Two Franklin County law enforcement officials accused of wrongdoing do not intend to go quietly, leading Vermont lawmakers to brace themselves for a protracted impeachment battle.

Some legislators initially expressed optimism that State's Attorney John Lavoie and Sheriff John Grismore might resign instead of facing the rarely used, potentially humiliating process of being tried publicly and removed from office.

An investigation released last week found that Lavoie used crass, racist and sexist language in his office. Grismore was elected sheriff in November despite having been caught on camera months earlier kicking a shackled suspect.

Lawmakers expressed outrage over the comments attributed to Lavoie and resolved to do something about it.

"The allegations were heinous," Sen. Tanya Vyhovsky (P/D-Chittenden-Central) said. "The report was really hard to read."

Following complaints about Lavoie's workplace conduct, the Department of State's Attorneys and Sheriffs hired a law firm to conduct a probe. It confirmed that Lavoie had made numerous remarks "relating to race, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, disability and body composition," the department's executive committee told Lavoie in a letter urging him to resign. There were also complaints of nonsexual touching.

The report said Lavoie used phrases such as "whore" and "fucking slutbag" and "the c word." He also once mentioned that someone had "magnificent boobs." All of the dozen or so employees he manages are women, many of whom shared their concerns with investigators.

He also cracked jokes about people's weight, called one woman a "carpet muncher" for traveling with a female companion and referred to an attorney with a limb deformity as "T. Rex," the report states.

Rep. Matt Birong (D-Vergennes) said he was stunned by the tone of the remarks and the way Lavoie seemed to be "targeting virtually every protected class," referring to antidiscrimination statutes.

"I've spent 30 years in professional kitchens in Manhattan, Boston and throughout Vermont, and this is as severe and appalling as anything I've heard in those environments," Birong, who owns 3 Squares Café in Vergennes, told Seven Days.

During an impromptu press conference at the Statehouse last week, Lavoie denied touching anyone in his office inappropriately or saying anything racist or sexist. But he did acknowledge that his "sense of humor is often inappropriate."

Lavoie, a Democrat, is a longtime Franklin County prosecutor who was elected state's attorney in November. He said he had apologized to those he may have offended but would not resign because the language he's accused of using was "not sufficient" to compel him to step down. He also suggested that the investigation was politically motivated.

Grismore, a Republican, was elected sheriff in November even after video surfaced last August of him kicking a suspect in the groin. He faces an assault charge and was fired from the department he now leads. He has also rejected calls to step down.

Sen. Randy Brock (R-Franklin) began his career as a military police officer and has served as a special deputy sheriff.

"Of all the training I've had, I don't recall any courses that told me to kick a handcuffed and shackled prisoner in the balls," Brock said. "I never took that course. Maybe I missed it."

Brock said he is concerned about the number of law enforcement-related misconduct allegations in Franklin County that have received media attention in recent years.

In one, a St. Albans police officer was captured on video punching a handcuffed woman in the face while she was in custody in March 2019. The officer, Jason Lawton, was fired and last year pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault.

Brock stressed, however, that Franklin County is far from alone in facing challenges to hold its sheriff accountable. As state auditor, he investigated Windham County sheriff Sheila Prue in 2006 and accused her of misappropriating more than $62,000 from the cash-strapped department. She later resigned and pleaded guilty to felony embezzlement and two misdemeanors.

More recently, Addison and Bennington counties have dealt with scandals involving their sheriffs. Last June, former Addison County sheriff Peter Newton was arrested on charges of sexual assault, unlawful restraint and domestic assault after an ex-girlfriend accused him of abusing her. Newton refused calls to resign and remained in office until his term ended earlier this year.

And in Bennington County, then-sheriff Chad Schmidt was widely criticized last year for spending much of his time in Tennessee, where he eventually moved full time with his family. Journalists, key agency partners and even his own staff reported difficulty getting in touch with or meeting Schmidt in person. Like Newton, Schmidt didn't run for reelection last year.

"You probably had less of a problem in Bennington County than you had in Franklin County because the sheriff was in Tennessee most of the year," Brock quipped.

A bill aiming to increase accountability of sheriffs' departments is making its way through the legislature this session.

The proposed reforms would prohibit sheriffs from supplementing their salaries by benefitting financially from all business that runs through their departments, including flagging, security and prisoner transport contracts. The bill would also require additional financial oversight measures after a sheriff has announced they will not seek reelection. Further, the bill would institute a conflict-of-interest policy.

Senators also plan to propose a constitutional amendment next year that would give the legislature more authority over sheriffs, state's attorneys and other county-elected officials.

The time-consuming process of impeachment is currently the only way lawmakers can remove officials from office. House Speaker Jill Krowinski (D-Burlington) said last week that, in the cases of Lavoie and Grismore, it could help to restore public trust.

"The people of Franklin County deserve justice and elected officials who they can trust to uphold the rule of law and to represent their community with integrity," Krowinski said.

The House Government Operations and Military Affairs Committee voted 12-0 on Tuesday to form a bipartisan impeachment committee. Its work could begin as early as next week, Rep. Mike McCarthy (D-St. Albans) said.

Krowinski will name seven House members to the committee, which is expected to include McCarthy and Rep. Martin LaLonde (D-South Burlington), an attorney and chair of the House Judiciary Committee.

The House is expected to give the committee the authority to subpoena witnesses and compel testimony. Once the committee's work is done, the full House would need to return to session — perhaps in the fall — to decide whether to impeach one or both men. The case would then move, presumably next session, to the Senate, which would conduct a mini-trial and decide whether to remove the men from office.

Approval from two-thirds of the members in each body is needed for each step — 100 in the House and 20 in the Senate.

The process was last employed in 1976 against Washington County sheriff Malcolm "Mike" Mayo, who was accused of roughing up bar patrons and abusing his authority. He was impeached by the House but acquitted of abuse of power by the Senate. No one has been removed from office through impeachment since the 1700s.

If one or both men resign before the process reaches the Senate, it's possible lawmakers could drop the matter. They could also conclude that they need to see the process through. Impeachment means an individual can be barred from running for elected office again.

"Even if they resign, that doesn't necessarily get them out of hot water," said Rep. Seth Chase (D-Colchester), a member of the House Government Operations and Military Affairs Committee.

All the talk of outrage and impeachment strikes Vince Illuzzi, the state's attorney for Essex County and a former state senator, as premature. In the case of Lavoie, an internal investigative report is a far cry from proof of misconduct. The claims have yet to be exposed to judicial scrutiny, such as public testimony of witnesses or cross-examination, Illuzzi noted.

"You need to avoid a rush to judgment," Illuzzi said.

In particular, he thinks lawmakers might be wise to wait until other regulatory agencies complete any inquiry before launching an impeachment. Those processes could yield important facts that could help lawmakers make more informed decisions, he said.

"The ultimate question is whether his conduct crossed the line that makes boorish behavior unlawful," he said.

While the state Constitution grants lawmakers the right to impeach officials deemed "state criminals," it does not define that term. Lawmakers can impeach someone for "conduct found by the General Assembly to violate the public trust or to undermine the operation of government, even if that conduct is not specifically covered by criminal law," House Clerk BetsyAnn Wrask explained in a memo.

The longer the process takes, though, the longer Lavoie gets to continue managing an office full of women who've shown the courage to speak out, said Vyhovsky, the Chittenden-Central senator.

"I can't imagine how anyone would be able to comfortably work in that environment," she said.

The allegations involving the state's attorney, meantime, could undermine the confidence of victims of domestic abuse or sexual violence that their cases will be pursued to the fullest extent of the law.

"How can you possibly trust that this person can deliver you any type of justice?" Vyhovsky said. "It creates chaos and complete distrust in the system, which is not good for anyone."

Grismore did not respond to requests for comment from Seven Days. Nor did Lavoie, beyond his comments at last week's press conference, which came before the report was publicly released.

Lavoie told the Statehouse press corps that he has never received formal anti-harassment or antidiscrimination training during his 34-year career as a prosecutor in Vermont.

First hired as a deputy state's attorney in Windham County in 1988, Lavoie has been a prosecutor in Franklin County since 2004. He took office as state's attorney on February 1.

Every two years, active members of the bar are required to attest under penalty of perjury that they have completed 24 hours of specific legal training. While most involve updates on case law, the required training also includes two hours of ethics instruction and one hour of "diversity and inclusion programming." There's even a Mandatory Continuing Legal Education Board responsible for making sure lawyers comply with the training rules.

Andrew Strauss, the lawyer responsible for managing the training, said the diversity training has been a requirement since 2020, and Lavoie last renewed his license in 2022.

If Lavoie has failed to take such courses, it's not because they weren't available. The Department of State's Attorneys and Sheriffs holds training every year for state's attorneys. For the past three years, these have included classes in diversity and inclusion.

In 2022, Burlington attorney Kerin Stackpole, an employment law specialist, gave a seminar at the annual training called "Diversity, Equity, Bias and Respect in the Workplace."

Lavoie attended other talks that day but skipped the diversity session, said Timothy Lueders-Dumont, a staff attorney for the Department of State's Attorneys and Sheriffs. Lavoie later told John Campbell, the organization's executive director, that he missed it due to a family member's illness, Lueders-Dumont said.

Corrections, May 10, 2023: A previous version of this story misspelled the name of the last person to be impeached in Vermont, and it misreported the year of Stackpole's training.