BRATTLEBORO-More than nine months after he was held without bail, a former Bellows Falls man accused of sexually assaulting a minor has been released, and charges against him have been dropped.
“As we prepared for trial, we made the difficult assessment that we had insurmountable issues to prevail at trial,” said State’s Attorney Steven Brown on Oct. 9. “It was a very difficult decision to make. These are difficult decisions.”
On Oct. 1, Kenneth J. Olsson, 55, was released from Southern State Correctional Facility (SSCF) in Springfield, where he had been held since arraignment on Jan. 15.
Olsson is a former conductor with Friends of Music at Guilford (FOMAG) and cofounded Southern Vermont Lyric Theatre with his wife, Julie.
Before his arrest, he served as music minister at Grafton Community Church. He also worked delivering packages for UPS.
Olsson was charged for offenses that allegedly occurred in Windham County from January 2016 to January 2024. He faced life imprisonment and was supposed to go to trial on Oct. 12.
While he is constrained from publicly detailing reasons to protect victim confidentiality, Brown said he advocates for “transparency and open communication with the press about both successes and failures in the justice process.”
Weighing multiple factors
Brown said that after jury selection on Oct. 1, the state’s attorney office decided to dismiss the case “with prejudice.”
“‘With prejudice’ means it can’t be refiled,” Brown said. “It was ‘with prejudice’ because it was after the jury had been drawn.”
In Vermont, to dismiss a criminal sexual abuse case with prejudice means the court has permanently ended the case and the state cannot bring the same charges again against Olsson. It is a final disposition that functions like a judgment on the merits, closing the door to refiling the same criminal matter.
Generally, sexual abuse cases are assessed by several factors, including whether the victim wants the case to proceed. Prosecutors generally avoid compelling child sexual abuse victims to testify or advancing a case if they do not wish to.
Victims may have various reasons for not wanting prosecution, and respecting those is considered best practice. Best practice also includes not asking a sexual abuse survivor to recount what happened over and over, and such a witness is generally not asked to do so until trial preparation just before a case trial starts.
Specialized forensic interviewers conduct test sessions as part of case assessment. Direct, detailed questioning by prosecutors typically occurs only and if absolutely necessary during trial preparation. During trial preparation, deeper probing can reveal inconsistent statements or an inability to discuss events, which may introduce significant challenges. Discovering such issues close to trial can make it difficult or impossible to proceed effectively, thus the team must assess if the case is winnable.
The team also takes into account responsibility to put the victim on the stand in those circumstances, leaving the individual subject to potential intense cross-examination and a not-guilty verdict.
Ethically, a team is duty bound to move forward with a case only if provable beyond a reasonable doubt. When that standard cannot be met, there is an obligation not to proceed.
Both professional responsibility and concern for the victim’s well-being are weighed in deciding the path forward.
Charges carried possibility of years in prison, fines
Olsson turned himself in on Jan. 14 and was arraigned the next day in Windham County Superior Court. He was charged with sexual assault of a child under 16 in his care, a felony carrying three years to life and/or up to a $25,000 fine, and with lewd and lascivious conduct with a child, a felony carrying two to 15 years and/or up to a $5,000 fine.
Both instances were alleged to have occurred in Jamaica between January 2022 and January 2023. Detective Trooper Cody Allison had taken over the case in August 2025 from a former detective.
In May of that year, a minor female disclosed abuse to her therapist, which led to a Department for Children and Families (DCF) report. She was interviewed on video at the Windham County Safe Place in Brattleboro, a “Child Advocacy Center that offers support and specialized services for children and adults after they report sexual and/or physical violence,” as described on the organization’s website.
In a pretrial decision on Feb. 17, Judge John R. Treadwell of the Windham Superior Court granted the state’s motion to hold Olsson without bail until trial.
Olsson pleaded not guilty and was remanded to SSCF.
He has a 2000 New York conviction for third-degree sodomy involving a 16-year-old, for which he received five years probation, and a 2011 federal conviction for failing to update his sex offender registration after moving to New Hampshire in 2009–10.
At the time of arraignment, the court noted Olsson had no record of probation violations. Still, it found his history showed a lack of respect for the law and for court-imposed conditions and concluded that Olsson’s community ties did not offset the risk to the public; the court was not then “fully convinced” that he would follow release conditions.
Olsson’s attorney, Daniel Stevens, of the state Public Defense Staff Office, told The Commons that his client “has maintained his innocence since first being interviewed by the police in June of 2025.”
“He was incarcerated for almost 10 months since January and exhibited great resilience in the face of such adversity,” Stevens continued. “We are grateful the criminal case is dismissed and over with.”
This News item by Virginia Ray was written for The Commons.