Suspect in Twin State kidnapping, rape case denied release from jail due to COVID-19

BURLINGTON — A federal judge has denied a 43-year-old Vermont man’s request to be let out of jail ahead of his trial on charges he kidnapped a New Hampshire woman and her young child and took them across state lines into the Upper Valley in 2019.

In a ruling filed in the U.S. District Court in New Hampshire last week, Judge William Sessions responded to the request, filed last month by defendant Everett Simpson, who faces federal kidnapping charges for the January 2019 incident.

In his December request, Simpson argued that preparing for trial has been difficult while in jail because the COVID-19 pandemic has restricted his ability to meet with attorneys in person.

But Sessions wrote in his decision that Simpson has a lengthy criminal history and that the charges he currently faces are “serious.”

In regard to the difficulty COVID-19 has caused in Simpson’s case, the judge ordered that Simpson and his attorney find alternative ways to talk in person before trial, suggesting they meet at a federal courthouse in Rutland or Burlington.

Simpson has been held in federal custody since his arrest in early 2019. He’s accused of forcing a woman, then 23, and her son into her car outside the Mall of New Hampshire in Manchester and driving them to the Upper Valley and across state lines.

According to authorities, Simpson later raped the woman at the Comfort Inn in White River Junction before fleeing in her car. The sex assault charge is being handled at the state level in Windsor Superior Court.