A Superior Court judge on Friday denied a request made by Jason Eaton, the man accused of shooting and wounding three Palestinian and Palestinian-American men in Burlington last year, to replace the public defenders who have been representing him. The judge also denied a separate request by Eaton that he be able to make his case for firing his lawyers in a private court hearing.
A first motion, submitted to the court in May, requested that new counsel be assigned to him. A subsequent filing made in June then requested a private hearing — closed to the prosecution, public and the press — to explain his reasoning.
Doing so in open court would mean “revealing information and communications that would otherwise be protected by attorney-client confidentiality and privilege,” according to the briefing.
State’s Attorney Sarah George objected to the motion for a private hearing, and the weekly newspaper, Seven Days, later filed its own objection to the request.
During a hearing to address the motions on Friday, Eaton’s attorneys, Peggy Jansch and Sarah Varty with the Chittenden County Public Defender’s Office, told the court that the privileged information in question was not about defense strategy, but was “information that was revealed during the investigation, and questions that were asked during the investigation that Mr. Eaton takes issue with.”
“What I can say is that Mr Eaton feels that our actions in the investigation are not in his best interest,” Varty said. She later added that Eaton feels that their “behavior, reaction or inaction” to things related to Eaton’s medical conditions has been inappropriate.
“There are lots of details and nuances to Mr. Eaton’s position as to why he needs a new counsel,” she said.
Superior Court Judge Kevin Griffin, during the hearing in Burlington, called the request to hold the hearing in private “extraordinary,” and said that there was “no legal support that I think is adequate to support the motion.”
Griffin also appeared hesitant to grant Eaton’s motion for new counsel and ultimately denied that motion.
“I have appointed two of the most experienced criminal defense attorneys in this county to represent your interests, and unless I hear anything further, that’s where it’s going to stand,” he said to Eaton during the hearing. “I have a hard time seeing how this won’t repeat itself with the next attorney and the next attorney.”
Eaton then addressed the court himself and asked that, in light of the judge’s “unwillingness” to grant the motion, that he be able to represent himself.
“You can certainly file motions,” Griffin said. “But I’m not doing that on the fly.”
Eaton replied, “I don’t understand your bureaucracy but whatever you say, sir. We will proceed as you dictate.”
Reading from a document, Eaton then said that his “ability to pay should not be a factor in the quality of my defense.”
He continued that the “excessive” workload of his counsel and the significance of his charges make “replacement” of his attorney’s justified as evidenced by the number of clients assigned to Varty and Jansch.
Eaton, 48, has been accused of shooting and wounding three Palestinian and Palestinian-American men — Hisham Awartani, Kinnan Abdalhamid and Tahseen Aliahmad, all 20 years old at the time of the shooting.
The three attended high school together in the West Bank and now attend different colleges in the United States but had been visiting one of their families in Burlington for Thanksgiving during break.
They were walking on Prospect Street in Burlington on the evening of Nov. 25, speaking a mix of Arabic and English and wearing keffiyehs, a traditional scarf that is a symbol of Palestinian identity, when Eaton approached them from a nearby porch and shot all three.
Eaton pleaded not guilty to three counts of attempted murder. He has been held without bail at the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans since his arrest soon after the shooting.
Many have called for the act to be prosecuted as a hate crime, but Chittenden County State’s Attorney Sarah George has previously said her team did not have enough evidence to add that charge. The issue was not discussed at Friday’s court hearing.