Petitioner appeals the trial court’s revocation of his probation on the grounds that his refusal to admit to certain facts pertinent to charges on which he was convicted is protected by the First, Fifth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution and Chapter I, Article 10 of the Vermont Constitution. We affirm.
During July and August of 1993, petitioner was arrested and arraigned on various charges that he assaulted and harassed his girlfriend, then violated conditions of his release and an abuse prevention order. Pursuant to a plea negotiation, defendant pled nolo contendere to aggravated domestic assault, domestic abuse, violation of an abuse prevention order, simple assault, and unlawful trespass, and the State agreed not to bring additional charges arising from the same incidents. The judge accepted the nolo plea, suspended petitioner’s 21-day to three-year sentence, and conditioned petitioner’s probation on several conditions. The two conditions pertinent to this appeal were that he not contact his girlfriend and that he participate in and complete a Domestic Assault Education Program (DAEP). Petitioner accepted the terms of his probation without objection.
In October 1993, police arrested petitioner at his girlfriend’s house for violating a condition of his probation. A few days later, petitioner attended a DAEP orientation. Following a forty-five-minute interview, the in-take counselor concluded that petitioner had “made himself unavailable for treatment” because he denied many of the underlying charges and *603 refused to take responsibility for his conduct. While petitioner admitted to both various incidents of abuse supporting the underlying convictions and a history of abuse, he refused to admit to certain facts relating to the charges for which he was convicted. Petitioner’s probation officer commenced revocation proceedings. The trial court concluded that petitioner had violated two conditions of his probation and imposed the underlying sentence with credit for time served.
On appeal, petitioner contends that his Fifth Amendment privilege to be free from self-incrimination was violated when the court revoked his probation because he refused to admit to certain elements of the underlying offenses. Petitioner asserts that the privilege against self-inerimination forbids the State from imprisoning a probationer because “of his conscientious refusal to confess to the crime of which he was convicted.” For the same reason, he also argues that the coerced admissions would violate his First Amendment right to be free from coerced speech. Finally, petitioner argues that if a probationer pleads nolo contendere to certain charges, due process requires clear and convincing evidence that the underlying allegations are true before probation can be revoked.
Petitioner devotes the majority of his brief to tracing the origins of the Fifth Amendment’s privilege from the medieval star chamber to the Salem witch trials of colonial America. Beyond his policy argument, he makes no attempt to factually or legally distinguish his particular circumstances from those faced by the defendant in
State v. Gleason,
Similarly, petitioner has offered nothing more than general policy argument in support of his First Amendment claim. In
State v. Mace,
Petitioner offers no explanation of how or why the Vermont Constitution affords any greater protection than its federal counterpart. We see no reason to conclude that Article 10 compels a different result from that already reached in our prior cases.
Gleason,
Affirmed.