NORTH HERO, Vt. (WCAX) – The Grand Isle state’s attorney has dismissed the assault charge against Franklin County Sheriff John Grismore and says the case is closed.
The decision comes after two jury trials of Grismore ended in mistrials after jurors were unable to reach unanimous decisions despite a total of 17.5 hours of deliberations.
Monday afternoon, Grand Isle State’s Attorney Doug DiSabito said in a statement, in part: “After any mistrial, I review a case and evaluate all the circumstances and 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. Therefore, I am dismissing the case against Mr. Grismore.”
Grismore was charged with simple assault for kicking a shackled inmate in 2022 when he was a captain with the department. The state called it a case of simple assault, pointing to the fact that Grismore was not in uniform and could have used other means of getting Burrows to comply. Grismore has always maintained that he did nothing wrong and was helping less experienced officers get a situation under control.