Boudro v. Deml
| Docket Number | 23-CV-03053 |
| Decision Date | 27 October 2023 |
| Citation | 2023 Vt Super 102702 |
| Parties | Darrell Boudro Petitioner v. Nicholas Deml Respondent |
| Court | Superior Court of Vermont |
H Dickson Corbett, Superlor Court Judge
Between 2019 and 2021, petitioner Darrell Boudro was convicted four times for misdemeanor domestic-violence offenses and several times for alcohol-related driving offenses. He also violated his probation. After a global plea deal resolving both pending criminal charges and probation-violation complaints he was sentenced in 2021 to a total sentence of one to four years to serve.
Petitioner served his minimum term and was released on community-supervision furlough. He violated his furlough conditions by engaging in unwanted contact with the victim of his domestic-violence offenses. This was a significant violation, and his furlough could have been interrupted or revoked on that basis. Instead, the case-staffing committee decided that he should be released again on community-supervision furlough upon approval of a plan for transitional housing.
Petitioner then enrolled in the transitional-housing program at Hartford Dismas House, but he became involved in a confrontation with another resident. According to a letter written by the program director, petitioner displayed an "aggressive nature" during the interaction, and made a verbal statement about the death of the other resident, together with a reference to the resident's national origin. Petitioner then told the same resident not to let him "catch you off property," which was understood as a reference to what could happen if an encounter were to occur at a time and place that was not supervised by surveillance cameras. The program director characterized these incidents as violations of the transitional-housing program's policies regarding violence and threats of violence, and terminated petitioner's participation in the program. Other than a reference to petitioner's "aggressive nature," the program director did not describe any physical conduct.
DOC returned petitioner to the correctional facility and issued a notice of suspension for the following violations "termination from Hartford Dismas House," "not meeting program standards in attendance, participation and progress," and "committing or threatening an act that poses an articulable risk to the community, victim(s), a particular citizen, staff or self." Petitioner signed a form waiving his right to a hearing, and admitted that a preponderance of the evidence supported being found guilty of "NOS-termination from Hartford Dismas House (other condition)." Petitioner did not sign any forms or waivers admitting responsibility for the other identified violations, and no hearing on those violations was held.
At petitioner's case staffing, the committee determined that petitioner's furlough eligibility should be revoked. As to the basis for this decision, the committee wrote that the revocation was "[d]ue to his risk scores and threatening behavior." The committee then cited the statutory and administrative criteria for revocation, but no other substantive findings were made, and no further explanation was given.
Petitioner seeks judicial review of this determination under 28 V.S.A § 724. At the merits hearing held on September 27, 2023, there was considerable confusion about the basis for the agency's terse decision, including whether the finding of threatening behavior was based upon the incident at the transitional-housing program, or whether it instead related to petitioner's conduct towards his community correctional officer. In that regard, the confusion was rooted in the section of the determination labeled as the "narrative" of the violation, which focused upon petitioner's conduct towards the community correctional officer, and which did not include any specific information about the incident at the transitional-housing program other than a sentence that asserted that he had "engaged in verbal and physical altercation" at the...
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