Norman H. McAllister (born 1951) is an American politician who was a member of the

Vermont Senate The Vermont Senate is the upper house of the Vermont General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Vermont. The senate consists of 30 members. Senate districting divides the 30 members into three single-member districts, six two-m ...

. He represented the

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district in Northwest Vermont. He was elected to the state legislature in 2002. He was suspended in 2015 after being arrested on sexual assault charges. Despite his suspension, he ran for reelection in 2016, but lost. After four separate criminal trials, McAllister was cleared of all charges.

Legislative career

McAllister was elected to the Vermont House in 2002 and to the Senate in 2012, attracting little media attention as a legislator. In the House, McAllister sat on the Health and Human Services Committee, and was instrumental in reforming Vermont's

child custody Child custody is a legal term regarding '' guardianship'' which is used to describe the legal and practical relationship between a parent or guardian and a child in that person's care. Child custody consists of ''legal custody'', which is the righ ...

laws to make it easier for at-risk children to be placed in the custody of their relatives, rather than the state. A lifelong

dairy farm Dairy farming is a class of agriculture for long-term production of milk, which is processed (either on the farm or at a dairy plant, either of which may be called a dairy) for eventual sale of a dairy product. Dairy farming has a history th ...

er, Mcallister was one of only two senators to oppose Vermont's bill to require

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in 2014. He was appointed assistant minority leader of the Senate

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caucus in 2014. He ran for re-election in 2016 and lost.

Criminal charges

In May 2015, McAllister was accused of three felony counts of sexual assault and three misdemeanors of prohibited acts, the charges arising from what police describe as a sex-for-rent scheme involving several unwilling tenants. On June 1, 2015, one of the three women listed as victims in the sex crime cases was reported dead of natural causes. McAllister initially confessed to a reporter that he had had sex with two of his accusers, but later recanted. According to a police

affidavit An ( ; Medieval Latin for "he has declared under oath") is a written statement voluntarily made by an ''affiant'' or '' deponent'' under an oath or affirmation which is administered by a person who is authorized to do so by law. Such a stateme ...

, in a phone conversation to one accuser McAllister stated that "I was forcing you to do something you didn't want to do". McAllister maintained that he was innocent and that the relationships were consensual. After McAllister refused repeated calls to resign from the legislature, he was suspended by a 20-10 vote of the Senate Rules Committee, and his subsequent request for reinstatement was rejected. McAllister's family and other longtime tenant defended him, saying the allegations were false.

Trials

McAllister's charges were initially divided into two legal trials. Some charges were unexpectedly dismissed on the second day of his first trial at the request of the prosecuting state's attorney, Diane Wheeler. Wheeler stated that "new information" had created an "ethical dilemma" requiring the case to be dropped. The accuser's lawyer explained that her client had lied under oath about a "very, very minor point" unrelated to the claim that McAllister had assaulted her, and that she had advised the accuser not to continue testifying to avoid a potential charge of

perjury Perjury (also known as foreswearing) is the intentional act of swearing a false oath or falsifying an affirmation to tell the truth, whether spoken or in writing, concerning matters material to an official proceeding."Perjury The act or an inst ...

. McAllister's defense team noted that the accuser's testimony had contained numerous inconsistencies, calling the accuser's credibility into question; they said Wheeler had done "the right thing" after recognizing that the prosecution would have had "a very difficult time meeting their burden." On January 10, 2017, McAllister made a last-minute plea deal with prosecutors on the remaining charges after a jury had been selected for his second trial. McAllister pleaded no contest to a reduced charge of lewd and lascivious conduct and two counts of prohibited acts. However, McAllister said that he was coerced into the plea deal by his previous attorney and he filed a motion to withdraw the plea deal with his new attorney on February 3. A judge approved the motion and set a tentative trial date for July 12. On July 15, 2017, a jury found him guilty on a misdemeanor charge of prohibited acts of prostitution, for arranging for his tenant to have sex with a friend of McAllister's in order to pay her electric bill, but not guilty of sexual assault and a second count of prohibited acts. The charge carried a penalty of up to one year in prison. In October 2017, McAllister was sentenced to work crew for 25 days and serve nine to twelve months on probation. However, the

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ordered a retrial on this last count in November 2018, and a subsequent retrial ended in

mistrial In law, a trial is a coming together of parties to a dispute, to present information (in the form of evidence) in a tribunal, a formal setting with the authority to adjudicate claims or disputes. One form of tribunal is a court. The tribunal, ...

in April 2019. McAllister was acquitted after a fourth trial was held on October 23, 2019.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McAllister, Norman H. 1951 births 21st-century American politicians Living people Republican Party members of the Vermont House of Representatives Republican Party Vermont state senators Dairy farmers