Bennington lawmaker pleads not guilty to DUI charge

Updated April 26.

Rep. Jim Carroll, D-Bennington, pleaded not guilty on Thursday to driving under the influence of alcohol, first offense. The hearing had earlier been postponed because he was undergoing treatment at a rehabilitation facility.

Public defender Avi Springer entered the plea on Carroll’s behalf at the Washington County Superior criminal court in Barre. Carroll appeared via video link, having earlier asked the court’s permission to participate remotely as he was scheduled to attend legislative committee hearings in Montpelier.

His misdemeanor charge is punishable by a maximum of two years in jail and/or a $750 fine.

Carroll, 62, was arrested on the morning of Feb. 21 on suspicion of drunken driving after a traffic stop outside the Vermont Statehouse.

Court records show that during the traffic stop, which stemmed from Carroll’s loud car exhaust, a Montpelier police officer saw several empty beer cans inside his vehicle. The officer also noted that Carroll’s eyes were bloodshot and watery, and he emitted a “moderately strong odor of intoxicants.”

Carroll agreed to a roadside breath test that registered a blood alcohol content of 0.081%, just above the 0.08 threshold for drunken driving.

A secondary test at the police station a half-hour later, performed to collect data admissible in court, showed a blood alcohol concentration of 0.066. A state forensic chemist later calculated that Carroll’s BAC at the time he was driving would have been approximately 0.081, falling between 0.076 and 0.095.

That evening, Carroll told VTDigger he regretted his actions and did not plan to contest the charge. He did not provide a comment following his arraignment on Thursday.

At the hearing, Judge John Pacht granted Carroll’s request for a public defender. Carroll is scheduled to return to court in July.

His arraignment had been reset twice before. The first, scheduled March 7, had been postponed because he was in a residential treatment facility. The two-term state legislator had told VTDigger he planned to enter rehab the day after his arrest.

The second scheduled arraignment, on April 11, did not happen because the court said Carroll did not receive proper notice that the hearing had been set for that day.

Carroll was first elected to the Vermont House of Representatives in 2019. He lost his 2021 reelection race but won the seat again in 2023. He had been a member of the Bennington Selectboard since 2012 but lost his reelection bid in March.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Bennington lawmaker pleads not guilty to DUI charge .