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Southern State Correctional Facility in Springfield. File photo by Phoebe Sheehan/VTDigger

This story was updated to include details of the license suspension agreement filed Friday on Jan. 24 at 12:06 p.m.

A prison mental health counselor charged earlier this month with having sex with an inmate agreed to a suspension, for now, of her professional license.



Vermont State Police say Victoria Calogero was working at the Southern State Correctional Facility as a licensed mental health counselor in 2017 and 2018, and during that time she “engaged in numerous instances of sexual contact with an inmate, inside the prison.”

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According to a statement announcing the criminal charges against Calogero, state police and the Vermont Department of Corrections in September 2019 joined in an investigation into an alleged sexual relationship between her and an inmate at the Springfield prison.



Police have refused to release additional details of the probe, saying that more information would become available when an affidavit of probable cause for the charges against Calogero becomes public following her arraignment next month.



However, filings by state licensing officials reveal new details into the allegations against Calogero.



Following the filing of the criminal charges earlier this month, the Office of Professional Regulation filed a notice last week seeking an emergency suspension of Calogero’s license.

That filing alleges that while working at the Springfield prison Calogero had sex with an inmate she was counseling at least 20 times in an office at the facility.



A licensing hearing set for Friday morning did not take place. Calogero filed a stipulation agreeing to the suspension of her state license pending a hearing on the merits of the allegations against her. The stipulation stated that by agreeing to the suspension at this point she is not admitting to the claims against her.



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According to Chris Winters, deputy secretary of state where the Office of Professional Regulation is housed, he is prohibited by confidentially laws from commenting on the case beyond the public filings.

The notice seeking to suspend her license stemmed from a complaint filed September 2019 involving Calogero, according to Winters. Vermont State Police reported that it began its criminal probe around that same time.



The Office of Professional Regulation investigation concluded Jan. 14 of this year, a day before the filing of the notice seeking to suspend her license, he added.



It’s also not the first time Calogero has come under state scrutiny for her conduct at the prison.



The Office of Professional Regulation earlier brought unprofessional conduct allegations against Calogero in June 2019.



That case remained pending at the time of the filing of the criminal charges.



Those licensing charges contain allegations from an earlier probe by corrections officials dating back to November 2018 when she was fired from her job at the prison, the records show.



Victoria Calogero of Springfield has been charged with sexual exploitation of an inmate. Vermont State Police photo

The Office of Professional Regulation filing outlines the violations against Calogero as a result of her alleged relationship with a different inmate at the Springfield prison than the one who involved in the criminal case.



The documents also reveal an alleged blackmail plot.



Calogero had been providing individual mental health counseling to an inmate from June 2018 through October 2018, in sessions ranging from 25 minutes to 75 minutes, the documents show.



During that time, according to state licensing records, corrections investigators uncovered that Calogero had developed a “personal relationship” with that inmate.



Meanwhile, another prisoner tried to use his knowledge about that relationship between the inmate and Calogero to “introduce contraband” in the Southern State Correctional Facility in Springfield, the licensing records state.



That prisoner tried to “coerce” the inmate having a relationship with Calogero to get her to bring contraband into the facility, according to the filings. But, neither the inmate nor Calogero agreed to the “conspiracy” to bring contraband into the facility, the records show.



DOC investigators learned of the failed plot and Calogero’s security clearance was revoked, according to the documents. Days later in November 2018 she was fired, the filing stated.



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Meanwhile, according to the filing, the inmate Calogaro was treating at Springfield was released from the facility on Oct. 17, 2018, and she was no longer seeing him as a patient.



“After the professional relationship ended, Respondent and Patient continued their personal romantic relationship,” the licensing filing stated.



That filing does not specifically allege she had sex with that inmate behind bars.



Instead, one of the specific license violations against Calogero alleges she engaged in “sexual conduct with a client with whom the licensee has had a professional relationship within the previous two years.”



Attorney Kevin Rogers, listed in filings as Calogero’s attorney, could not be reached for comment.



Interim Corrections Commissioner James Baker, who started in the job earlier this month, has also declined comment on the case, other than to say that Calogero was a contractor at the prison.

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