A former sheriff’s deputy in Brattleboro gets a deferred sentence for taking a teenager on a Florida trip
By
BRATTLEBORO — A former sheriff’s deputy and Vermont State Police veteran who took a 17-year-old girl to Florida without permission has pleaded no contest to unlawful restraint and guilty to disorderly conduct.
Heidi Nelson, 42, was charged after taking the trip last winter with a former student from Brattleboro Union High School’s vocational center, where Nelson taught and coached the girl’s softball team.
The girl told police she didn’t have a sexual relationship with Nelson, but Windham County Sheriff Keith Clark told investigators he didn’t fully believe that.
Police say the girl told her mother she was going on the trip with a classmate, but that Nelson denied knowing anything about the trip when she was asked.
Nelson, who resigned her job with the Windham County Sheriff’s Department after being charged, got a three-year deferred sentence Thursday on the unlawful restraint charge, meaning she’s essentially on probation for that long.
If she adheres to restrictions and isn’t charged with any other offenses, the conviction will be erased.
She got 45 to 60 days in jail — all suspended — on the disorderly conduct count, according to Windham County State’s Attorney Tracy Kelly Shriver.
(Article originally published in The Keene Sentinel print edition entitled Ex-sheriff’s deputy gets deferred sentence.)
Heidi Nelson, 42, was charged after taking the trip last winter with a former student from Brattleboro Union High School’s vocational center, where Nelson taught and coached the girl’s softball team.
The girl told police she didn’t have a sexual relationship with Nelson, but Windham County Sheriff Keith Clark told investigators he didn’t fully believe that.
Police say the girl told her mother she was going on the trip with a classmate, but that Nelson denied knowing anything about the trip when she was asked.
Nelson, who resigned her job with the Windham County Sheriff’s Department after being charged, got a three-year deferred sentence Thursday on the unlawful restraint charge, meaning she’s essentially on probation for that long.
If she adheres to restrictions and isn’t charged with any other offenses, the conviction will be erased.
She got 45 to 60 days in jail — all suspended — on the disorderly conduct count, according to Windham County State’s Attorney Tracy Kelly Shriver.
(Article originally published in The Keene Sentinel print edition entitled Ex-sheriff’s deputy gets deferred sentence.)
Copyright ©
2008 - The
Keene
Sentinel