Norman H. McAllister

McAllister was elected to the Vermont House in 2002 and to the Senate in 2012, attracting little media attention as a legislator.[1] In the House, McAllister sat on the Health and Human Services Committee, and was instrumental in reforming Vermont's child custody laws to make it easier for at-risk children to be placed in the custody of their relatives, rather than the state.[2] A lifelong dairy farmer, Mcallister was one of only two senators to oppose Vermont's bill to require labeling of genetically modified food in 2014.[3] He was appointed assistant minority leader of the Senate Republican caucus in 2014.[4] He ran for re-election in 2016 and lost.[5]

In May 2015, McAllister was accused of three felony counts of sexual assault and three misdemeanors of prohibited acts, the charges arising from what police describe as a sex-for-rent scheme involving several unwilling tenants.[6] On June 1, 2015, one of the three women listed as victims in the sex crime cases was reported dead of natural causes.[7]

McAllister initially confessed to a reporter that he had had sex with two of his accusers, but later recanted.[1][8] According to a police affidavit, in a phone conversation to one accuser McAllister stated that "I was forcing you to do something you didn't want to do".[1] McAllister maintained that he was innocent and that the relationships were consensual.[1] After McAllister refused repeated calls to resign from the legislature, he was suspended by a 20-10 vote of the Senate Rules Committee, and his subsequent request for reinstatement was rejected.[9] McAllister's family and other longtime tenant defended him, saying the allegations were false.[1]

McAllister's case was divided into two legal trials.[10] During the first trial, in June 2016, a woman who had worked on McAllister's farm and in his legislative office testified that McAllister forced her to perform oral sex on him and later raped her when she was 16 years old.[11] The woman recounted that she "continually denied his advances, but he pulled her by the arm and eventually threw her over his shoulder and carried her into a bedroom."[12] Unexpectedly, the charges against McAllister were dismissed on the second day of the trial at the request of the prosecuting state's attorney, Diane Wheeler.[10][13] Wheeler stated that "new information" had created an "ethical dilemma" requiring the case to be dropped.[13][14] The accuser's lawyer explained that her client had lied under oath about a "very, very minor point" unrelated to the claim that McAllister had assaulted her, and that she had advised the accuser not to continue testifying to avoid a potential charge of perjury.[10][14] McAllister's defense team noted that the accuser's testimony had contained numerous inconsistencies, calling the accuser's credibility into question; they said Wheeler had done "the right thing" after recognizing that the prosecution would have had "a very difficult time meeting their burden."[13] Trauma experts and victims' advocates said that it is common for trauma victims to have difficulty reconstructing details and specifics under cross-examination, and that preparing victims well for testifying is essential.[10][14]

On January 10, 2017, McAllister made a last-minute plea deal with prosecutors after a jury had been selected for his second trial. McAllister pleaded no contest to a reduced charge of lewd and lascivious conduct and two counts of prohibited acts.[15] McAllister said that he was coerced into the plea deal by his previous attorney and filed a motion to withdraw the plea deal with his new attorney on February 3.[16] A judge approved the motion and set a tentative trial date for July 12.[17]

On July 15, 2017, a jury found him guilty on a misdemeanor charge of prohibited acts of prostitution, for arranging for his tenant to have sex with a friend of McAllister's in order to pay her electric bill, but not guilty of sexual assault and a second count of prohibited acts. The charge carried a penalty of up to one year in prison.[18] In October 2017, McAllister was sentenced to work crew for 25 days and serve nine to twelve months on probation.[19]