Cashman known for his hard-line stands
Toolbox
By CHRISTOPHER GRAFF The Associated Press - Published: January 12, 2006
MONTPELIER — Edward Cashman should be the darling of conservatives.
The churchgoing Vietnam vet is a former prosecutor; his two sons have served in the military. As a judge he is best known for his hard-line stands: A decade ago he jailed the parents of a prime suspect in a rape case for 41 days because they refused to cooperate with prosecutors.
Conservatives, though, have turned Cashman into Public Enemy No. 1 for his sentence of a child molester, a sentence he said was designed to ensure the man got treatment but critics say is too soft.
The criticism multiplied by the thousands — whipped into a frenzy via Internet blogs — after Fox News' Bill O'Reilly told a national television audience Monday night, as video of Cashman rolled: "You may be looking at the worst judge in the USA."
Cashman, 62, big, burly, balding and bearded, is the epitome of the strait-laced military man who takes especially seriously his role as a judge. Soon after he was appointed to the bench in 1982 by Republican Gov. Richard Snelling, Cashman and his wife dropped out of their square dancing group because he feared it was unjudgelike.
"I can't do the same things everyone else does," he said in an interview several years ago, describing the life of a judge as monk-like.
Cashman grew up in New Jersey and met his wife Gail, a Vermonter whose father was a Supreme Court justice, while the two were at Boston College. They moved to Washington where Cashman attended law school. His wife moved back to Vermont when Cashman went to Vietnam in 1969; he joined her upon his discharge from the Army in 1971.
Cashman worked for the attorney general's office, the Chittenden County clerk, served on the state Public Service Board and worked in private practice before becoming state's attorney in Grand Isle County in 1978.
Cashman considers being a judge "a rare opportunity to serve the people of Vermont."
"I have found in it the opportunity to perform the most important work of my life, outside of raising my family," he said in a letter to lawmakers when he was up for retention in 2001.
Cashman has been popular with legislators: He won a new six-year term in 2001 by a vote of 137-15.
On the bench he has been known for his tough sentencing — and for sometimes taking unorthodox stands.
Sen. Vincent Illuzzi, R-Essex-Orleans, has served on the Joint Judicial Retention Committee, the Judicial Nominating Board and the Senate Judiciary Committee. He is also a county prosecutor. He said Wednesday the criticism that Cashman is "a lenient judge and should be thrown out of office goes contrary to his judicial philosophy and career."
Illuzzi said, "Over the years, if there's been criticism of Judge Cashman, it has been he has been overly harsh on offenders when it comes to sentences and conditions of probation."
In Cashman's most celebrated case prior to this month's sentencing of Mark Hulett, he jailed Arthur and Geneva Yandow, who refused to help prosecutors make a case against their son. In that case, the son was a suspect in a rape where the victim was left outside, unconscious and half naked in frigid weather.
The parents said it would violate their Catholic beliefs; Cashman, himself a Catholic, argued otherwise.
"Neither the Catechism or Canon Law of the Catholic Church give Catholic(s) religious or moral authority to support the Yandows' religious rights claim to refuse to testify," Cashman said. "To the contrary, the evidence clearly shows that the teaching of the Catholic Church requires a much harder burden, namely, to give such testimony for the common good of society."
The Catholic Church plays a huge role in Cashman's life.
"He is a committed family man, he is a person who is committed to his family and his church. He is an outstanding father and a valued member of our community," said Republican Lt. Gov. Brian Dubie, who attends the same church as Cashman. "I am very disappointed and concerned about the decision, but he is a friend and I have respect for Judge Cashman as a person."
Cashman has volunteered for almost 20 years at Dismas House, a halfway house for prisoners. He said in an interview in 2000 with the Champlain Business Journal that it was very important for him to do.
"If you're going to put someone in jail, you ought to see them on their way out," he said.
In that interview the judge talked about his love of his job.
"Every day is a gift," he said. "I keep thinking they're going to come back and say 'Oh my God, it was Cushman not Cashman. Give us back the robe.'"
20