By Mike Donoghue, Senior Correspondent
Acting Woodstock Police Chief Christopher O’Keeffe is captured on a newly released police video saying multiple times that he believed Woodstock Village Board of Trustees vice chair Jeffrey Kahn assaulted a longtime employee in his gift store during an incident in October 2024, but the woman is recorded saying she was hesitant to seek criminal charges.
During the police interrogation video, which is over 40 minutes long, the woman says she is concerned for her safety and for others. But in the end, she chooses not to move forward with legal action. O’Keeffe provided her a blank Woodstock police statement form and told her to think about it, but ultimately she never filed it.
Kahn told the Vermont Standard this week that no criminal charges were ever filed and he considers the case closed. He said the longtime employee still works for him.
The woman, who the Standard has decided not to publicly identify, confirmed she took no action and that she still works at the store after 44 years. She said she was upset that she now finds her case being publicly discussed at a village trustees meeting about 18 months after the incident.
Woodstock attorney Nicholas “Nico” Seldon had raised questions about whether Kahn should step down from the trustees now that there was some proof that an incident happened.
Seldon and the village trustees, including Kahn, have clashed over efforts by municipal manager Eric Duffy to demote Police Chief Joe Swanson. Swanson is Seldon’s husband and an effort to get Kahn to recuse himself from the demotion hearing due to the chief investigating a road rage case he was involved in was unsuccessful.
At the time of the incident, Woodstock Police never released the woman’s complaint to the Vermont Standard when the newspaper made its weekly check-in with the department for the top cases for that week. Records show Woodstock Police classified the incident as a “citizen assist” and not as an alleged assault. “Citizen assist” is a wide-ranging category designed by police to catch — and oftentimes mask — many complaints in crime reports from the public.
It is unclear how Seldon became aware recently of the complaint about Kahn.
Village trustee chair Lisa Lawlor announced at a recent trustees meeting that she learned in mid-April about a complaint that may have been filed about a sitting member of the board. She said she believed the case was handled correctly to ensure a transparent and non-biased investigation. She said she was told the case was closed with no criminal charges.
Reached by the Standard on Tuesday afternoon, Lawlor said she was unaware that the records in that case had been released to the public this week. She said until she learned more it was premature to comment.
O’Keeffe took the initial video-recorded complaint on Tuesday Oct. 22, 2024 from the woman, who said the incident had happened on the previous Saturday at the Unicorn Store, an eclectic gift shop operated by Kahn at 15 Central Street.
She maintains Kahn grabbed her with both hands by the shoulders and shook her while they were face-to-face. She said it “felt like forever.” She noted customers left the store when the shouting was heard.
The complaining witness said “I want him to go get some help.”
O’Keeffe later wanted an outside investigation conducted because Kahn, as a village trustee, has some control over the police department, including setting its annual budget. O’Keeffe, a former Hartford Police officer, reached out to a former colleague, now a Rutland City Police supervisor, to see if his department would step in.
Duffy had placed Chief Swanson on paid leave a week earlier for an unrelated incident. O’Keeffe was named acting chief.
Rutland Police told the Standard the outside investigation never got very far.
Rutland Police said the complaining witness did not respond to three phone calls from the detective assigned to the case in October 2024. Detective Cpl. Adam Lucia said he eventually drove to Woodstock to try to interview the woman. Lucia told the Vermont Standard the woman declined an interview and he headed back to Rutland to close out the case on Nov. 1, 2024.
The video interview by O’Keeffe became public this week through a Vermont Public Records fight waged by the Vermont Standard. The newspaper has been conducting its own independent investigation in an attempt to sort out conflicting information circulating in the community about the incident.
Rutland Police also released three color photographs taken by O’Keeffe showing a discolored upper left arm where the woman said she was grabbed and shaken by Kahn. O’Keeffe used a ruler to show the scale of the discoloration.
The released records also included seven screen shots of text exchanges between Kahn and the woman after the reported shaking incident.
The case began when there were raised voices over whether there was a mess in the store.
She said Kahn has claimed “you verbally assaulted me,” according to the video of her interview with O’Keeffe.
Kahn said he was never interviewed by Woodstock or Rutland Police.
The woman and Kahn both said the incident was captured on store video, but it was never made part of the police file.
The seven pages of text messages between the two tell the ongoing exchange in the days that followed the shouting incident.
At one point Kahn said in a text to the woman, “I joke with folks that you are my work wife but there is reality there and all relationships have ups and downs and occasional upsets.”
A text message believed from Kahn to the woman said, “I’m sorry for my part in what happened.” It goes on to say, “I have always been messy behind the counters…but not on the floor.”
Kahn goes on to note, “Your titanic explosion with a store full of people was extraordinary. That you kept going until everyone fled the store was why I grabbed your arms to try to get you to stop screaming and calling me an asshole. I’m sorry I eventually lost it in response to your tirade.”
He said once she calmed down she was welcome to return to the store “and we can mutually makeup.”
The woman texted she was coming back, not for him, but for the store. “I need to pay my rent. But that’s it.”
She missed a couple of days of work and in one text exchange she explained she would be going to have her clavicle checked. She reported during the interview with O’Keeffe that she had injured her right shoulder several months earlier, but it was “clicking” now as she moved her right arm. O’Keeffe said he could hear the clacking as she moved her arm.
She said she had a medical appointment before meeting with Woodstock Police and also had x-rays done at a hospital.
In the text exchange, Kahn urged her to return to work immediately and that he would put a smile on his face. He said he valued her as a friend and work partner.
When Kahn pressed for her return during a busy time, she said it would not be the next day. He said he might have to make alternative plans and asked her to elaborate.
“You physically assaulted me & that is not okay! I am going to take care of myself. You can’t bully me anymore,” she wrote.
Kahn responded, “Come on you verbally assaulted me at high volume inches from my face!. I have apologized for grabbing your arms to try to get you to stop screaming. I will never do that again.”
The Village of Woodstock initially provided the Vermont Standard a heavily redacted copy of its investigation.
Rutland Police initially told the Vermont Standard there were no public records. The Rutland Police records clerk maintained its investigation ended quickly because the woman refused to follow through on her initial complaint.
The Vermont Standard appealed the records denial to Rutland Police Chief Matthew Prouty, who overturned the rejection. Prouty found that the Rutland Police had opened an investigation and had received documents from Woodstock Police.
The chief ordered the records released to the Vermont Standard.
Rutland Police apparently then also provided the records to other requestors that had been denied access initially.