The sheriff in Windsor County was arraigned on Wednesday on charges that he paid multiple women to watch him masturbate — and, in one case, have sex with him — then engaged in threatening behavior after they broke it off, according to court documents.
The sheriff, Ryan Palmer, pleaded not guilty in Rutland Superior Court to felony counts of lewd and lascivious conduct, aggravated stalking with a deadly weapon, and obstruction of justice, along with misdemeanor soliciting prostitution charges.
He was released on conditions that he turn over any guns in his possession and avoid contact with the alleged victims, though the judge denied a request from prosecutors that he surrender his law enforcement certification.
Palmer told reporters after Wednesday’s hearing that he has delegated daily oversight of his department to a subordinate but will remain sheriff while he fights the charges: “There’s a lot more to this story.”
“We’ll see,” he responded when asked whether he’d continue to show up to the office.
His attorney, Dan Sedon, chalked up the charges to “private, consensual behavior between consenting adults.”
“As lurid as these allegations may be, they are his private life and don’t reflect his service as the sheriff,” Sedon said.
Palmer, 39, was elected to lead the Windsor County Sheriff’s Department in 2022. He was arrested on Tuesday following an investigation that began last summer when Vermont State Police received anonymous tips about potential financial mismanagement at that department.
During that investigation, state police say they heard from three separate women who described how interactions with Palmer in his professional capacity resulted in them becoming targets of sexual harassment.
The first woman told detectives that she had long known Palmer and sought his help in a professional capacity in fall 2024. They kept in touch on Facebook in the weeks after.
According to the court affidavit, his messages soon became explicit. He said he was watching porn and described himself as a “deviant.” He asked her if she’d ever want to get paid to watch someone masturbate; she said no. He continued his advances anyway.
One day, Palmer sent the woman $100 and asked her to FaceTime, the documents say. She denied the call and sent the money back. He tried calling her again a week later. She answered and saw Palmer lying in bed, masturbating. He ended the call shortly after, then sent her $50.
A month later, Palmer asked the woman to come over to his house, the court documents say. She said she was told to let herself in and found him wearing a towel and holding a bottle of lubricant. He led her to a room with a couch and a table with a handgun on it. He instructed her to sit on the floor in front of him, masturbated, then paid the woman $100 in cash.
Afterward, the woman said she told Palmer that he just broke the law.
“So did you,” he allegedly told her.
The woman told police that Palmer paid her to watch him repeatedly from there and once gave her $150 to have sex with him. A screenshot included in the police affidavit shows payments from Palmer to the woman.
The woman told police that the sexual contact ended in July 2025.
Two months later, the woman read news reports about the state police probe into the Windsor County Sheriff’s Department’s finances.
Concerned that a financial audit might expose her encounters with Palmer, the woman contacted an attorney, whom she told Palmer about.
The sheriff responded by encouraging the woman to leave his name out of it.
Soon after, the woman said, Palmer began stalking her. He drove by her house in his cruiser and showed up at the Windsor Park and Ride while she was there meeting her mother. She provided investigators a video she took that day showing Palmer’s black sheriff’s SUV parked in the distance.
The two other women told police that Palmer sought sexual favors from them through unsolicited payments.
One described how Palmer began stalking her after she broke off contact with him, driving by her house and showing up outside of her workplace. During one of these encounters, she said, he pulled out his handcuffs and said he had something for her.
Another woman, described in court documents as a witness, told police that Palmer sent her unsolicited cash payments because she knew about his behavior.
“The witness advised that she told him that she did not want his money or to speak with him and that the only reason why he was sending her money was that he was worried that she would tell him how much of a disgusting human being he was,” the documents say.
In court on Wednesday, prosecutor Jared Bianchi said Palmer’s job made his alleged behavior all the more insidious. He noted that the sheriff confronted two of the women while he was on duty and was therefore presumably carrying a gun, which amounts to aggravated stalking under Vermont law.
Bianchi asked that Palmer be forced to hand over his guns and temporarily surrender his law enforcement certification while the case proceeds. “He should not be engaging in law enforcement work right now,” Bianchi said.
Sedon, Palmer’s attorney, responded by arguing that the sheriff should not lose his livelihood over mere allegations. He said the sheriff must be presumed innocent while his trial is pending and that the appropriate venue to discuss his certification would be Vermont’s Criminal Justice Training Council, which disciplines police officers.
Judge Cortland Corsones agreed that he should not weigh in on Palmer’s certification.
“It may well be appropriate for others to make that determination while this case is pending,” he said.
It is not yet clear where Palmer’s case will play out. While arraignments can be held anywhere, criminal cases must proceed in the county where the alleged crimes occurred, unless either side can show why doing so would jeopardize a fair trial.
Prosecutors are likely to ask for the case to be held outside of Windsor County, where Palmer grew up, given the potential conflicts of interest that come with trying a sheriff in the county he polices. But Sedon said Palmer wants to face the charges “in the county where the voters elected him.”