A new candidate has entered the race for sheriff in Vermont’s Franklin County, amid a scandal involving the man who previously received support for the job from both Republicans and Democrats.
Mark Lauer, a retired Vermont state trooper and current investigator with the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office, is mounting a rare write-in campaign for sheriff.
"Honesty, integrity, and courage — those are the things I live by every day," Lauer said in an interview Friday with NECN & NBC10 Boston.
Lauer, who has 35 years of law enforcement experience, called behavior by his opponent in widely-seen video released by the sheriff’s office "just unacceptable."
The video showed John Grismore kicking a handcuffed, shackled, and seemingly intoxicated detainee in the groin, in an apparent attempt to force the man to sit down and comply with deputies’ commands.
As NECN & NBC10 Boston previously reported, the kicking was promptly reported to senior leadership in the sheriff’s office by Grismore’s own colleagues.
Sheriff Roger Langevin, who is retiring, at first suspended Grismore, pending an investigation. Langevin later announced he terminated Grismore’s employment, calling the actions seen in the video "egregious."
A separate Vermont State Police investigation into the former captain’s actions is still underway.
Despite this scrutiny, Grismore will be the one name on ballots for Franklin County sheriff this fall, after he secured the nomination from the Republicans in the August primary and had enough write-in support from Democrats to earn their nomination, too.
Both parties then pressed Grismore to end his campaign after the video of the kick surfaced.
However, Grismore did not heed those calls to withdraw from the November election by a ballot-printing deadline from the office of Vermont Secretary of State Jim Condos.
"I don’t know how he’d be able to serve if he won,” Franklin County Senator Corey Parent, who chairs the Franklin County GOP, said of Grismore.
Parent, who is not seeking re-election to the Vermont State Senate in the fall, said the party is now endorsing Lauer in his write-in effort.
Lauer told NECN & NBC10 Boston he would not have entered the race as a write-in candidate were it not for the actions he saw in the video.
“To win a general election is really tough,” Parent acknowledged of write-in candidates like Lauer. “And it will require both the Franklin County Republican and Democratic parties coming together and saying, ‘Hey, we need to go in this direction.’”
In a written statement to NECN & NBC10 Boston, Zach Scheffler, the chair of the Franklin County Democrats, said the county party could possibly move forward with an endorsement in the coming days.
Scheffler noted party leaders do have some questions for Lauer they want answers to before they could throw support behind the write-in candidate on a unity ticket.
John Grismore did not respond to NECN & NBC10 Boston’s request for comment Friday before our news deadline. This story will be updated if Grismore issues a response.
Grismore’s new write-in opponent said he’s looking forward to getting his name out there.
"I’m 110% committed," Lauer said, noting that if his uphill write-in campaign is successful, he would make it clear to his department that the kind of behavior seen in the video is completely unacceptable. "If you break the law, you’re going to be treated like a person who broke the law."
