VT- New law stops criminal defendants from profiting on cases

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6-2-2009 Vermont:

RUTLAND – Jennifer Cavacas knows the legislation she inspired won't bring back her brother or the assets of his estate, which were transferred after he was fatally shot last year.

But on Monday, when Gov. James Douglas signed her bill into law at the Rutland Police Department, Cavacas said she hopes her work will help others.

Cavacas' brother, Sean Grant, was killed in an incident at his West Rutland home last April that police and prosecutors say was second-degree murder. But Grant's wife, Wendy Pelkey-Grant, told police she shot her husband in defense of her children. The case has yet to go to trial.

After Grant's death, Cavacas said her family learned that Pelkey-Grant had signed over the deed to the couple's jointly owned home to Pelkey-Grant's daughter.

The new law, which Cavacas helped create by bringing it to Rutland Sen. Kevin Mullin's attention, prohibits defendants in criminal cases from making a profit from their alleged crimes. Until the signing only Vermont and New Hampshire lacked so-called "Son of Sam" laws.

"Hopefully this will protect the next family," Cavacas said.

The Rutland woman and her mother were guests of honor Monday when S.26 was signed. After writing his signature, Douglas gave the pen he used to Cavacas.

"This was a great example of an individual Vermonter making a difference," Douglas told the roomful of legislators, police officers and others at the Rutland Police Department where the governor signed two bills into law.

The other new law is S.125, a comprehensive sex offender law that expands the number of people on Vermont's Internet registry five-fold and adds the home addresses of sex offenders convicted of certain crimes. The law also spells out sanctions for teenagers caught sending risqué pictures of themselves via cell phones and other electronic means. While the law stops short of criminal charges, it does make "sexting" a juvenile offense that would be handled either in family court or through diversion programs.

Douglas said he chose Rutland as the location for the bills' signing because the city could relate to the problems the new laws aim to fix.

"This community has wrestled with a lot of these issues for some time, so I thought it appropriate to come here," the governor said.

Addressing the virtues of the new laws, Douglas said S.26 would "make it clear that crime doesn't pay" while the sex offender registry expansions will "make it clear that Vermont isn't a place where it would be easy to commit sexual crimes." ..Source.. by BRENT CURTIS Rutland Herald Staff