October 13, 2008
- (Rutland Herald)
- "Former
trooper avoids jail in restraint case" -
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Article published Oct 13,
2008
Former trooper avoids jail in restraint
case
By
Susan Smallheer Herald Staff
BRATTLEBORO — The former second-in-command at the Windham County
Sheriff's Department has pleaded no contest to charges she took one of
her law enforcement students on a secret trip to Florida without the
girl's mother's permission or knowledge.
Heidi Nelson, 42, who resigned from the department shortly before she
was charged in Brattleboro District Court with unlawful restraint,
received a three-year deferred sentence and her case was referred to
court diversion, according to Windham County State's Attorney Tracy
Kelly Shriver.
Nelson, a Westminster resident and retired Vermont State Police trooper,
taught at the vocational center at Brattleboro Union High School as part
of her duties with the Sheriff's Department. The charge of unlawful
restraint carried a potential five-year prison sentence.
The girl in question was a student at the vocational center.
Nelson pleaded no contest to a related misdemeanor charge of disorderly
conduct and received a 45-day sentence, all of it suspended, according
to Shriver.
According to court records, Nelson was also the girl's coach on the
school's junior-varsity softball team, and had been friendly with her
for about two years.
The girl told police investigators that she and Nelson did not have a
sexual relationship, which Windham County Sheriff Keith Clark told state
police investigators he didn't fully believe.
But in e-mail messages between Nelson and the girl, filed in court as
part of the affidavit of probable cause, Nelson appeared to coach the
girl in what to say to investigators about the nature of their
relationship.
Nelson and the girl had spent time together at the girl's home with the
mother's knowledge, but their trip to Florida during winter vacation was
made without the mother's permission.
According to court records, the girl told her mother she was going with
a classmate, and when the mother asked Nelson if she knew anything about
the trip, she said she didn't know.
Contact Susan Smallheer at
susan.smallheer@rutlandherald.com.
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