John Grismore, formerly a captain in the Franklin County, Vermont, sheriff’s department, took office as the county’s new sheriff on Wednesday. Grismore was fired from the job of captain back in August 2022 after a video of him kicking a prisoner in chains went viral. State police said last week that they are investigating his finances as well, along with the finances of the sheriff’s office. He is still under investigation for both incidents, according to Fox News.
“I wouldn’t be here today if I thought I was guilty. I’m very confident that this will get resolved,” Grismore told a local news outlet as he was set to assume office.
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Who is John Grismore?
49-year-old Grismore won the seat as Franklin County’s sheriff in December 2022, defeating two write-in candidates. With this win, he became entitled to assume office in the same department that fired him as the captain.
Grismore said that he has no knowledge of the investigations about the incident of beating up a prisoner or the financial dealings. As far as the former is concerned, he maintained that his actions were appropriate to the situation he was in.
Regarding his plans as the new sheriff of Franklin County, Grismore told the Associated Press in an email: “A little further down the road, I intend to explore opportunities to expand our police services throughout the county, continue the great work already started on identifying innovative and cost-saving technologies, continuing the development and deployment of the Crisis Response Team, and developing our and retaining our personnel and attracting new talent to the team, to name a few.”
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“We’re not going to provide public safety if we don’t have credible accountable leaders in the office of sheriff,” Rep. Mike McCarthy, said reacting to the appointment. “In Vermont, many of them are, but we have a handful of incidents that are leading us to believe maybe there is something wrong with the structure of how we set up that office in the constitution and in the statute.”
