A St. Albans police officer punched a handcuffed woman in the face during a March altercation inside a holding cell, police video filed in Franklin County Superior Court shows.
Sgt. Jason Lawton has since been fired, according to St. Albans Police Chief Gary Taylor. The chief said he’s referred the incident to Vermont State Police to review for potential criminal charges.
“I think that his actions in this case are a poor reflection of the values of the people who make up this organization,” Taylor said.
Amy Connelly, 35, of Highgate, was arrested March 14 after she drunkenly ripped a man’s shirt inside Shooters Saloon in St. Albans, and then refused to leave, police documents say. Authorities leveled charges of disorderly conduct and unlawful mischief against Connelly.
She was taken to the St. Albans Police Department. There, she allegedly kicked Lawton in the shin. He charged her with simple assault.
But police video of the incident, captured from different angles and filed in court last Thursday, does not support the assault allegation, according to attorney Albert Fox. Rather, he wrote, in a motion asking the judge to throw out the charges, the footage shows Lawton assaulting Connelly, and represents “an absolute miscarriage of justice and a shameful abandonment of the duty police officers owe the public.”
Here’s a view of what happened from several vantage points of police bodycams and security cameras.
Lawton’s bodycam video shows he was eating dinner with a colleague when he stopped, walked over to Connelly’s holding cell, opened it and told her to stop kicking the door. She was in a holding area the size of a phone booth, with just a small bench.
“No,” she responded and stood up, her arms cuffed behind her.
Lawton shoved her against the wall with his forearm, causing her to cry out.
“Don’t come at me like that,” he said.
“How fucking dare you!” she yelled back. “He has hurt me!” she continued, speaking to another officer.
“Shut up!” Lawton yelled at her.
Connelly then stood up and appeared to raise her leg. Lawton immediately threw her back against the wall and landed an uppercut to her face while she cried and yelled, “Ow!”
“You fucking kicked me!” Lawton said. “That was real stupid, real stupid, OK?” he added, as he and two other officers threw her face-first to the floor outside the cell.
“OK? You understand me?” he said. “So here’s what we’re going to do. Now you’re gonna get an assault charge and now you’re gonna go to jail. Is that clear?”
At one point, Connelly cried and stammered, “Oh my God, you guys … You guys are brutes!”
“Yup, sure. You just tried to take me,” Lawton responded.
“You guys are animals,” Connelly continued through tears, repeating the phrase several times. “Why would you do this? You guys have abused me!”
At one point, Connelly told the officers, “My brother is on the selectboard,” an apparent reference to an official in Highgate, her hometown.
“Who cares? Lawton responded “I’m sure he’d be really proud of you.”
Lawton described the altercation in just a few sentences in his court affidavit, writing that he “delivered a front distraction strike to the right side of her face in an effort to gain control of her. This strike had the desired effect, as it distracted her from her aggressive behavior.”
Lawton’s report indicates that officers “immediately” called EMTs. She was handcuffed to a bar in the cell for about 10 minutes before medics came, the police video showed.
“She was eventually transported to the hospital,” Lawton wrote.
Fox, an attorney with Brattleboro-based Chadwick & Spensley, told Seven Days on Friday that a lawsuit “is on the table,” but that he wants to first focus on the criminal case against Connelly. Fox’s law firm is also representing three brothers and another man who have sued the Burlington Police Department in two cases stemming from separate incidents last September, both alleging excessive force by Queen City cops.
Fox declined to comment further on the St. Albans incident, saying, “The video speaks for itself.”
“I completely stand by the motion and believe that this charge was a miscarriage of justice,” he said, referring to the simple assault case.
In last Thursday’s filing, Fox included photos of Connelly’s blackened eye and a “notice of prior bad acts” about Lawton.
That recounts an incident from 2012, when Lawton served with the Shelburne Police Department. In that case, Lawton pulled a man over for running a red light and issued him a ticket. The driver, Rod MacIver, contested the case in court. Lawton testified under oath that MacIver ran the light, but his dashcam video showed he hadn’t. The judge tossed the case, which made international news. MacIver later sued the department; the case was settled for an undisclosed amount.
Lawton served in Shelburne from March 2011 until September 2014, when he joined the St. Albans department. In January 2018, he and another St. Albans cop opened fire on an armed man, shooting him once. About two months later, Vermont Attorney General T.J. Donovan announced he would not prosecute either cop for their actions.
Seven Days was unable to reach Lawton for comment on Monday.
Taylor, the St. Albans chief, said Lawton “did well” and received honors for his work with the department, including a promotion to sergeant. Taylor said he first heard about the Connelly case when the American Civil Liberties Union of Vermont sent a letter on May 23 requesting footage under the state’s public records law.
When Lt. Benjamin Couture pulled the file, Taylor recounted, “He came back to me and said, ‘I think there’s a problem here. We probably need to take a hard look at this.’”
“I was unhappy,” the chief said, about the video. “I was unpleased. I’ve been doing this a long time and that’s just not acceptable.”
He ordered an internal investigation on June 3 and fired Lawton on July 1.
“And on Friday, through correspondence with the colonel for the Vermont State Police, they’re going to assign a criminal investigator to look into the case,” Taylor said.
Adam Silverman, a state police spokesperson, confirmed Taylor’s account via email. The department is “assigning an investigator to handle the inquiry,” he wrote.
“Once complete, the investigation will be turned over for independent reviews by the offices of the Franklin County state’s attorney and the Vermont attorney general,” Silverman said.
Taylor said he’s also been in touch with the Franklin County State’s Attorney’s Office about the termination and pending criminal cases involving Lawton as a police officer. The state’s attorney, James Hughes, told Seven Days on Monday that his office would likely still prosecute Connelly because “she was already arrested and in custody before this happened, so the facts of her actions were over and done by the time Jason came in on the situation.”
When Seven Days noted that Connelly had been accused of assaulting Lawton during the scuffle, Hughes conceded that the officer’s actions could affect that particular charge.
When asked about Lawton’s traffic case in Shelburne, Hughes said it was the first he’d heard of it.
Despite that, and Lawton’s firing from the St. Albans PD, the state’s attorney said he’d potentially continue to use the former officer as a witness because “nothing with this accusation that led to his dismissal was a lack of truthfulness or a dishonesty situation.
“It was just abuse of power, abuse of force,” Hughes said. “I now have to look into what happened in Shelburne to reassess that position, but until I do that, our plan was still to use him in at least a couple of the upcoming cases that he’s got that look like they might go to trial.”
Hughes said Lawton’s actions were “out of character” with the officer he’d gotten to know. Lawton was a drug-recognition expert who helped get impaired drivers off the roads, Hughes said.
“He seemed to have a good head on his shoulders,” the state’s attorney said. “But I think his temper got the best of him.”
ACLU of Vermont staff attorney Jay Diaz said Monday that he sought the footage after hearing from Connelly. He said he was dismayed that it took his request to expose Lawton’s actions.
“Why didn’t the other officers there put in a complaint? Why wasn’t this known about months earlier?” Diaz said. “Any use of force, especially one that required so many resources, should be reviewed by department leadership.”
Diaz, who has investigated several instances of police brutality, described Lawton’s actions as “abhorrent.”
“I’m glad to see the officer is off the force and, hopefully, he won’t be able to bounce to another location,” Diaz said. “Clearly, his demeanor and the way he acted was so beyond the pale. It was immediately recognizable that this is a person who should not be a police officer.”
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Do you mean to tell me that James Hughes, the same SA who called expungement days for low level drug offenses “circus events,” is acting as an apologist for the cop that punched this woman in the face? SHOCKER!
Did the other officer who was present receive any reprimand?
Lawton should have been charged with perjury in 2013. Here we are and people are still making excuses for his criminal behavior.
If all of the cops were involved in her abuse, the others should be reprimanded as well!! St Albans hasn’t always had the best reputation!!
Most crooked chief of police in the nation. The St. Albans police are also scamming people with the chief towing policies that charge 4 times more the what towing was before he set the rates.
ridiculous- the only officer i know that has any morals these days is officer Mcardy i’m probably not spelling that right! but he’s a saint albans officer, amd someone i would trust with my life!
I heard hes never lost a fight against a woman!!
Hes a real piece of work
How many days does it take for an assault charge against a police officer to get normally filed in court vs when a police officer assaults another citizen? 9 months? A year?? Double standards ?
Cops that think their bad asses because of their badges. The girl was handcuffed what did the sissy think she could really do yo him. They ripped my 16 yr old 4″11 daughter out of the doorway at my mom’s house and threw her on the ground, I sent the officer flying when he did that, he said to me I’ll put you in cuffs next I laughed and told him good luck, he’d be on the ground first. My daughter was arrested on a chomped up assault charge on a 6″3 290lb man. When I got to the police station, I was stopped at the door, I was told only reason why I was allowed in the police station was because I was her only parent. I was asked if there was gonna be a problem so I responded not if you don’t give me one. These cops think their invincible because their cops. Punks with badges are all they are. We should be so honored to have them protecting us.
Just a bad apple
Helped out by totally honest cops who like to beat up women.
This is exactly how most of st.albans pd is. They pulled someone over in my driveway and yelled at me to not be in my own driveway. The cop told me he would arrest me if I didnt go inside and got really aggressive for no reason. Most are arrogant and think they are higher then all other people. Not impressed with most of the department. Some shady stuff going on with the city police, our state officials and judges. Just from my personal experience.
Surprise, surprise! A piece of s**t cop didn’t stop being a piece of s**t because he moved 30 miles north. Needs to be prosecuted.
All police officers should have a family and children. Young officers lack the maturity and compassions to protect the people. They have not experience the hardships of life.
It’s a very hard video to watch. Just imagining my kids are treated like that brings pain to me.
WOW. Theyre so quick to try and pressure everyone else to go along with what the police believe is true about their friends and family for a conviction. Why didnt these so called stand up officers to come forward and say what they witnessed this officer do to this women!! With the job, he should be used to an intoxicated person kicking a damn door . Sickening.
Wow very hard to watch. Things like this infuriate me because I know the majority of police officers are good. It’s cops like this are the reason people lash out and not trust the police. I would love to see this ex-cop on the street. No worries though I’m sure he’ll just move on again to a different department and hide behind his badge. And his prior bad acts, how did St. Albans PD miss this in the hiring process? Or are they just that desperate for officers? Maybe it’s time for Chief Taylor to resign. And yes by all means lets hand Lawsons case over to the Franklin County Prosecutor who just praised him for all his work with the PD. “But I think his temper got the best of him”? Really now Jim Hughes? You think so? You should be trying to distance yourself from him instead of praising him and continue to using him in upcoming cases. Jim Hughes has made some serious mistakes in judgement these last couple of years, maybe it’s time he retire too. For years now Franklin County has been falling into the abyss, with a bad reputation. Glad I moved out of there years ago.
I am shocked to see Sasha Goldstein putting his name to an article that isn’t a pro-cop propaganda piece. It appears the St. Albans PD do not enjoy the cozy relationship with Seven Days that the Burlington department does.
Can’t imagine how it can be as bad as all these comments & this story suggests and the people haven’t exercised their authority to simply shut down and disband the entire department. No need to file & prosecute complaints, try to get individual officers fired & fight the Police Union for years on end, assemble the people of St. Albans, declare the department to be destructive to your liberty and shut the whole place down. Send the rest of the “public officials” with them if need be. Lots of other towns across the nation have done this.
Where are the female officers? What difference did it make if she kicked the door of the cell? She was handcuffed and locked in a cell. Why was the arresting officer having a meal within earshot of the cell? They would have done everyone a favor by calling in a female officer to help calm the woman down. There are certainly better ways this could have been handled.
All of the “law and order” jackboots are pro-Police until they get get abused. Until then, don’t expect much sympathy for their victims.
Somebody does something illegal while at work so they get transferred to a different location? That sounds familiar…
She’s lucky she’s not black!
Ok TJ, it’s time to hold bad cops accountable for their actions. During William Sorrells 21 years as AG, in 28 cases he reviewed he did not file charges against any officers who used force in the line of duty. In my opinion, so far you seem to be a clone of Mr. Sorrell. Now you have a chance to do the right thing. You could start by having an independant investigation so that the police aren’t investigating themselves. This would at least get rid of any appearance of bias in the investigation and in your judgement on possible charges.
He needs to be in jail like the rest of us would be. Him really because he is a coo and should be better than that
UTTERLY DISGUSTING! I feel sorry for his wife or girl friend because we all know hes putting the dukes to her too! Agreed, the other officers should be fired for not helping her or reporting this! Hopefully hes seen out on the streets and someone gives him a taste of his own medicine!
The fact that Mr.Hughes is even considering to allow the officer in question to remain as a witness on previous unrelated cases is laughable by itself. The article clearly states that Jim Hughes did not see any reason related to Lawton’s inability to act or speak honestly on his own or anothers behalf, yet the video and article show the exact opposite.
The other two assisting officers should be investigated as well, as it is obvious that neither of them have a clear unbiased view of what the proper conduct a Police Officer is expected to show and act upon. Clean house, start fresh.
Lawton was allowed to work for multiple police departments despite misconduct at each because violence and abuse of power by police is a feature of our law enforcement system, not a bug