Mike Donoghue,
A longtime Bennington County
police officer denied criminal charges of sale and possession of prescription
drugs, extortion and neglect of his official duties.
Gary Harrington, 41, of
Arlington also pleaded not guilty in Vermont Superior Court in Bennington to a
charge of forgery of insurance records.
Harrington, who served as a
deputy sheriff for about 18 years, had his girlfriend sell prescription
painkillers for him, court records show.
Bennington County Sheriff Chad
Schmidt said he fired Harrington Wednesday night as he was arrested by
Bennington Police. Cpl. Harrington's uniforms, gun and police gear were seized,
Schmidt said.
Sheriff's deputies also seized
more than 800 pills at Harrington's home after his wife consented to a search,
police said. The drugs included morphine, codeine, oxycodone and methadone,
court records show.
Harrington worked full time as
an emergency dispatcher on the midnight shift for the town of Manchester.
Police Chief Michael Hall announced Thursday that Harrington was fired as a
dispatcher and his appointment as a special part-time officer for the town was
revoked.
Hall said Harrington worked for
Winhall Police and the Vermont Probation Department in between his two stints
in Manchester.
A police affidavit reported a
women, Rebecca Amidon, 28, of Bennington said she had been in a relationship
with Harrington, who is married, since meeting through Facebook in November or
December 2013.
Bennington County State's
Attorney Erica Marthage said the case began as an investigation into possible
forged insurance papers for Amidon and escalated into drug and extortion cases.
Marthage filed three felony drug sale charges and seven possession charges.
Marthage praised the sheriffs
department and Bennington Police for swift action by completing the
investigation in about one day after getting a complaint.
Amidon said she was in a March
car accident and had no license or insurance, but Harrington provided her with
an insurance card, which proved to be counterfeit, police said.
The crash was investigated by
the Bennington County Sheriffs Department and Harrington provided a copy of an
insurance card to another deputy, who later reported it disappeared from his
work space, police said.
Later as their relationship
further developed, Amidon said Harrington gave her a handful of pills in late
April or early May, police said. Amidon told investigators she sold them for
Harrington and turned over the profits to him, Bennington Sgt. Michael W.
Plusch said in a court affidavit.
Plusch said Amidon reported
Harrington later arrived at her Bennington home in a police cruiser and in
uniform and provided her $350 worth of Vicodin. Amidon said she again turned
over profits from the sales to Harrington, police reported.
The final drug case came Monday
after Harrington provided her five suboxone lingual strips worth $100 to sell,
police said.
The following day Harrington
and Amidon had a falling out. Amidon provided police with a Facebook post that
indicated Harrington threatened her with possible arrest, police said.
"Don't contact me anymore
or I will have you arrest with something. I am done after that out burst
..." it stated in part, police said.
Bennington Police arrested
Harrington on Wednesday night and held him overnight for lack of $10,000 bail.
Judge Nancy Corsones agreed to
continue bail at the same amount.
Defense lawyer William Wright
questioned the validity of the seven drug possession charges. He noted
Harrington suffers from back pain and the prescribed pills are valid, but old.
Schmidt, the county sheriff,
said information initially surfaced Tuesday about possible employee misconduct
within his department and he contacted Bennington Police Chief Paul Doucette to
start an investigation.
Schmidt said Harrington was
assigned to do outside security work at Mount Anthony Union High School during
lunch periods and also served civil process.
"Let me be clear that the
investigation has uncovered no criminal activity conducted by Mr. Harrington
while on duty at the high school," Schmidt said.
He said there is no evidence
that the drugs had been seized during his police duties.
Contact Mike Donoghue at
660-1845 or mdonoghue@freepressmedia.com.
