JusticeDelayed:

Assault Victim George Smith Waits for the System to Work inFranklin County

 by Euan Bear

      This is not a Christmasstory – or at least, not yet, though George Smith keeps hoping.This Christmas will be the second one since George Smith reported beingassaulted in a bar just down the street from his Montgomery Center home.It is the second Christmas that he’s been waiting for lawenforcement and civil rights agencies to help him get some measure ofjustice. But maybe this Christmas will be different, and maybe SantaClaus will find his way to the rural eastern Franklin County town at thefoot of Jay Peak and leave something special under George’s treethis year.
      George is gay andmakes no secret of it. He’s also disabled – though hisdisabilities are not obvious – and not able to work. He lives in aSection 8-subsidized apartment and cannot afford his own lawyer. He saysthat none of the agencies he has contacted about being assaulted hasbeen able to bring the perpetrators to justice or get the bar shut down.Those agencies include local police, state police, the Northwest Unit onSpecial Investigations (NUSI), the Franklin County State’sAttorney, the office of the Vermont Attorney General, the state’sHuman Rights Commission, the Vermont chapter of the American CivilLiberties Union, and, only recently, SafeSpace.
      On October 20, 2001, Steven George Smith –George to his friends – walked from his apartment on Route 118,Montgomery Center’s main street, to a bar called The LonghornTrout. That he was in the bar is not in dispute, but nearly everythingelse that happened there that night is. That the machinery of law andhuman rights cranks slowly for outsiders like George – gay,disabled, poor, and “from away” – is becoming more andmore evident as the months go by.
      Here’s the way George tells it.
      “I moved to Vermont from Florida about ayear and a half ago because of civil unions. My mate of 12 years stayedin Florida – he didn’t want to get married. We’re stillbest friends.
      “I washomeless when I got here. I met someone in Burlington and moved in withhim, but it was an abusive relationship. After one bad fight, I startedlooking for housing and found this Section 8 [subsidized] apartment inMontgomery finally after 60 or 70 apartment searches. I get Section 8because I have a burst bladder, a broken heart valve, and a neck injuryfrom being [accidentally] hung as a child on a jungle gym. I gotpermanent disability after I was injured at work.
      “General Assistance pays $198 a month;Section 8 pays $197 a month; and I get $56 a month in FoodStamps.
      “Meeting people is not theeasiest thing when you’re disabled. I’m 38 years old andI’m not ready to live like a hermit.
      “I’d been to the Longhorn Trout four orfive times with a waitress friend from Zack’s [on the Rocks,formerly a restaurant in Montgomery Center]. Once I went in there aloneand I was verbally harassed: ‘This isn’t a faggotbar.’
      “I’mout in the community. I volunteer and do what I can do. When I walk downthe street or go into a bar, you can actually see it being passed around– the gay news – especially in a redneck bar.
      “I went there that night because I had somebirthday money from my mother. I went there [even after previous verbalharassment] because it’s a bar in my neighborhood and I’mentitled to walk up the street for a drink, you know what I mean? Theowners would never protect me, but they’d never done anything to methemselves. The owner didn’t get involved, and I just hoped thatthe same people wouldn’t be there that night. I asked [two or threepeople] and they assured me that it was a safe bar for gay people todrink in · that the Longhorn Trout was safe for gay people trying tomeet decent people who would treat me like a human being. I get harassedon the street, name calling, giving me the finger, spitting. In 2002 weshould be beyond that, you know what I mean?
      “On October 20-21, 2001 was the assault. At8:30 I went to the bar. I got a rum and coke and sat at the far leftside of the bar. There were maybe five or six other people and onebartender. Actually there was one bartender and the owner’s son. Ihad about one drink per hour from 8 to midnight. The bartender keptverbally harassing me, saying things like, ‘You want a date?I’ll set you up, I’ll make some calls.’ It was thefarthest thing from my mind that people were going to hurt me. He madesome calls and people started showing up like it was alynching.
      “I tried to mind my ownbusiness. The harassment was intermittent. It’s later in theevening and now there are 26 people there, and some of the earlier folkshad left. This guy [whom he names] came over to me with a brass palmpiece and hit me in the back of the head four times. His hand was cut. Isaw the brass thing and the cut. I was groggy and in and out ofconsciousness from then on.
     “The ownerof the bar was holding me down. Someone boxed my ears. I was fightingback and smashed some of the people in the mouth. I smashed Adam in theforehead. I was on my back with my arms held down and I was being rapedanally. I thought it was a dream – the doctor I saw said that waspart of the date-rape thing.”
      “I woke up again and different people werepunching me. Some of the people I didn’t even know. All I couldthink of was ‘Why are they doing this to me, what a horrible dreamthis is!’ It all went pretty smooth, and that tells me thatthey’ve done it before. I’m not the first and I won’t bethe last if they’re allowed to stay open.
      “The door to the bar was locked. EventuallyI was able to break free and got out. The lights had been on, and when Igot away, they were off, so I know a lot of time had gone by. [The manhe had identified had earlier] told me he was homophobic. He [had] evenoffered to buy me a drink if I’d get away from the pooltable.
      “I came home, and Icouldn’t go to sleep. I kept having flashbacks. I called my mother,I called 911, I called the state police, who called an ambulance. Theambulance attendant said that if I went with them it would cost me $600.I didn’t trust anyone that night, so I didn’t go.
      “At first I didn’t tell anyoneabout the sexual assault part because I didn’t believe they’dcare. I did tell NUSI [the Northwest Unit on Special Investigations]several months later.
      “I hope thebartender loses his right to serve alcohol in the state ofVermont.
      “I’ve talked to somany attorneys and as soon as I tell them I was raped they tell methey’re not interested or they have a conflict of interest. Everytime I talk about it I feel like it’s happening again. I have to dothe right thing and the right thing is to tell what reallyhappened.
      “Afterward, I pretty muchlocked myself into my apartment and painted everything I had to dealwith my feelings. After the assault I wanted to kill myself. It’stoo much on top of being disabled, you know what I mean? And I’m sotired of having to explain myself for things that heterosexuals take forgranted. ‘You went to a neighborhood bar – are younuts?’”
      The paintings herefers to are plain wooden panel-back kitchen chairs. One is paintedblack and blue.

Piles of Documents – NoResults

     George Smith hunts in histiny cluttered apartment for a folder of assault-related documents,“helped” by two frisky half-grown kittens.
      The first document is a sheet of notes datedOctober 22 and taken by Doctor Robert Zelazo of the Richford HealthCenter detailing George’s injuries:

Cut in center ofnose
Defensive wounds on right hand 5
On left hand6
Left forarm [sic] 6 defensive wounds, brousings[bruising]
Right forarm [sic] defensive?
Right upper armboot mark
Left upper arm
R eye
L eye blood vessle [sic] broke
Rightfoot
Calf 2
Thy [sic] 3
Buttox [sic] 1
Leftfoot
Calf
Thy [sic]
Buttox [sic]Bruise leftside
Back
Chest Left side bruise by heart
Abdomenbruise
Right side ribs
Left side ribs
Right neck
Left[ditto]
Front [ditto]
Back
Left temple to jaw. Broused [sic] both eys[sic]

Attorney General’s Office and State Police

      Attached to the list in GeorgeSmith’s file is a letter from Steven Pitonyak, identified as a“Civil Rights Investigator” on letterhead from the Office ofthe Attorney General and dated October 25, four days after the assault.Pitonyak thanked “Mr. Smith” for talking with him about theexperience at the Longhorn Trout and enclosed a brochure on hate crimesproduced by the Attorney General’s Civil Rights Unit. Pitonyak saidhe would speak to Ron Goff (the local police chief) and request copiesof any reports.
      A month later,Investigator Pitonyak wrote to George Smith again, enclosing a copy ofthe affidavit filed with the Franklin County State’s Attorney bySenior State Trooper Craig Gardner of the St. Albansbarracks.
      In the affidavit, TrooperGardner (at the time a four-year veteran) relates his interview withGeorge on the night of the assault, including a breathalyzer testshowing George’s blood alcohol content to be at .108 percent, abovethe legal limit for driving – but George had walked to and from thebar.
      The trooper reports that Georgesaid he was talking to one man in particular at the end of the evening,but that “he was not ‘hitting on the man and was not trying tobring him home to have sex.’” The rest of the reportedinterview with George Smith matches in most details the way Georgerelated the incident to me – except that no mention is made of thesexual assault.
      A few days later,Gardner had interviewed the owner of the bar, Dennis Deuso, who waspresent that night. According to the affidavit, Deuso agreed to beinterviewed but refused to give a written and sworn statement. Deusosaid that George (whom he called “Steven”) often came into thebar and “stares at men.” Deuso suggested that George had“nudged” a man sitting near him, who then moved to the otherend of the bar. Later, near closing, Deuso said he heard a disturbanceby the door and thought perhaps Adam Fortier had “taken apoke” at George Smith, but says Smith was not injured or bleeding,and that he helped separate the two.
      Montgomery Police Chief Ron Goff participated inTrooper Gardner’s interview with Adam Fortier, the man Georgeidentifies as his primary attacker. Fortier’s first question to thetrooper was whether he was under arrest, his second whether he shouldhave a lawyer. In Gardner’s affidavit, Fortier accused George of“hitting on him all evening,” “making suggestive and rudesexual comments to him,” offering him a place to stay since Fortierwas too drunk to drive, and then grabbing his buttocks.
      Fortier admitted grabbing George and shoving himinto the door, which was locked, but denied kicking or punching him. Healso refused to give the trooper a sworn written statement without theadvice of an attorney.
      Another man,James Blodgett, was interviewed as a witness to the event, and – asrelated by Trooper Gardner – his statement roughly matchesFortier’s, with the additional observation that a woman hedidn’t know pushed George (whom he also called “Steven”)to the floor near the door. Blodgett also suggested that anotheraltercation involving George occurred outside the bar, but that he didnot witness it.
      Senior TrooperCraig Gardner’s affidavit concludes that there is “probablecause to charge Adam T. Fortier with the crime of Simple Assault.”The affidavit was submitted to the Franklin County State’sAttorney.
      Brian Miller, amember of the Northwest Unit on Special Investigations who had spokenwith George, said at press time that there was no active investigation,that the results of the investigation had been sent on to the FranklinCounty State’s Attorney’s office, and that he could nototherwise comment on the case.
     Georgereceived a letter in mid-March from Franklin County Victim AdvocateCathy Waltz, saying that the State’s Attorney had declined toprosecute. No other explanation was offered.

The HumanRights Commission

     George Smithdidn’t stop there. In January of 2002, three months after theassault, he filed a complaint with the Vermont Human Rights Commissioncharging the owners of the Longhorn Trout with discrimination in publicaccommodations on the basis of his sexual orientation anddisability.
      That complaintcharges that Susan Deuso (Dennis’s wife and co-owner), a bartender,and several patrons verbally harassed him, that a patron restrained himand struck him, that bar owner Dennis Deuso held him down on the floorand several patrons struck him. According to copies of documents Georgeprovided to OITM, within three days, Human Rights Commission CaseManager Carol Bliss was writing to Dennis Deuso to inform him of thecomplaint, provide a copy of George’s charge, and request a longlist of information: names, phone numbers and addresses of thebar’s owners, employees, and patrons present on October 20;training manuals and orientation materials; and any information aboutthe “alleged incident of physical assault.”
      As of press time – nearly a year afterGeorge Smith’s initial complaint to the HRC – an investigatoris still conducting interviews, and no hearing has beenscheduled.

The Longhorn Trout’s Response

      Within two weeks of receiving theirletter from the Human Rights Commission, Susan and Dennis Deusoresponded to the discrimination charge, providing the requested namesand addresses (although no training manual or orientation materials werelisted) and giving their version of the evening’s events:“Dennis see Steven [George] push Celeste, and so I went over andgrabbed Steven and put him to the floor and told him he didn’t wantanybody to get punched and to go home.
      “Earlier in the evening he was harassingAdam Fortier and a few others and making obscene gestures with suckers[lollipops].
      “No onecalled him a Fag and he knows that, we are not that kind of people. Wehave all kinds of people in here and no one cares about his or hersexuality.” The statement was signed by Susan Deuso, and a copy wasforwarded to George Smith by the HRC.

The AmericanCivil Liberties Foundation of Vermont

     Running out of options and feeling that noone was helping, Steven George Smith called and then wrote to the ACLFoundation of Vermont: “Is the ACLF of V the same as ACLU?”George wrote. He explained why he couldn’t afford a long distancecall and asked for someone to call him. Then he responded to questions:“911 was called to my home – I don’t know if charges werepressed – I don’t know if the matter is going to court.I’ve been told because I remember being sexuly assault [sic] in mynightmares that I’m not sopose [sic] to talk about it. If you have1-800 # send it Benson – hope I answered some of you Qs[sic].”
      In his reply,Executive Director Benson Scotch explained that the ACLU focusesprimarily on “violations of civil liberties under the Bill ofRights” that had been “committed by the State of Vermont orthe federal government.”
     Scotchadded that although George had requested a phone interview, he did nothave the staff or volunteers to accommodate him, and asked for morewritten information.

Waiting for Justice

      At the end of January, George Smithwent back to see Dr. Robert Zelazo at the Richford Health Center and wasdiagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome. Since then he’s beenwaiting, rarely going out at night, worried that the people he saysassaulted him in the Longhorn Trout might attack him again. He calls thevarious agencies – on their 800 numbers – and waits for someaction. He finds new agencies that might get involved: the LiquorControl Department to consider suspending the bar’s license;SafeSpace to get help for himself and his case.
      George Smith is still waiting, though he’snot quite so alone now that SafeSpace is helping him track his case.George says that SafeSpace Advocate Mike Bensel listens to hisfrustration with the system, helps him find other agencies to enlist, isworking on getting him a lawyer who will take on a civil case againstthe bar, and is trying to get answers from the law enforcement agenciesthat have so far let him down. But it’s slow work.
     Perhaps for one outsider living in eastern FranklinCounty justice is coming – but then again, so’s Christmas.

How the Human Rights CommissionWorks       TheHuman Rights Commission, among other agencies mentioned in this article,has very specific rules about disclosure: specifically, ExecutiveDirector Robert Apel said, no disclosure or acknowledgment of theparticulars – or even the existence – of a case until anofficial finding is made. All documents from the Human Rights Commissionquoted here were copies provided to OITM by Steven GeorgeSmith.       The investigatoryprocess for any given case takes one to two years on average,Apel said.       And, withlimited staff, certain kinds of cases are of a higher investigationalpriority than others, admitted Apel. Where there’s a continuingrelationship between the complainant and the respondent – employeesand employers, students and school officials, tenants and landlords– investigations move more quickly.       The Commission has received 69employment-related sexual orientation discrimination cases – 10percent of its employment caseload – in the last 5 years; in thesame period, there have been 16 public accommodations cases related tosexual orientation, about 6 percent of the cases in that category.       Even after afinding of discrimination, the case is open for at least another 6months, said Apel, as the Commission offers the parties a chance tosettle without litigation. If there is no settlement (better trainingfor employees or reinstatement to a job, for example), the Commissionmay direct Apel to litigate the case, especially if a class of people(gay or lesbian people, school children, or disabled renters, forexample) might be affected by the outcome.       The decision of whether or notto litigate follows its own priorities, according to a draft set ofcriteria Apel cited: racism, school harassment, and disability access.George Smith’s “public accommodations-sexual orientation”case doesn’t apparently fit into either of the commission’spriority lists.       If the Commission issues a finding of discrimination but doesnot elect to litigate, their investigation, said Apel, “provides ablueprint” for the complainant’s own lawyer to build a casefor a civil action – if the complainant can afford one. –EB State’s Attorney: Will This EvidenceConvince a Jury?      Franklin CountyState’s Attorney Jim Hughes said he declined to prosecute AdamFortier because he didn’t think he could convince all 12 jurors toconvict him. “Number one,” he said, “I have a pretty hardtime getting convictions for a simple assault in a bar. Number two, Ihave to deal with a lack of resources. I have to triage my cases. Inthis case the evidence was not solid. There were conflicting stories,including a suggestion that Steven Smith had acted inappropriately– not that that means anyone should be punched forit.”       Hughes recalled some of the bar’s history: “Thisplace used to be called the Slovakia Inn, nicknamed the Slugout. It wasjust a rough and tumble place.”       But, he continued,“Whenever anyone gets hurt we try to look at it seriously. TrooperGardner did a very thorough investigation – sometimes in a barfight, a simple assault, you get a one-pager for a report.”Gardner’s affidavit ran to three-and-a half pages.       “And we made sure some ofSteven [George] Smith’s expenses got paid through Victim’sCompensation,” Hughes concluded. – EB