(Update: I’ve slightly edited this entry due to a Comment from regular commenter “simplify” pointing out that, as a matter of legal fact, Donovan does not have a criminal record. The record was expunged. Therefore, the title of “Fair Game” is inaccurate, and so was the wording of my diary.)
(Update to the update: It’s been pointed out that Fair Game’s title says that “Donovan had a criminal record,” which is factually accurate.)
Lead item in this week’s “Fair Game” column in Seven Days is about a heretofore-undisclosed incident in TJ Donovan’s past. It seems that Donovan, who has been very open about his troubled youth, got into a drunken fight when he was 18 years old and was charged with aggravated assault. (The charge was pled down to a misdemeanor, Donovan did community service and paid restitution to the victim, and the crime was expunged from his record.)
Donovan’s been Chittenden County State’s Attorney since 2006, but now that he’s running against Attorney General Bill Sorrell, the case comes to light for the first time. And how did it come to Seven Days’ attention? The old-fashioned way.
Fair Game received an anonymous tip through the mail about the incident, which Donovan immediately confirmed when asked.
How about that. He challenges the Attorney General, and suddenly information (presumably from law enforcement files) about an expunged incident that happened 20 years ago is made public.
I’m sure Mr. Sorrell himself had nothing directly to do with it. Gotta maintain plausible deniability at the very least. But I’m equally sure that someone who supports him was responsible for the leak. Is the Sorrell team feeling a little nervous, perhaps?
from South Burlington maybe?
Under Vermont law:
As far as the law is concerned, Donovan has no criminal record to disclose. That’s how expungement works.
My guess is this is probably chipped-tooth guy, or one of the others who had been involved in the fight 20 years ago, exacting a bit of revenge, possibly through a surrogate.
7 Days should at least change it’s headline – there is no criminal record, so the headline is false. There was a misdemeanor, a sentence, and restitution.
I don’t have a dog in the Sorrell/Donovan fight – leaning toward voting for TJ right now, but not passionate about either candidate.
But I think the accusation that this necessarily originated with the Sorrell camp is without evidence and is an overreach.
First, the assumption that the anonymous mailed tip was “presumably from law enforcement files” is not necessarily true. Nothing in the story says that it was a copy of a law enforcement document that constituted the tip – it could have just as easily been a note scrawled in crayon…
It could have come from anyone who knew about the situation, including people who were directly involved in the original event 20 years ago. (It wasn’t a big secret… I remember hearing vague rumours about it when TJ was first running for State’s Attorney 6 years ago).
Maybe the guy who lost a tooth (or his relatives or friends) still holds a grudge and decided to tip off the media. Maybe a disaffected attorney who has tangled with Donovan heard about the incident through the incestuous Burlington legal grapevine and decided to exact revenge. Maybe someone grew up with TJ and doesn’t like him thought this was a great opportunity to embarrass him by digging up ancient history. Burlington is a small town, lots of folks have long memories, and lots of folks have grudges.
There is no question that whoever sent the anonymous tip has it in for Donovan and hopes to damage his candidacy – but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they acted on behalf of, or in concert with, Sorrell.
Unless you have some actual evidence that anyone connected with the Sorrell campaign played a role in this, it is an overreach to accuse them of being the source. It is one possible explanation, but hardly the only plausible one.
all the whining about “dirty tricks” when just last election cycle people were all over the Tom Salmon drunken driving case. Let’s have a great long thread about how “that’s different”, shall we?
I was really surprised by the Seven Days Story about TJ Donovan. This topic was old news to me and many others. It was brought up during the State’s Attorney race in 2006 and was a non-starter.
I first met TJ when I served on one of Burlington’s restorative justice panels. He really gets the restorative justice model. I have served with him on a community centered justice task force created in 2007 and found him to be grounded and centered as he has worked to make the community justice model an integral part of the State’s Attorney program in Chittenden County. The mental health court, the drug court, victim’s advocacy, and the restorative justice model are key community centered models he has advocated for six years.
I believe we need a community centered and responsive AG who is willing to do the hard work and research on serious issues. I will be voting for TJ for AG.
Two other things come to mind here:
•First, is legal – the record was expunged — the 100 hours community service deal certainly worked – TJ is one of the most dedicated public servants I have ever met.
•Second, if we are in to dragging out old stale election news, why isn’t anyone talking about the fact that Sorrell was appointed to his position by then Gov Howard Dean and that he has never had a contested race w/in the party. What about the fact that Howard Dean got his start in Burlington politics from Sorrell’s mother and later gave her son a nice appointment as AG? Quite a reach if you ask me.
The AG job is critical to the State of Vermont, especially in the current corporate controlled litigious environment. As I said earlier, I want an AG who is grounded and thorough, understands the issues top to bottom, is willing to sit down and spend the time getting educated on issues by meeting with constituents and making decisions that protect all Vermonters.
…let us all know about where this letter came from, who, if anyone, signed it, etc.. As an ex-journalist, I’m all for protecting sources–if you expose your sources, you will no longer have any–BUT, the implications here are that Sorrell, or his supporters, had something to do with this letter. That will be up in the air until we are given the information that proves otherwise. It would be a really ‘stupid’ dirty trick. On the other hand, I’ve always felt Sorrell is a ‘dim bulb’ and that his greatest accomplishments as AG have been being re-elected when Vermont could do so much better. I’d love it if it came from his camp. He’d have to investigate himself. Then clear himself. Hell, he can do that.