A former Vermont state trooper has pleaded no contest to charges that he assaulted two men, believing that they had stolen his canoe.
Erick Howley, who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, says he doesn’t remember the incident last April.
The Brattleboro Reformer reports in a plea deal reached with prosecutors, the 41-year-old Howley received a six-to-12-month suspended sentence for two counts of simple assault Tuesday.
Howley, of West Dover, needs to continue mental-health treatment and can’t seek employment as a police officer or security guard.
Howley resigned in May. Court papers said he repeatedly slammed a man’s head on the trunk of his cruiser and pushed another man into a rock at Lake Raponda in Wilmington. They were in a canoe Howley identified as his and had reported stolen.