ST. ALBANS, Vt. (myCV) – ABC22/FOX44’s Matt Holderman sat down for more than 30 minutes with Sheriff John Grismore on Wednesday, two days after criminal charges s that he kicked a shackled detainee in August 2022 were dismissed.
Monday’s dismissal came after two juries failed to reach agreement on the charge of simple assault and the judge in the case declared mistrials.
“We always felt like we were, you know, the underdog in this, and fighting the uphill battle,” Grismore told Holderman. “Fighting the state, fighting the media, fighting the public opinions that were formed long before we had an opportunity to provide any justification for anything.”
Judge declares second mistrial in Grismore case after 3 days of deliberations When bodycam footage of Grismore appearing to kick the inmate, Jeremy Burrows, was released to the public, Grismore was fired from his job as deputy. Three months later, he was elected sheriff. After he was charged with simple assault, he was stripped of his law enforcement credentials.
At trial, Grismore maintained that his actions were justified. He said two deputies on the scene were failing to handle the situation, forcing him to take c ontrol.
He said Wednesday that it wasn’t until the trial that the full set of circumstances that led up to the incident were really looked at.
“We want to have this faith and trust in our law enforcement, and when we see these things happen we immediately get angry, you know, and so it’s this reaction based on fear rather than on, ‘Hey, maybe I want to learn about this, maybe I really want to understand this.’”
Grismore did acknowledge that he might have done things a little differently given the chance under the same circumstance. He knows not everyone will accept that.
“This is the great thing about the role that I’m in, is I can effect change based on that,” he said. “Right, so I can take what I’ve learned, what I’ve felt, what I’ve experienced, and then bring that to bear for all of the folks that work with me in this organization. So that’s one of the great gifts, if you will, in this process.”
Grismore takes office as investigations continue Grismore says it provided some comfort when not one, but two juries couldn’t agree whether or not he was justified in his actions. But it wasn’t until the charge was dropped Monday that he was able to breathe a full sigh of relief.
“It’s a huge relief to have that, but it’s not just for me, you know, it’s for everybody else. This office has had this black cloud hanging over them forever,” he said. “Their name, their reputation, their organization has been constantly highlighted as well. So yeah, I’m feeling like finally it is, you know, 100 percent done, and now we can move forward.”
In announcing this week that he would not seek to try Grismore third time, Grand Isle State’s Attorney Doug DiSabito said that he had to decide “whether another trial is a good use of public resources and is in the interests of justice.”
“I did that here and have determined that a third trial is not in the public interest,” DiSabito said in a statement.
DiSabito went on to say that he would have taken the case to trial a third time if Grismore had not been stripped of his Law Enforcement Certification.
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