Despite mounting pressure from top elected officials, a Franklin County senator charged with felony sexual assault last week has yet to resign his post. And it doesn't appear that any resignation will be forthcoming, according to Lt. Gov. Phil Scott.
McAllister left a message on the lieutenant governor's office phone Thursday morning indicating that he would not be resigning his seat, according to Scott. Scott has since penned a letter to McAllister.
"I must say I am extremely disappointed, as I do not believe your continued service is in the best interest of your constituents, the Legislature, nor the Senate as an institution,” Scott wrote. “I truly hope you will reconsider.”
Scott told McAllister that in the meantime, the Senate’s three-person Committee on Committees, of which Scott is a member, has voted to strip him of his assignments on the institutions and agriculture committees.
If McAllister doesn’t voluntarily vacate his post soon, then Senate President John Campbell - also a member of the Committee on Committees - says the alleged rapist’s colleagues will likely attempt to expel him from the body.
“I cannot stand by in all good conscience and not do something actively to seek his resignation,” Campbell said Thursday. “So if it [the resignation] does not come forward, we will look to see what we’re allowed to do under the Vermont Constitution.”
The Senate by all accounts has the authority to dispatch McAllister from his post. Chapter 19 of the Vermont Constitution specifically stipulates that the Senate “shall have the like powers to … expel any of its members, make its own rules, and appoint its own officers.”
Precisely what that expulsion process looks like, however, remains unclear. Senate Secretary John Bloomer is in the midst of research that will help determine how senators ought to go about expelling McAllister, should members of the Senate seek his ouster.
Campbell says the allegations against McAllister have rendered him unfit for duty.
“I don’t think he can work under this cloud as a senator,” Campbell says. “I don’t think he can represent Franklin County, or the state of Vermont in a proper way.”
Campbell says he also worries about the message it sends if McAllister stays on in his official capacity. The second-term Republican has not been back to the Statehouse since he was arrested during a break in Senate floor action last Thursday evening.
“Clearly there are victims here in this case,” Campbell says. “And I think if Sen. McAllister retained his seat right now, knowing that there are victims out there, this is just not the right message to send to people, especially women, who have been victims of crimes of this nature.”
McAllister pleaded not guilty last Friday to three felony counts of sexual assault, and three counts of prohibited acts.
