Updated at 12:23 p.m.
High bailiff is an unpaid and largely ceremonial office in Vermont that dates back to the 18th century. If the sheriff is unable, the high bailiff is responsible for serving writs, an archaic form of legal directive, and temporarily filling the sheriff’s position should they be arrested for a crime. Historically, the high bailiff was also the person who would physically arrest the sheriff, though Vermont State Police took over that task when the agency was created in 1947.
But the obscure, county-level position has been thrust into the spotlight this primary campaign season. In Chittenden County, the race has drawn five candidates from all walks of life who have a variety of reasons for wanting the job. In Windsor County, where the sheriff was recently arrested (by Vermont State Police), the high bailiff actually had to step in and perform the sheriff’s duties. Claude Weyant is now running for the top job. And in Orange County, the current high bailiff no longer lives in the country, much less Vermont, and has been posting online about his trip to Iran.
Chittenden County
In eight counties, the high bailiff candidate is running unopposed, while in four others, there are no candidates at all. Addison County, meanwhile, has one candidate on each of the Democratic and Republican lines.
None of that compares to the five high bailiff candidates running in Chittenden County. Only one, Paul McManus, has experience in law enforcement. In addition to 32 years with the Chittenden County Sheriff’s Office, he served as a regional area commander for the Federal Protective Service and as director of security for the Vermont Department of Buildings and General Services.
McManus will face off against Charlotte’s Mikey Roberts, a former Marine with a career in loss prevention and nonprofit work; Helaine Rappaport, a teacher and justice of the peace from Burlington; Amy Payne, a former publishing executive and educator from Burlington; and Augustus Barkyoumb, an 18-year-old student from Burlington.
While the high bailiff position is obscure, McManus said the officeholder should be present in the community and have a deep familiarity with the way the state’s largest sheriff’s office works.
McManus and his boss, incumbent Sheriff Dan Gamelin, already have the endorsement of the Vermont Police Association. McManus said he respects Gamelin and enjoys working with him; Gamelin’s son, Adam, is also McManus’ campaign manager. McManus said his history with the department would only strengthen his ability to keep it on course in case of an emergency.
“It’s a job you don’t want, but I think it’s a job that somebody has to be able to do,” McManus said.
Amy Payne believes it’s a job that should be held by a civilian rather than a law enforcement official. That would allow the high bailiff to act as an ambassador between the sheriff’s office and the community while providing objective oversight of the department.
“With the way things are and with the distrust between large swaths of the public and people in uniform, it feels imperative to do community outreach and bridge building,” she said.
Payne said that when the high bailiff takes over, they do so only temporarily, effectively bridging the gap between a sheriff’s arrest or incapacitation and the appointment of a replacement by the governor. She pointed to the example of Dave Silberman, an attorney and Addison County high bailiff who led that sheriff’s office for less than a day in 2022 after then-sheriff Peter Newton was arrested for sexual assault. Newton resumed his duties as sheriff when he was released from custody hours later.
Payne has aligned herself with Kevin Bloom, a sheriff candidate without experience in law enforcement who is campaigning on reforming the eviction process. Bloom would rather steer tenants in debt to a rent-relief job program, a policy that resonated with Payne, who said it would humanize how the department operates.
“I’m running because we can’t afford to have more positions be ceremonial,” she said.
Roberts, a former Marine with a degree in criminal justice, also believes that the position should be held by someone outside the sheriff’s office. He takes issue with the high bailiff endorsing or seeking endorsement from candidates for sheriff.
“In the event in which the high bailiff is activated, I, as a Chittenden County citizen, would prefer to have somebody who is not friends with [the sheriff] because that would bring questions of loyalty,” he said.
Roberts said the high bailiff’s mandate requires impartiality and an intimate knowledge of the judicial system, traits he said he’s developed both in the military and in his career in loss prevention, which gave him experience conducting investigations, filing legal paperwork and testifying in court.
Roberts also has experience leading business and nonprofit ventures, including After Action, an organization that helps connect trauma survivors to mental health and financial education services. Roberts said his public-facing work has given him the administrative experience he needs if he were to step in for the sheriff.
“I’ve always been in public service … my entire ethos is surrounded by public service,” Roberts said.
Running for elected office is something Roberts has thought about for years. He said he knows that the high bailiff is the “lowest of the totem pole of all the elected positions” but said he’s enjoyed raising awareness about the August 11 election and gaining political experience on the campaign trail.
“I guess you would have to be, like, a political science or a civics nerd to really get excited about something like that, but I just called myself out,” he said.
Helaine Rappaport, a retired teacher of 50 years, does not see the high bailiff as anything more than a ceremonial title. She thought the position would be a good opportunity to gain more experience in public service. Given the lack of interest in previous high bailiff races, Rappaport said she was surprised by the number of people running to fill an unpaid position with few responsibilities.
“I found it really interesting to meet all these people … but I don’t think they are going to do anything if they are elected because I don’t see a high bailiff doing anything in Chittenden County,” she said of her competitors.
Rappaport has been a notary and a justice of the peace in Burlington for 20 years, a position that requires her to notarize vital records and deliver absentee ballots. She thinks it’s important that the high bailiff be a civilian to give the department an unbiased perspective.
“I did take gun lessons down in Orange County in October, just in case I need to use a gun again,” Rappaport quipped.
The race has also attracted a new generation of hopefuls. Augustus Barkyoumb, 18, is the youngest person seeking the office.
Barkyoumb is a recent graduate of Burlington High School and will attend Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, N.Y., this fall. He doesn’t think being out-of-state for part of the year will interfere with his duties, saying he’s only a few hours away should something happen to the sheriff.
Barkyoumb said he wants to change the narrative surrounding the position and strengthen civilian representation in law enforcement while raising people’s awareness of local elections.
“It’s an elected role, and you should know who the candidates are, and the candidates should want to do it,” Barkyoumb said.
Being the youngest in the race has made it easier to connect with voters of his generation, Barkyoumb said. He campaigns on Instagram and with large, hand-painted signs that he and volunteers have set up around the county.
According to Barkyoumb, some have doubted his authenticity due to his age, but he said the fact that he’s gotten this far only proves that his campaign is not a bit. Barkyoumb said he is still figuring out what he wants to do after college but said his experience running for high bailiff has made him “feel really positive about maybe going into politics.”
“I’ve had a lot of, not even close friends, but friends of friends who’ve reached out to me and said, ‘I didn’t even know there was an election. I can’t wait to vote for you,’” Barkyoumb said.
Windsor County
In Windsor County, Claude Weyant, the high bailiff and chief deputy of the sheriff’s office, is one of the few high bailiffs in recent memory who have had to step into the top role.
In January 2026, Windsor County Sheriff Ryan Palmer was arrested by state police and later pleaded not guilty to criminal charges that include sexual misconduct and soliciting prostitution. Weyant took over the department after Palmer, who has not resigned as sheriff, appointed him chief deputy. Palmer is not running for reelection.
Weyant was elected as the county’s high bailiff in 2024. He’s spent about 40 years in law enforcement, including 25 with the Windsor County Sheriff’s Department. Now he’s running against two candidates in the primary for the Democratic nomination for sheriff, Joshua Lake and Christopher A. Norton. On the Republican line, Richard King is running unopposed. There’s only one high bailiff candidate: Hudson Ranney, who is running as a Democrat.
According to Weyant, getting the department’s finances in order after Palmer’s arrest was a formidable challenge. Weyant said Palmer had increased the number of towns his department was responsible for patrolling from nine to 15, including four in Orange county.
“He was expanding the department too fast. He was trying to do all kinds of things we didn’t have the financing to do,” Weyant said.
Palmer allegedly wasn’t keeping detailed records, either. In March, the Valley News reported that the sheriff’s department was sending invoices to towns based on contracts, sometimes unsigned, that were never filed with the Windsor County clerk’s office. At the time, the clerk’s office said it had copies of just three signed contracts between towns and the sheriff’s department, even though it patrolled 15 towns at the time of Palmer’s arrest.
A 2023 independent audit of Palmer’s office found instances of poor recordkeeping relating to the department’s expenses.
“We recommend the Department place more emphasis on the importance of the accounting function and accuracy of financial reporting, especially with accruals, prepaids, fixed assets, and revenue. We also ecommend a member of management other than the Sheriff internally review reconciliations monthly. The Sheriff should review and approve all reconciliations,” the report read.
“Ryan would be quite occupied with taking care with what you might call real police work; doing search warrants, helping other agencies. What he didn’t do so well was stay focused on the financial end of things. Things kind of slipped,” Weyant said.
Seven Days asked Palmer and his attorney, Dan Sedon, to comment on the financial issues during Palmer’s tenure as sheriff. Instead, Sedon responded with apparent updates on the criminal case.
“Several of these charges have been dismissed to date. Another was dismissed today. You should try reporting on that, as that is a fact,” Sedon said in an email. Palmer was initially charged on 17 counts that include lewd and lascivious conduct. According to court documents, the state dismissed one count of aggravated stalking with a deadly weapon on July 24 and five other charges earlier this year.
After taking over day-to-day operations at the sheriff’s office, Weyant said he’s put the department on the right financial path. He’s reduced the number of towns the department patrols to 13 and has completely redone contracts with 12.
“You don’t know when that call is going to happen,” he said of stepping in. “You have to roll. You can’t monkey around.”
Orange County
In Orange County, meanwhile, there’s no indication the high bailiff is in position to provide the services required of the office. Chris Helali, who won election in 2024, claims he lives in Moscow, Russia, and has been in Iran since early July. He’s posted videos and photos on social media of himself at the funeral of the late ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed by U.S. and Israeli strikes in February.
Helali, who on Instagram describes himself as an investigative journalist, has been traveling to sites around Iran expressing his support for the regime.
“Elected US politician (High Bailiff, Orange County, Vermont) who won election in November 2024 spends July 4th in IRAN to support Iran and honor Imam Khamenei and his family,” he wrote on Instagram. “This 250th anniversary of the USA, we recommit to the struggle against imperialism and Zionism.”
Helali won his 2024 election by earning 446 votes through a write-in campaign. Four years before that, he ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. House as a member of the Party of Communists USA. Helali lived in Vershire but now lives in Moscow.
There’s no statutory requirement for the high bailiff or the sheriff to live in Vermont. Helali told VTDigger earlier this month that he would be willing to return to Orange County to fill in for the sheriff if needed, but he believes he is on the U.S. Transportation Security Administration’s no-fly list, which would prevent him from boarding a flight to the U.S.
Helali is not on the ballot in Orange County, and he told VTDigger that he is not planning to run for high bailiff this year. There are no other candidates running for the position.
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