The only licensed prosecutor leaves Addison County office

The only state prosecutor with a law license in Addison County is leaving the job next week. 

Without a deputy state’s attorney, embattled State’s Attorney Eva Vekos — who has been temporarily barred from practicing law — would be the only state prosecutor in the county. 

In the absence of a deputy attorney in Vekos’s office, the Vermont Attorney General’s Office created a special prosecutor role to take over all the cases in Vekos’ office, according to Vermont Attorney General Charity Clark. 

The special prosecutor is Rutland County Deputy State’s Attorney Peter Bevere, Clark said. Vekos is not seeking reelection in November and Bevere is the Democrat running to unseat her. In a rare arrangement, Bevere will be assigned to work under the Vermont Attorney General’s Office rather than under Vekos, according to Clark. 

Bevere’s role is designed to replace the work of Deputy State’s Attorney Richard Nolan, who is leaving Vekos’ office Aug. 7, according to Tim Lueders-Dumont, executive director of the Vermont Department of State’s Attorneys and Sheriffs. 

Bevere is set to prosecute cases in Vekos’ office under the title “special assistant attorney general,” according to a Thursday letter from Clark’s office obtained by VTDigger. 

“With this designation, all prosecution in Addison County will be overseen by the Attorney General,” said the letter, signed by Domenica Padula, chief of the office’s criminal division. 

Nolan gave notice that he would exit Vekos’ office on July 24, according to Lueders-Dumont, who declined to comment on Nolan’s reason for leaving. Nolan did not respond to requests for comment Thursday. 

Vekos has been barred from practicing law since the Vermont Supreme Court temporarily suspended her law license in April. She was convicted of drunken driving in December after she appeared intoxicated at the scene of a suspicious death investigation in Bridport in January 2024. 

Vekos did not respond to requests for comment Thursday evening and Friday morning. 

The unusual decision to outsource a prosecutor came after Vekos sent an email to Clark’s office, notifying her that the county office would be without a licensed prosecutor, Clark said in an interview. 

Her office decided that the special arrangement with Bevere would serve as a stopgap until the next state’s attorney begins in February, Clark said. 

The Vermont Attorney General’s Office has already handled many cases under Vekos’s jurisdiction for months. 

In March, the office sent out a letter saying it would begin investigating and prosecuting all homicide, sexual assault and child abuse cases in the county. The office would also handle all death notifications and reviews in the county. 

That decision to start taking cases from Vekos’s office came after Clark met with Vekos and personally asked her to resign, a spokesperson for Clark told VTDigger in March. 

Vekos has rebuffed calls for her resignation and previously told VTDigger she was happy to have help from Clark’s office. 

Before meeting with Clark, Vekos, a Democrat, had already faced public calls for her resignation from her own political party, from Republican Gov. Phil Scott and from the Vermont Progressive Party.

Those calls came after a VTDigger investigation last year revealed that Vekos was facing multiple ethics complaints with the state’s board for attorney conduct. Crime victims in the county also said that Vekos treated them egregiously, while advocates in the county raised concerns about her behavior. 

Vekos has defended the work in her office, saying it’s impossible for a prosecutor to fulfill the wishes of every crime victim. 

Vekos subsequently had her law license suspended this spring while a professional disciplinary proceeding against her continues to play out. That disciplinary proceeding was filed in court in June. 

State’s attorneys are elected to their positions and aren’t required to have a law license to remain in office. In this year’s state budget, Vermont lawmakers passed a provision that subjects state’s attorneys to a 30% pay cut if they lack a law license. 

With Nolan leaving Vekos’ office, Lueders-Dumont said that he’s sad to see the deputy prosecutor leave.

“He’s done an incredible job for the department and for the county,” Lueders-Dumont said. 

Meanwhile, Bevere said in an email that he’s excited to step into the new role. 

“I’m thankful to the Attorney General for ensuring that the people of Addison County do not experience a gap in prosecution services and for giving me the opportunity to do this vitally important work,” he said.

Read the story on VTDigger here: The only licensed prosecutor leaves Addison County office.