject of a “Brady letter” — which requires a prosecuting attorney to notify a defense attorney when a police officer whom the prosecution relied upon in the case may have a credibility issue.
The Brady letter, written by the Windsor County state’s attorney, said that Adams had been “untruthful” in regards to her whereabouts on a recent patrol shift and on another occasion had “made a fictitious illness report for a scheduled work shift.”