Morning Read: Suspects ID'd in O'Hagan Murder

Burlington Free Press cops reporter Mike Donoghue has a scoop in today's paper about the unsolved 2010 murder of Sheffield senior citizen Patricia O'Hagan. Donoghue has been reporting for months about how prosecutors had identified one of the suspects as 22-year-old Michael Norrie in court documents related to a separate case.

Now, in newly filed court papers in yet another case, prosecutors name two other men as suspects in the homicide: 26-year-old Richard E. Fletcher and his brother, 32-year-old Keith Baird. None of the three has been formally charged with O'Hagan's murder.

From the Freeps:

The papers say O’Hagan, 78, was shot in the back of the head inside her home and sexually assaulted during the incident.

The suspects, who are related, provided different reasons for the killing, including robbery and that O’Hagan had learned about methamphetamine being cooked at an abandoned home next door, the U.S. Attorney’s Office stated in the court paperwork.

Donoghue also reports that prosecutors allege Fletcher left a confessional note in his jail cell that read, "I Richard E. Fletcher ... was involved with the robbery that went wrong on the night of Sept. 10, 2010. Me and my brother Keith John Baird ... pland (sic) to rob Miss O’Hagan."

The story relates some unsettling details about the crime and the attempt to cover it up. It also notes a striking coincidence: One of the prison guards who Fletcher allegedly confessed his crime to was among the people who discovered O'Hagan's body while bird hunting in Wheelock, three weeks after her murder.

Click here to read the full story.

Weinberger Reaffirms Support for Gun Control and Urges Additional Action

Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger reaffirmed on Monday his support for banning assault weapons in the Queen City, and urged city councilors to take additional steps aimed at preventing gun violence.

"You are on strong legal ground to move forward with an assault weapons resolution of some sort, and I support that,” Weinberger told the three members of the council’s charter change committee. He noted that similar initiatives by other municipalities have survived court challenges.

But any attempt by Burlington to regulate possession of firearms would require a change in the city’s charter thus could not take effect unless approved by the state legislature. City Councilor Rachel Siegel, the Ward 3 Progressive who chairs the charter-change committee, said it’s unlikely the legislature would even consider such an initiative until 2015, assuming it was first endorsed by the council and approved by Burlington voters in March 2014.

“More immediately,” Weinberger told the committee, Burlington might be able to adopt another measure relating to access to firearms.

He noted that in the aftermath of the Newtown, Connecticut, mass murder of schoolchildren and educators, 24 communities around the country “have passed resolutions to encourage action to fix the federal background-check system.” This screening process for prospective gun buyers is “badly broken,” the mayor said. He added that Vermont is one of 19 states rated as having done the least to submit data to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System.

Weinberger then handed out to committee members a model resolution that urges action to strengthen federal background checks.

“Burlington does have a stake in this, and I’m very much in favor of it,” the mayor said.

The Week Ahead: On Hiatus

This just in!

The Week Ahead is on indefinite hiatus. Actually, it's been placed on paid administrative leave. The Week Ahead declined to discuss the reason for the absence, but sources close to the situation said it related to an inappropriate incident in Montpelier last week involving the Scoreboard. And a Bengal tiger. And Mike Tyson. We'll have more on this developing story as we get it...

In the meantime, check back on Off Message often for the latest Vermont news and politics.

 

 

 

'To Live the American Dream, Move to Denmark' — And Maybe Bring Along the F-35

Burlington might be one of the few places in the United States where a crowd would cram an auditorium on a sunny spring Saturday to listen to a lecture on the Danish social welfare system. 

The 200-plus audience members gathered in city hall auditorium got what they came for. In a 90-minute session sponsored by Sen. Bernie Sanders, Denmark's U.S. ambassador, Peter Taksoe-Jensen (pictured), laid out a lengthy list of benefits his country provides all its citizens.

He said Danes receive free health care; free education from pre-school through university; $40,000 annual pensions after age 65, "with no need to have any attachment to the labor market"; a full year of maternity benefits, including payment of the woman's full salary for the first six months after her baby is born; and guaranteed day care through age 5, with parents paying a maximum of 25 percent of its cost. The list also includes a $17-an-hour minimum wage (compared to the U.S. standard of $7.25) and two years of payments to unemployed Danes of 90 percent of the wages they had been earning.

Taksoe-Jensen also described Denmark's progressive energy policy, which aims to phase out all fossil fuels by 2050. Already, he said, renewable sources cover 40 percent of the country's energy consumption. In the U.S., it's 13 percent.

The ambassador pointed out that Danes rank as the happiest people in the world, according to a United Nations survey. And the Vermonters listening to his litany might in turn have qualified as the most envious people in the world.

Media Note: WCAX Probes Welch's "Role" in IRS Scandal

Is Congressman Peter Welch (D-Vt.) to blame for sicking the Internal Revenue Service dogs on conservative political groups and launching a national scandal?

That's the impression one might have gotten from watching a WCAX report Wednesday night examining a letter Welch sent the IRS in March 2012.

Introducing the story, WCAX anchor Kristin Kelly promises serious drama, saying Welch "is now feeling some heat" from a scandal that's rocked the Obama administration and already claimed the jobs of at least two top IRS officials.

Senior political reporter Kristin Carlson takes it from there.

"The fallout hitting the White House has also reached Congressman Peter Welch," she reports. "Some conservative critics charge he encouraged the IRS to do what so many are angry about now."

Exhibit A?

"In a press release last year announcing he sent letters to the IRS and president," Carlson says, "Welch encouraged the IRS to, quote, 'investigate whether nonprofit 501(c)(4) organizations affiliated with Super PACs — such as Crossroads GPS, the Karl Rove-backed group... are in violation.'"

Wait a second. Welch specifically called on the IRS to investigate Crossroads GPS? 

Well, no. Not exactly.

Sex Offender Who Impersonated Decorated Soldier Pleads Guilty

A convicted sex offender who assumed the identity of an Iraq war veteran for six years while living in Vermont pleaded guilty to multiple charges in federal court on Thursday.

David P. Oswald III entered guilty pleas to charges of failing to register as a sex offender, health care fraud, possessing a firearm as a felon, and possession of child pornography. As part of a plea agreement, Oswald faces up 10 years in prison and $250,000 in fines, followed by supervised release for the remainder of his life.

As reported by Seven Days last October, Oswald pulled off a stunning multiyear fraud after obtaining stolen military identification that belonged to Bobby Lee Triplett, an Army vet from North Carolina who did four combat tours in Iraq. The two men never met, but Oswald apparently came into possession of the stolen documents in Washington State, where hedisappeared in 2006 after skipping parole.

Oswald used the documents to create a new life for himself. With Triplett's full name, Social Security number and date of birth, he was able to obtain a passport, register a car, buy guns, register to vote in Williston, obtain a non-driver's identification from Vermont and join the Vermont State Guard — a civilian militia that supports the Vermont National Guard in times of crisis.

But Oswald was finally caught after seeking medical treatment from the Veterans Administration under Triplett's name. After receiving medical bills totalling $4000 from the VA in Vermont — a state Triplett had never stepped foot in — he reported the fraud to federal authorities, who eventually tracked Oswald down at the Chittenden Fish and Game Club in Jonesville, where he was camping out in a dilapidated trailer.

Media Note: Sneyd Leaving VPR for National Life

Six years after joining Vermont Public Radio, news director Ross Sneyd is leaving the station next Friday to take a communications gig at the Montpelier-based National Life Group.

Though he says he "did not do it lightly and gave it a lot of thought," the veteran Vermont journalist says it's time to try something new. He says he's particularly looking forward to cutting down his daily commute from Plainfield to VPR's Colchester studio and spending more time running the bed-and-breakfast he owns with his partner.

"VPR, I think, has established itself as the leading news organization in Vermont — or certainly one of the leading news organizations," he says. "I'm really proud of what VPR does and what it will continue to do. I will continue to be a listener and a member and wish them all the best luck."

A longtime fixture in the Vermont journalism scene, Sneyd moved to the state in 1987 to take a job with the Burlington Free Press. He spent 18 years reporting for the Associated Press — the final 16 of them in its Montpelier bureau — before joining VPR in 2007. 

This Week's Issue: Did You Hear the One About the Legislative Wrap-Up?

This week's edition of Seven Days is our first-ever comedy issue. But it's chock full of news and politics too:

• In Fair Game, Paul Heintz reports on how House and  Senate leaders evaded a tax showdown with Gov. Peter Shumlin in the waning days of the legislative session.
• And in a special edition of our popular blog feature "The Scoreboard," Heintz looks back on the 2013 session and tallies the big winners and losers.
• Vermont law enforcement officers report that huge volumes of heroin are being trafficked into the state. But where are the drugs coming from?
• Middlebury College is divided over a proposed natural gas pipeline through Addison County. College President Ron Liebowitz says it would provide cheap energy to the region and create jobs. Students and faculty worried about climate change — including Bill McKibben — say there are cleaner alternatives.
• If all that leaves you depressed, meet some of Vermont's funniest people here, here, here and here.

As Vermont Senate Nears Adjournment, Nunchucks Are Swung

It's difficult to capture the loopiness of the 48 hours preceding adjournment of the Vermont legislature.

Confusion reigns. Recesses abound. Tensions rise and fall. Pizza is eaten. Budgets are passed. Reporters get confused and quickly lose interest. 

Such is the state of affairs at 8 p.m. Tuesday as the House and Senate labor to finish the people's business and get the hell out of Dodge. 

We'll have (slightly) more serious coverage of the 2013 legislature's thrilling conclusion in Wednesday's print edition of Seven Days, but to give you, dear reader, a flavor of the moment in Montpelier, we give you this gem of a video of Senate President Pro Tem John Campbell (D-Windsor) demonstrating his totally sweet nunchuck chops:

[Full disclosure: This video was filmed late Monday afternoon, though we are quite sure the Windsor County senator would be more than willing to stage a repeat performance tonight.]

 

Green Mountain College Joins Growing Divestment Movement

Green Mountain College today announced that it is divesting its $3.1 million endowment from fossil fuel companies, making the Poultney liberal arts school the fifth college in the nation — and the second in Vermont, after Sterling College — to endorse a campaign playing out on more than 300 campuses across the country. 

The goal isn't necessarily to hit companies like Mobil, Exxon and Royal Dutch Shell in the pocketbook; most divestment advocates agree that even the wealthiest universities won't make much of a ding in these corporation's profits by divesting. 

“I don’t think financially we can cripple them. They’re so big and so rich,” Vermont resident and environmental activist Bill McKibben told Seven Days in December, as the divestment campaign was gaining steam. Rather, McKibben said divestment represents an “inherently moral call, saying if it’s wrong to wreck the climate, it’s wrong to profit from that wreckage.”

GMC's board of trustees voted on Friday to immediately divest from the top 200 fossil fuel companies targeted in the nationwide divestment campaign headed up by the environmental activism organization founded by McKibben, 350.org. Currently 1 percent of GMC's endowment is tied up in these companies, which collectively own the vast majority of the world's coal, oil and gas reserves.

"We see this as another step in an ongoing effort to connect our investment decisions with our ideals,” said GMC president Paul Fonteyn in a statement released today. "Investing endowment funds on the basis of social, economic and environmental criteria is one of the ways Green Mountain College expresses its values."