Edward Cashman

Personal life Cashman was born in Elizabethtown, New Jersey. He attended Boston College, where he also served in the Reserve Officers' Training Corps for the United States Army. Cashman married Gail Sylvester, also a student at Boston College and the daughter of Vermont Supreme Court justice Harold C. Sylvester. Cashman completed his legal training at American University's Washington College of Law, and then served during the Vietnam War as a media relations officer for a year beginning in 1970.

Following his military service Cashman moved to Vermont and began a career in public service, including working for various public agencies and as an elected state's attorney (prosecutor) for Grand Isle County, Vermont. He joined the judiciary in 1982 upon his appointment by then-governor Richard A. Snelling to the district court.

After retiring from the bench in early 2007, Cashman taught classes at Champlain College and Johnson State College in Vermont and he continues to teach one course per semester at Champlain. He also volunteers at the Burlington Dismas House, a non-profit organization (sometimes known as a halfway house) which provides a bridge between prison and full release for inmates completing their sentence. According to Cashman, the Department of Correction rules at the time defined Hulett as "low risk to reoffend" which made him ineligible for sex offender treatment while in prison. The sentence required Hulett to spend 60 days in prison, and then allowed him to receive sex offender treatment upon his release. The proposal was key to convincing Hulett to plead guilty and avoid a trial, but also provided for a life sentence if Hulett failed to complete treatment, violated any terms of his release or re-offended. In fact, Cashman had said that punishment alone is not enough - that offenders like Hulett required sex offender treatment to reduce the likelihood of re-offending.

Fox News commentator Bill O'Reilly kept the issue on the national stage on his television show and in his column by continuing to falsely claim that Cashman had said punishment didn't work. He accused national and regional media of ignoring the story.

Aftermath Cashman reported receiving death threats and hate mail, and received a temporary protection detail from the Vermont State Police. By September 2006, Cashman wrote to the Vermont Supreme Court that he would retire at the end of his term and not seek re-appointment. Hulett was required to register with the state as a sex offender.