Selfies? Guess again. Photo credit: The law

In the inaugural issue of Green Mountain Mugshots, Chris Gardner saw three people he knew: two from high school in Essex Junction and South Burlington, and a customer from his old job at Dunkin' Donuts.

"Greatest newspaper ever," said Gardner, 25, a clerk at Champlain Farms on North Avenue in Burlington. "It's wonderful. I spent an entire shift the first time it came in here reading it between customers."

Green Mountain Mugshots: Right to Know Journal of Recent Arrests in Vermont is a 23-page tabloid whose pages contain 264 color mugshots. A mugshot is a photograph of a person's face taken by police at the time of arrest. People in Green Mountain Mugshots appear startled, unhappy, displeased or defiant. A few look beat up. Few are smiling.

In Green Mountain Mugshots, photographs are accompanied by basic information, including the citation the person received and the date of the alleged offense. A disclaimer on Page 2 reads in part: "All persons appearing in Green Mountain Mugshots are presumed innocent until proven guilty in court."

Gardner was so intrigued by the publication — the newspaper is like an action movie in print, he said — that he purchased a copy for $3.

"Everybody likes conflict," Gardner said. "Being able to see all the people that are just ruining the state for everybody, plastered out there. ... It's entertaining."

Lawyers echo the disclaimer in the publication: An arrest says nothing about a person's innocence or guilt. In addition, the photographs are taken before a person has had a chance to avail him- or herself of the rights afforded by the legal system.

Jessica West, a professor at Vermont Law School who teaches criminal procedure, said she was distressed to learn of the publication.

"It's a really bad idea," West said. "This one moment that's captured on a mugshot is for any individual a really vulnerable and embarrassing moment. And the publication of these mugshots with arrest information has some, no doubt, very personal and professional consequences."

Green Mountain Mugshots is published by the Caledonian-Record Publishing Co. in St. Johnsbury. The company publishes a daily newspaper, The Caledonian Record. The newspaper was founded in 1837.

The information in Green Mountain Mugshots comes from the Vermont State Police, Publisher Todd Smith said. The first print run of the mugshot newspaper was 12,500 copies, he said. The publication is organized by crime, with sections including Assaults, Crimes Against Children & Animals, Fugitives & Furloughees. The allegations published in the June edition are said to have occurred in the first months of 2015.

"It's an open-record publication, and we think there's a value in it," Smith said. "It's a valuable public service."

The plan is to publish one edition a month containing a new set of arrest records. The schedule is based on the number of mugshots the newspaper expects will be forthcoming from law-enforcement agencies, Smith said.

"Every great idea is someone else's," Smith said. "I ripped it off from seeing what other publishers are doing in other states."

The June issue contains a few dozen crime-related news briefs, including one about Norm McAllister, the state senator from Franklin County who faces sexual-assault charges. The news item pertains to McAllister's losing a $20,000 agriculture grant. The mugshot of McAllister is absent from the periodical.

Green Mountain Mugshots also is available online for $3. The digital version joins numerous online mugshot publications, including police department profiles and a site that posts celebrity mugshots (www.thesmokinggun.com).

Print and digital publications have a First Amendment right to publish true and factual information, said Matthew Valerio, the defender general of Vermont.

Media also are obliged to remove or revise information that is found to be untrue or no longer factual, he said. This can occur if, for example, a person is wrongfully arrested, charges are dismissed or changed, or the person's arrest record is expunged, Valerio said.

The Vermont Legislature passed a law in the recent session that forbids charging a fee to remove a mugshot from a publication, Valerio said. The first offense is a $1,000 fine; the second is $2,500, he said.

"It's been a little cottage industry the past few years," Valerio said.

Smith, the publisher, said there are no plans to follow the arrest records and mugshots with coverage of legal procedures that follow, including court appearances.

"We don't intend or have the resources to follow the cases," he said. "This is a snapshot of just the original detainment and arrest."

The Burlington Free Press also publishes mugshots for more serious incidents and arrest information, and does not always provide follow-up coverage, particularly with stories by the Associated Press.

At least two convenience stores in Burlington, Champlain Farms and the Rotary Mart, sold out of the six or seven copies they received, employees said.

At Cumberland Farms on Pine Street, a stack of Green Mountain Mugshots, which sat one day next to newspapers with photos of Caitlyn Jenner in a bustier, the next day was down to one copy.

Eva Paradiso, 17, of Burlington flipped through the June issue one morning this week. She lost interest and set the paper down. Looking at the mugshots made her feel sad, she said.

Contact Sally Pollak at spollak@burlingtonfreepress.com or 660-1859.