BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) – A Vermont police officer who admitted to hitting and killing a bicyclist will not spend any time in jail.
As part of a plea agreement, Shelburne Police Sgt. Kyle Kapitanski pleaded guilty in the South Burlington crash that killed Sean Hayes, 38, last November.
Under the deal, Kapitanski will serve two years on probation.
Traffic resource prosecutors with the Vermont Department of State’s Attorneys and Sheriffs took on the case.
They say Kaptanski was speeding and watching a YouTube video on his in-cruiser tablet at the time of the crash.
But Kapitanski’s lawyer says there’s no proof of that.
With the evidence they have, the state says a conviction may have been difficult, but thinks that with the agreement, there’s a sense of justice served.
“The state did relay that we would have had difficulty proving causation if the case had gone to trial for gross negligent operation,” said Matthew Dolezal of the Vermont Department of State’s Attorneys and Sheriffs.
The victim’s family is suing the town of Shelburne, which Kapitanski works for, in a civil case.
