While embattled Woodstock Police Chief Joe Swanson and the Village of Woodstock continue the legal fight over his removal, the municipality is apparently moving forward with hiring a new officer for the police department.
In a series of e-mail exchanges Burlington attorney John Klesch, on behalf of Woodstock and its Municipal Manager Eric Duffy, believes Swanson has abandoned his police employment when he said he would not accept a demotion from chief to entry level patrol officer.
Attorney Linda Fraas, on behalf of Swanson, said her client cannot accept a position that he never applied for and he needs to be restored as police chief.
The Village of Woodstock appears to be moving forward without Swanson, even though he has appealed his demotion to the Vermont Superior Court. Swanson also has filed a multi-million lawsuit in Vermont Superior Court against Duffy, Interim Police Chief Chris O’Keeffe, the past village trustee chair Seton McIlroy, the Village of Woodstock, the Town of Woodstock, and William Burgess, a private investigation firm.
The Windsor County Sheriff’s Department said Deputy Jabri Black has resigned effective Thursday to accept a post as a police officer with the Woodstock Police Department.
Multiple sources also told the Vermont Standard that the village had reached out as part of a hiring background check in recent weeks.
Black, reached by phone Tuesday evening by the Vermont Standard, confirmed his resignation with the sheriff’s office and said he is headed to the Woodstock Police Department.
Black said he was told he will be working the evening and overnight shifts. Those are the work shifts Swanson was assigned by O’Keeffe following the chief’s demotion by Duffy.
Black, 27, has worked as a fulltime deputy for just over three years for the Windsor County Sheriff’s Department. The North Carolina native had previously worked security at the courthouse in White River Junction for about 18 months.
Duffy and O’Keeffe did not respond to interview requests by the Vermont Standard this week.
Swanson has not given up his employment rights with the village, Fraas said. She said the superior court ruled the first time Woodstock trustees botched the demotion effort when conducting the appeal of Duffy’s announced demotion.
Fraas said she expects the same result from the second appeal, which remains pending.
Duffy and the Village of Woodstock are seeking a 4-month delay in responding to Swanson’s appeal on his demotion. The normal response time is 30 days.
“Respondent’s persistent attempts to delay an outcome in this matter creates manifest injustice to petitioner,” Fraas said about Woodstock’s attempt to stall the case.
“There is no basis for Respondent’s request for more than thirty days to file an opposition memorandum to the Petitioner’s filing for final judgement,” Fraas wrote.
She said the demotion appeal, known as a Rule 75 motion, should proceed.
She added, Swanson as the petitioner, “merely declined to accept an unlawfully ‘demoted’ patrol officer position that he neither applied for, nor was hired to perform. Respondent’s mischaracterization of the result as a ‘voluntary resignation’ is a meritless position as a matter of law,” Fraas wrote.
Klesch said Swanson’s appeal was over 40,000 words, more than four times the word-count limit for normal cases. He said that should allow him to have four times as much time beyond the standard 30-day response.
He noted the legal briefing requires referencing a record from two hearings by the village trustees that exceeds more than 2,000 pages of transcripts, exhibits and other material.
Klesch maintains he believes Chief Swanson gave up his employment with Woodstock based on an email from Fraas.
“Your April 14, 2026, email constitutes Mr. Swanson’s notice that he has chosen to no longer be employed by the Village unless it is as chief of police. Given the police chief position is not available to him because he was removed from that position, he has voluntarily resigned employment,” Klesch wrote.
“The Village will not enforce the 60-day notice provision” under the employment agreement, Klesch said. He said the village would calculate any owed vacation and sick time based on his most recent rate of pay as police chief.
Klesch did not respond to the Vermont Standard’s request for comment this week.
Fraas in her pending appeal to superior court is asking a judge to rule that the village trustees had no lawful authority to demote Swanson again and that the evidence was insufficient to support a just cause of removal from his hired post as Woodstock Police Chief.
Swanson also seeks to have the board decision overturned for a second time and reinstate him as chief with a court order for back pay owed to him when he was wrongly demoted, Fraas wrote in her filing.
