Updated at 6:12 p.m.

Vermont State Police investigated an allegation in 2014 that a state employee had been arrested while on an EB-5-related trip in China and found no evidence to support the claim, Public Safety Commissioner Tom Anderson said Tuesday.

The unusual statement was the latest official response to an incendiary allegation levied by Stowe attorney Russell Barr. He has sued state officials on behalf of EB-5 investors who lost money in the Jay Peak scandal. After a court hearing on the investors' lawsuit last week, Barr told reporters he has evidence that one of the 10 defendants had been arrested on an EB-5 trip to China in "2013 or 2014" for "having sex with a minor" and was bailed out by another state official.

Anderson revealed that Vermont Republican Party vice chair Brady Toensing made a complaint to the Vermont State Police Internal Affairs Unit in October 2014, alleging that a state employee had been arrested on a trip in September 2013. Toensing did not provide the employee's name or the reason for the supposed arrest, but said that members of the Vermont State Police Executive Protection Unit who went to China "would have been aware of that arrest" and "should have reported the possible illegal conduct," according to Anderson.

Toensing did not reveal the source of his information or additional details, Anderson said. Vermont State Police Major Ingrid Jonas, who was then a lieutenant who ran internal affairs, conducted an inquiry. Jonas determined that members of the protection unit "did accompany then-Governor [Peter] Shumlin on a trip to China," Anderson said, but they didn't "have any information about any state employee being arrested or engaging in criminal conduct while on this trip." The matter was closed.

Jonas' inquiry was confined to an internal affairs probe. A broader criminal investigation would not have been appropriate, Anderson said.

"With respect to a criminal investigation, attorney Toensing’s complaint was vague, non-specific, based on his 'beliefs,' and did not allege any violations of Vermont law," Anderson said.

Anderson called on Barr or others to provide evidence. He also seemed to take a swipe at Toensing's motivation.

"The Department of Public Safety and the Vermont State Police have a fundamental constitutional and ethical obligation not to launch criminal investigations of Vermont citizens based on rumor, innuendo, or which are solely politically or financially motivated," Anderson said.
Staff writer Alicia Freese contributed to this report.