CHELSEA — A 2017 graduate of Hanover High School has been charged with sexually assaulting a Thetford woman.

Payton Stearns, of Dorchester, Mass., pleaded not guilty last week to one felony count of aggravated sexual assault and two felony counts of sexual assault at his arraignment in Orange County Superior Court in Chelsea, the Vermont Attorney General’s Office said.

The accuser and defendant were involved in a relationship at the time the assaults are alleged to have occurred last year in Vermont and Massachusetts, according to court documents.

Stearns is alleged to have forced himself on the woman on multiple occasions despite her telling him “no, I don’t want to” and “stop, stop,” according to the affidavit.

The Valley News generally does not identify the victims of alleged sexual assault.

Stearns, 25, is being represented by attorneys Christina Nolan and Heather Ross of the Burlington law firm Sheehey Furlong & Behm.

Nolan formerly headed the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Vermont and in 2022 was a candidate in the Republican primary race for the U.S. Senate from Vermont. Ross is also a former veteran federal prosecutor in Vermont.

The attorneys for Stearns did not respond to emails seeking comment on Friday.

Stearns was a member of the Hanover High cycling team, according to prior Valley News stories. He went on to engineering school in Massachusetts, and a social media profile identifies him as being employed with a technology manufacturer.

The case is being prosecuted by the Vermont State Attorney General’s Office, which handles cases that involve multi-jurisdictional domestic sexual offenses between intimate partners. The alleged assaults occurred in Thetford and Springfield, where the woman resided at different times.

According to an affidavit in support of the charges prepared by Sgt. Karie Tucker of the Thetford Police Department, the woman told the police that she met Stearns through a mutual friend in late 2023.

According to the affidavit, Stearns displayed increasingly controlling behavior over the course of their relationship, including not wanting the woman to see her friends and tracking her whereabouts via her phone. Later, she told police, he placed a GPS tracking device in her car without her knowledge.

One alleged assault occurred in Springfield in February 2024 as Stearns was about to leave for military training in South Carolina.

The woman said Stearns forced himself on her despite being told no.

Later in an exchange of text messages, the woman stated the sex was not consensual and Stearns apologized, according to excerpts in the affidavit.

“I told you no, so many times,” the woman texted.

“I’m sorry babe. I just felt rejected again and I know that sometimes it can act as a reset for us you know? Clearly it did not this morning and I’m sorry,” Stearns replied.

“Assault will never be a reset for us,” the woman texted back.

The woman told police that Stearns “stopped this behavior” between May and July 2024 following that Springfield incident, but “then it started up again.”

Another alleged assault occurred at Stearns’ apartment in Beverly, Mass., in September. The woman reported it to Beverly police.

The affidavit states that Stearns is facing criminal prosecution in Massachusetts, though the Valley News could not confirm the details of the charges on Friday.

A third disturbing incident occurred at the home of one of the woman’s relative in October. Stearns physically attempted to interfere with her leaving the relative’s home by standing in front of her vehicle, the woman told police. That was also when she discovered the tracking device in her car, according to the affidavit.

Contact John Lippman at jlippman@vnews.com.