A South Burlington coin and jewelry dealer will not go to prison for committing a lewd act on his 93-year-old, comatose mother-in-law in the final hours before she died two years ago.
Stephen J. Edwards, 72, of Nicklaus Circle, received a suspended 6-12 month prison term during his sentencing in Vermont Superior Court on Friday afternoon, July 31.
Judge Martin Maley, who several times called the case “inexplicable,” placed Edwards under state probation conditions for two years. If Edwards violates those terms, he could be sent to prison, Maley said.
The sentence was a sharp downward departure of what some members of the victim’s family thought should and would happen to Edwards.
The case also has been a “hot potato,” overseen by five judges in two years. Maley pointed out that jury trials have come to a halt during the COVID-19 pandemic – but could be starting again.
Edwards had initially denied a felony charge of lewd and lascivious conduct on a vulnerable adult in July 2018.
The alleged victim, Marjorie Schumann Haggarty, was on her deathbed at the Burlington Health and Rehab on Pearl Street and was unable to communicate to alert anybody about being molested, police and family have said.
She died about 36 hours after the incident.
Edwards pleaded guilty in February 2019 to a felony sex charge. He faced a potential 2-5 year prison term and a spot on the Vermont Sex Offender Registry.
Maley ordered a psychosexual evaluation on Edwards as part of a pre-sentence investigation report.
But Edwards later fired his defense lawyer and retained Stowe lawyer Chandler Matson. Edwards maintained there was nothing sexual about the act he committed. The defense team hired a psychiatrist and a psychologist who said, after interviewing Edwards, they thought the act was never sexual in nature.
Matson never filed the two full assessments with the court after Judge Sam Hoar said they would be considered public documents.
Matson for his sentencing memo used small segments from both evaluations: a psychiatric report by Dr. Albert Drukteinis of Manchester, N.H., and an assessment by Thomas A. Powell, a Shelburne psychologist.
Deputy State’s Attorney Dana M. DiSano said the prosecution might have difficulty providing evidence for the felony charge that Edwards had become aroused or received gratification from his actions with the dying woman.
As Maley reviewed each element of the crime, he asked Edwards if he acknowledged it. In the end, Maley asked for a plea, and Edwards said “guilty.”
Maley noted it was not an accident, but intentional.
“It’s a word I am having trouble with,” Edwards said. “I’ll say yes.”
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