RutlandHerald.com - We Are Vermont

Hearing set for ex-police captain



Toolbox

By Susan Smallheer STAFF WRITER - Published: March 11, 2009

BRATTLEBORO — A merits hearing will be held later this month to determine whether former Capt. Heidi Nelson of the Windham County Sheriff's Department violated the terms of her probation by continuing to see an underage student that she took on a secret trip to Florida a year ago.

Nelson, of Westminster, a former Vermont State Police trooper who retired on a medical disability, pleaded no contest last fall to charges she took her law enforcement student at the Brattleboro Career Center to Florida without the permission of the girl's parents.

Nelson received a deferred sentence last fall, but the alleged probation violation could change all that dramatically, said Windham County State's Attorney Tracy Kelly Shriver.

"If you receive a deferred sentence, by law you lose your deferred sentence once you violate terms of your probation and then she would be convicted of a felony," Shriver said.

Shriver said she and Nelson's lawyer, Bettina Buehler of Brattleboro, couldn't reach an agreement on whether Nelson violated the terms of her probation on the underlying charge of unlawful restraint when she had contact with her victim.

According to court records, Nelson was seen at a Dummerston gas station late at night, with the former student waiting for her in her vehicle.

According to her sentence, Nelson was forbidden from having any contact with the former student until she finished high school, at the request of the girl's parents. The girl is believed to have completed her high school graduation requirements a few days after the pair were spotted together.

Shriver said Buehler is expected to argue that the student had finished high school and there was a "necessity defense" of some kind at play.

Buehler didn't return a telephone call asking for comment.

Nelson resigned from her position with the sheriff's department last year before the criminal charges were filed.

susan.smallheer@rutlandherald.com







READER COMMENTS


This woman makes me sick to my stomach!! As a police officer how many pedophiles, because that is what she is, did she arrest in her 20 year career?? And if she was a man, she would have been arrested the minute she was spotted with the girl at the gas station! This woman was supposed to be a mentor for other women and girls thinking about becoming law enforcement officers, and instead, she seduces a child, and had the balls to take this child out of state and what happens to men that commit the same offense? They are arrested and held on high bail! She just could not keep her hands off this child, a woman old enough to be her mother, and whether or not the child claims it is consensual, her age means it is not and it is rape and I hope this loser gets some serious jail time. What bothers me is how many men do you think she arrested and charged them with sexual molestation or rape? And what has she been doing? Having a sexual relationship with a minor!! I will venture a guess that she has violated all along, just did not get caught until that day in Dummerston, just like any male pedophile, just couldn't stay away so I say, no more breaks for this disgusting woman, lock her up, and place her on the sex offender registry as a high risk offender!!!!
-- Posted by Linda Brown on Wed, Mar 11, 2009, 4:52 pm EST

report this comment

You must be logged in to leave a comment. Register | Log In

Logout