Former Addison County Sheriff Peter Newton appears for a change-of-plea hearing before pleading guilty to two charges in Chittenden County Superior criminal court in Burlington on January 24, 2025. File photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger A former Addison County sheriff with criminal convictions cou ld land on a national database that flags when someone has lost the certification they need to work as a law enforcement officer. Peter Newton’s two-year probation for assault and lewd and lascivious conduct already prohibits him from holding a law enforcement job.  Now, the Vermont Criminal Justice Council has scheduled a hearing to consider sanctions up to and “including permanent revocation” of Newton’s law enforcement certification for “alleged unprofessional conduct.”  The hearing is set for June 16. Newton was sentenced in October 2025 after earlier pleading guilty to charges of felony lewd and lascivious conduct and misdemeanor simple assault. They were lesser charges than those initially brought against him in June 2022, which included counts of felony sexual assault and unlawful restraint.  Newton’s sentence included two years of probation, with a condition that he not work as a law enforcement officer, according to court records. Christopher Brickell, executive director of the Vermont Criminal Justice Council, said Thursday that Newton’s past law enforcement certification has lapsed. Still, Brickell said, there are reasons for moving forward with the hearing to address his certification. READ MORE “You can still decertify somebody,” Brickell said. He added that a decertification sanction by the panel gets reported to a national database alerting law enforcement agencies around the country of the action in Vermont as they consider someone for employment.  Newton could not be reached Friday for comment. According to a notice of the hearing posted online last week, Newton struck a woman on the buttocks in February 2022, causing bruising. The notice called his actions “open and gross.”  Newton, who was sheriff in Addison County at the time he was arrested, later said he would not run for another four-year term. He served out his remaining term, which expired in January 2023. At Newton’s sentencing, Judge John Pacht imposed a two-year deferred sentence on the lewd conduct charge, meaning that if Newton does not violate probation terms during that period, the conviction can be cleared from his record. On the simple assault charge, the judge sentenced Newton to six to 12 months, all suspended on probation.  If the state panel does act against Newton’s certification, he would become the third sheriff in recent years to have action taken against his law enforcement certification in Vermont.  Franklin County Sheriff John Grismore had his certification revoked in 2023 over a use-of-force policy violation. Grismore had initially been charged with simple assault for allegedly kicking a person in custody. But after two mistrials with jurors unable to reach unanimous verdicts, the prosecutor dropped the case.  Sheriffs are independently elected officials in Vermont, and Grismore remains in office. However, his duties are now limited, and he can no longer take part in many facets of standard police work. More recently, Windsor County Sheriff Ryan Palmer had his certification temporarily suspended in February after his arrest in late January on several criminal charges. The charges included lewd and lascivious conduct, two counts of soliciting prostitution, two counts of aggravated stalking with a deadly weapon, and two counts of obstructing justice.  Palmer has pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial. He has said that he has stepped away from his work and another person in the office is now running the day-to-day operations of the law enforcement agency. Read the story on VTDigger here: Blocked from police work in Vermont, ex-Addison County sheriff faces possible new black mark  . ...read more read less