It鈥檚 been more than 150 years since it was legal to arrest people in Vermont for unpaid debts.
And yet over the last two decades, roughly 200 debtors in Caledonia County鈥檚 small claims court were issued arrest warrants, often after missing hearings or failing to make payments.
, small claims debtors 鈥� who face debts of $5,000 or less 鈥� were arrested and at times forced to pay creditors hundreds of dollars without due process or access to a lawyer.
"Putting out arrest warrants about debt is something that most people recoil at the idea of." 鈥� Jay Diaz, ACLU of Vermont
鈥淧utting out arrest warrants about debt is something that most people recoil at the idea of,鈥� said Jay Diaz of the ACLU of Vermont. 鈥淚t鈥檚 really unbelievable to me, that this situation could happen.鈥�
Retired Assistant Judge Roy Vance issued the warrants during his 22 years on the bench overseeing small claims.
In an interview at his home in Danville, Vance did not dispute that he had violated state law and the Vermont Code of Judicial Conduct by issuing the arrest warrants and demanding payment from debtors without due process.
at the suggestion of Chief Superior Judge Brian Grearson. According to a Judicial Conduct Board report, Vance "expressed genuine remorse for any harm done," and "cooperated fully," with the investigation.
In the interview, Vance said he wouldn鈥檛 have issued the warrants if he had known it was wrong. He blamed the court鈥檚 administration for his mistakes.
鈥淭o leave that way, I just think it was just absolutely wrong," Vance said.
According to Grearson, the Judiciary does not plan to contact defendants whose cases were improperly handled in Vance鈥檚 courtroom. Judiciary officials said they expended significant resources to provide VPR with an accounting of the 290 arrest warrants Vance issued since 2002, when their records begin.
The Arrest
Crystal Knowles was terrified. It was March 2016. She was at home with her five kids, five months pregnant and on doctor鈥檚 orders for bedrest, when the Essex County sheriff pulled into the driveway of her Lunenburg home. Sheriff Trevor Colby told Knowles that she and her husband had missed a hearing in small claims court, and he had warrants for their arrests.
Crystal and her husband Quentin owed the Lyndonville Hardware store $391.63 for a chainsaw he purchased on store credit for a logging job the previous spring, according to court records. In court, they had agreed to monthly payments, but the Knowles said they didn鈥檛 have the money to follow through.
When their court date came around, Crystal said, their ride fell through. Crystal and Quentin didn鈥檛 have a car.
Now the sheriff was on her porch, threatening to take her to jail. 鈥溾�業f you don't have one hundred dollars,鈥欌�� she recalled him saying, 鈥溾�榶ou're going to jail today.鈥欌��
Vance had issued a warrant setting $100 as so-called 鈥減urge鈥� money needed to dissolve the arrest warrant.
What Crystal didn鈥檛 know was that arresting people for debt is illegal in Vermont. According to the lawyer who investigated the case, small claims court judges to issue arrest warrants, generally speaking.
And demanding 鈥減urge鈥� money, as Vance had done? Lawyers said there is no legal basis for that until a debtor is found both able to pay and in contempt of court.
鈥淚 thought it was legal,鈥� Crystal said.
Frantically, Crystal called Quentin, who was unemployed. He started dialing his friends, asking for a loan.
鈥淚 was worried about her health, and the baby being high risk, and the stress,鈥� said Quentin.
They couldn鈥檛 get the money together. In front of her children, the sheriff and his deputy put Crystal in handcuffs, put her in the back of their car, and drove her to the courthouse, leaving her five children alone at home. It鈥檚 an event her now-12-year-old daughter said she remembers vividly.
Crystal didn鈥檛 end up going to jail. At the courthouse, a clerk gave her a new hearing date. That was all.
Still, the sheriff had said Quentin would need to pay his $100 purge immediately to avoid arrest. So Quentin borrowed the money from Crystal鈥檚 mom, who borrowed it from her landlord.
Quentin brought the money to the court the next morning. According to court records, a clerk sent it on to the hardware store.
This is not how the process is supposed to work. According to Vermont law, a debtor must only pay creditors after filling out a financial disclosure and after a judge finds him or her 鈥渁ble to pay.鈥� The Knowles鈥� income, which consisted of social security disability income and other government benefits, should have been protected. Instead, the Knowles ended up paying the court $100, money they said they would have spent on diapers or heating fuel 鈥� if they鈥檇 had it to begin with.
Indeed, when the couple appeared at their next hearing and presented Vance with a financial disclosure form, he determined they did not have the ability to pay.
Quentin鈥檚 $100 was never returned. And Vance allowed the sheriff鈥檚 $70 arrest fee to be added to the couples鈥� debt, even though the arrest itself was unlawful. The Knowles are still struggling to pay it all off.
Quentin said none of this is surprising.
鈥淚鈥檒l say it 鈥� we鈥檙e poor," he said. "And that鈥檚 just the way Vermont treats poor people."
'Shocks The Conscience'
Vance issued arrest warrants to hundreds of debtors alongside Crystal and Quentin Knowles. Many paid the unlawful "purge" money. Yet, apparently, nobody sounded the alarm.
These debtors鈥� arrest warrants were typed by court clerks and delivered by county sheriffs. Occasionally, they were appealed by private attorneys and overturned by Superior Court judges. But according to Vance and Judiciary officials, nobody questioned them.
If that鈥檚 so, attorney Maryellen Griffin said, 鈥淭here鈥檚 something wrong with the way that system is operating.鈥�
Griffin represents tenants in housing disputes in the Northeast Kingdom for Vermont Legal Aid. For years she had heard rumors that the small claims court was issuing arrest warrants. But it wasn鈥檛 until January 2018, when Griffin tracked down a woman with a pending warrant, that she understood the rumors were true.
鈥淚t shocks the conscience,鈥� Griffin said. She and her colleagues began to dig.
"I've talked to people who were afraid to leave their home, afraid to walk their child to school, because they thought they were gonna be arrested." 鈥� Maryellen Griffin, Vermont Legal Aid
鈥淚've talked to people who were afraid to leave their home, afraid to walk their child to school, because they thought they were gonna be arrested," she said.
The fact that debtors were pressured to pay money to remove the warrant was particularly disturbing to Griffin.
鈥淭here are laws in place, and there are procedures in place to make sure that people are able to meet their basic necessities of life," she said, before a court can force them to pay old debts.
Together, Vermont Legal Aid and the ACLU of Vermont reviewed 30 of Vance鈥檚 cases. In May 2018, the organizations sent .
In January, at Grearson鈥檚 suggestion, Vance voluntarily resigned. On July 10, the Vermont Supreme Court approved a banning Vance from holding judicial office in Vermont again.
Grearson also to all Vermont judges, asking court staff to refer any requests for arrest warrants in small claims proceedings to the presiding Superior judge.
"The reason I resigned was because it was my fault 鈥� I issued those arrest warrants. But really, I am not to fault, because I was not notified." 鈥� Roy Vance, retired assistant judge
Vance said the court clerks and judges should have noticed his errors and corrected him sooner.
鈥淭he reason I resigned was because it was my fault 鈥� I issued those arrest warrants,鈥� Vance started. 鈥淏ut really, I am not to fault,鈥� he went on, 鈥渂ecause I was not notified.鈥�
requires judges to report when they believe another judge has violated the code. But, Grearson said, even when a Superior Court judge overturned Vance鈥檚 unlawful arrest warrants, it鈥檚 unlikely that judge would have looked at the case in depth.
鈥淪o it doesn鈥檛 surprise me that nothing happened as a result,鈥� Grearson said.
A Bigger Problem
(Henry Epp, host of VPR's All Things Considered, speaks with reporter Emily Corwin about non-lawyer judges and Vermont's small claims court system).
Neither Grearson nor attorneys at Vermont Legal Aid believe other judges or assistant judges are unlawfully issuing arrest warrants in small claims court. But many people, including Daniel Richardson, the attorney appointed to investigate Vance by the Judicial Conduct Board, said what happened in Vance鈥檚 courtroom exposes bigger problems in Vermont鈥檚 judicial system.
In small claims court, Richardson said, 鈥淭here鈥檚 really no oversight. I personally feel like that鈥檚 something that should change.鈥�
He voiced these concerns in his in a lengthy footnote.
Richardson said small claims dockets are overseen by a 鈥渞otating cast鈥� of part-time volunteer lawyers who receive no training at all; part-time, like Vance, who sit through a one-time, 100-hour training program; hearings officers and others.
In 2005, a legislative study committee recommended lawmakers end the practice of giving assistant judges like Vance sole judicial authority 鈥渋n any proceeding except traffic cases.鈥� Lawmakers did not heed the advice.
鈥淭he legal issues in small claims are every bit as challenging and complicated as cases worth tens of thousands of dollars,鈥� said Griffin, the Vermont Legal Aid attorney. 鈥淚 think those litigants are entitled to have judges who had the same training, education and professional background鈥� as litigants have in civil cases.
In small claims court, "there's really no oversight. I personally feel like that's something that should change." 鈥� Daniel Richardson, attorney
The most notable difference between the courts, she pointed out, is that defendants in small claims court are usually poor people without lawyers. People like Crystal and Quentin Knowles.
And, people like Neil Burd.
Between 2001 and 2015, the Caledonia County Sheriff鈥檚 Department arrested Burd three times for the same small claims debt, according to court documents. Each time, he said, he was cuffed, put in a cop car, and taken to the courthouse. He recalled thinking at the time, 鈥淚 can lose my job out of this, I can lose everything. Are they gonna make me go to jail?鈥�
Burd said he felt pressured to agree to a payment plan even when he was on unemployment and had no eligible income. When Griffin informed Burd that the arrests were unlawful and his payments likely unnecessary, he said it shook him.
鈥淚 thought, it was the court, they鈥檙e not gonna do me wrong,鈥� he said, seated on a bench outside the courthouse in St. Johnsbury. Now, Burd said, he feels swindled.
"I been screwed really bad,鈥� he said, 鈥渇or a long time.鈥�
Update 3:09 p.m.: This post was updated to include an interview between All Things Considered host Henry Epp and reporter Emily Corwin about non-lawyer judges in Vermont's small claims court system.
