The state will pay nearly $200,000 to the parents of a 6-month-old baby who died at a Rutland childcare facility to settle a lawsuit the family brought alleging the Vermont Department of Children and Families failed to properly investigate complaints against the facility and its owner.

A Rutland County jury found Stacey Vaillancourt, the owner of the facility, due in December 2023 of both homicide and child abuse that resulted in the death of 6-month-old Harper Rose Briar in 2019.

Prosecutors said Vaillancourt caused Harper Rose Briar’s death by giving the child a sedative she had not been prescribed.

Vaillancourt was was sentenced in March to three to ten years in prison.

A wrongful-death lawsuit was also filed in 2021 on behalf of Harper Rose Briar’s estate and her parents, Marissa and Blake Briar.

The trial accused DCF and its employees of failing to properly investigate complaints that Vaillancourt had administered medication to children in her child care without parental consent.

According to paperwork filed this month in Rutland County Superior Civil Court, the state has agreed to pay $195,000 to the estate of Harper Rose Briar to settle the lawsuit. The state admits no crimes were committed as part of the settlement.

The settlement was first reported Thursday by WCAX-TV.

Joshua Marshall, a spokesman for the DFC, said in an email Friday that the department “does not have a comment beyond what is included in the settlement document.”

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of Tiffany Tan
March 12, 2024, 7:17 p.mMarch 12, 2024, 7:17 p.m

Attorneys for the family could not be reached Friday for comment.

Rutland County State’s Attorney Ian Sullivan argued during Vaillancourt’s trial that she fatally sedated Harper on the child’s third day at Vaillancourt’s in-home childcare program in Rutland.

The state medical examiner ruled that the child died of intoxication from diphenhydramine, an antihistamine that has sedative effects and is the active ingredient in medications such as Benadryl.

“The level of diphenhydramine in Harper Briar’s blood at the time of death represents more than a therapeutic dose,” the affidavit states. “The blood concentration at the time may represent one large administration or several small administrations.”

Vaillancourt’s defense attorneys argued that someone else could have fatally medicated the child before she arrived at Vaillancourt’s home.

Vaillancort is currently serving his sentence at the Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility in South Burlington.