State v. Robert Lyle Percy:historic Criminal Justice Cases
| Jurisdiction | Vermont,United States |
| Citation | Vol. 49 No. 3 |
| Publication year | 2023 |
by the Hon. Dean B. Pineles (Ret.)
Nine years late. May my daughters have your courage and may they have a fairer and faster criminal justice system.
Attorney General Jeffrey Amestoy to Susan Sweetser, Oct. 25, 1990, after the Vermont Supreme Court finally affirmed the conviction of her assailant, Robert Percy.
Two of the most notorious and significant cases in Vermont's criminal justice history involved a defendant named Robert Lyle Percy from Elmore, Vermont. They are notorious, not only because of their seriousness (sexual assault, kidnapping), but because of the inordinate amount of time it took to bring them to final resolution, and other important reasons as well.
The case involving victim Susan Sweetser took from late 1980 to 1990, and the one involving victim Susan Kremelberg took from early 1981 to 1992. All the while, these cases generated intense public scrutiny, most notably by Lori Campbell of the Burlington Free Press and Sally Johnson of the Rutland Herald, many of whose articles are cited herein.
An explanation for why the cases took so long to work their way through the criminal system would require a detailed analysis of court records, so my discussion is limited to general time frames only. Regardless, the cases took over ten years, which under any circumstances is far too long.
These cases are also remarkable because these two courageous women decided to shed their anonymity. In the spring of 1990, they joined forces to go public about the tortuous legal process that repeatedly revictimized them. Their stories resonated throughout the legal community and the general public.
As a result, the Vermont legislature and Supreme Court enacted a series of major reforms, starting in 1991. While these cases are now decades old, they are still relevant. Many critical aspects of today's criminal justice system would not exist if it were not for the lengthy pursuit of justice by these tenacious women.
The cases are also significant because the defendant posed a unique defense at the time -- insanity as a result of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) from his combat experience in Vietnam in the 1970s.
Moreover, the parallel tracks of the two cases are striking—a full trial in each with a verdict of guilty, followed by a Supreme Court reversal in each, followed by a retrial in each with a verdict of guilty, followed by a Supreme Court affirmance in each, all of which took a full decade.
My primary focus here is on the Kremelberg case because of my personal involvement, but first a summary of the Sweetser case which is equally important.
On the evening of Dec. 7, 1980, Ms. Sweetser was driving along a deserted section of Route 12 between Elmore and Worcester during a snowstorm when Percy leaped in front of her car causing her to stop abruptly. He jumped into the car and forced her to drive to an isolated location off the main road where he physically and sexually assaulted her. He then had her drive back to Route 12 where he got out of the car and fled.
Two weeks later, he was arrested and charged with sexual assault and kidnapping. At trial in the fall of 1981, Percy relied on the insanity defense which he claimed arose from his combat experience in Vietnam. The jury returned a verdict of guilty on the sexual assault charge (although not the kidnapping charge). Four long years later, however, the conviction was reversed and remanded in State v. Robert Percy, 146 Vt. 475 (1986).
The case was then retried to a jury in May 1988, again with a verdict of guilty. The defense here was mistaken identity, not insanity. This time, the Supreme Court upheld the conviction in State v. Percy, 156 Vt. 468 (1990), now nearly ten full years after the commission of the offense.
Vermont Attorney General Jeffrey Amestoy communicated directly with Sweetser immediately after the decision was announced: "Nine years late. May my daughters have your courage and may they have a fairer and faster criminal justice system."[1]
The Kremelberg case unfolded with a similarly terrifying scenario. On the late afternoon of Jan. 16, 1981, Percy was working at a gas station in Stowe. Although he had a serious criminal record, including sexual assaults and prison time, he was out on bail in the Sweetser case. At the time, the bail statutes did not permit the court to deny bail if the defendant was a danger to the public, only a risk of flight
Ms. Kremelberg pulled in for gas, but Percy told her she had a flat tire. He lured her to a dark area of the station where he kidnapped her at gunpoint. He then forced her to drive south, raping her twice along the way, once in Vermont and once in Connecticut, where he was apprehended after she managed to escape.
The defendant was convicted in Lamoille District Court after a lengthy trial by court without a jury of sexual assault, kidnapping, carrying a dangerous weapon while committing a felony, and assault and robbery with a dangerous weapon, again involving the insanity defense. This was long before my involvement.
These convictions, however, were again overturned by the Supreme Court and the case remanded, State v. Percy, 149 Vt. 623 (1988). The Court said it was up to the trial judge to determine the proper course of action on remand.
However, following remand, the trial judge recused himself and no...
To continue reading
Request your trial