Last week, WAMC published an April letter that revealed the Dalton Police Department had formally ended its mutual aid agreement with the neighboring, smaller town of Hinsdale. It comes as the Hinsdale PD is under heavy criticism for how it handled a mental health call in January that ended with a young man being shot to death by one of its officers. Berkshire District Attorney Timothy Shugrue ruled the killing lawful but noted the department’s leadership and policies were in need of independent investigation.
Notably, the letter from Dalton Police Chief Deanna Strout said that it wasn’t just Biagio Kauvil’s controversial killing that led up to the relationship fracturing — or Hinsdale Police Chief Shawn Boyne attempting to foist responsibility for the incident onto a Dalton officer — but "multiple occasions over the past several years" that led to the break.
Hinsdale Town Administrator Robert Graves defended the town’s police force after WAMC published the letter from Strout, pushing back on her criticism of how the department handled the Kauvil killing and accusing her of making “vague references” to past incidents between the two departments.
Now, in a new tranche of public records obtained by WAMC, those references are in sharp relief.
One document concerns a threat of violence made by former Hinsdale Police Officer Mathieu Mercier against a Dalton dispatcher in late 2023.
Another email confirms Mercier had publicly spoken ill of the dispatcher in front of both a Dalton Animal Control officer and Hinsdale Police Chief Susan Rathbun that December.
According to an email exchange between Strout and Rathbun, Hinsdale Sgt. Elizabeth Zipp reported the threat to her chief in February 2024, who then asked Strout to read it at a Western Massachusetts Chiefs meeting that month. Over the following weeks, Rathbun and Strout engaged in a tense back-and-forth about the issue. Strout describes the threat made to the dispatcher as “graphic,” and says “if this was a civilian, it would most certainly rise to a level of a criminal investigation.”
In one email, dated Feb. 15, 2024, Strout makes it clear Mercier is not welcome in the Dalton Police Department or communications center until Rathbun investigates the matter and provides documentation of the investigation.
Rathbun promises “a thorough review of the matter” and that she will keep Strout “informed on the status of our efforts.”
The tone escalates between the two chiefs in a Feb. 26 exchange. First, Rathbun of Hinsdale says there is “confusion on the matter” and asks Strout of Dalton to clarify “what is the actual allegations,” and says “Is seems to have changed in recent conversations” [sic] and some questions about who to interview for the investigation.
Strout responds the next day that “the confusion lies with you,” and expresses shock that she had learned on Feb. 23 that Mercier was back on duty without Dalton being notified by Hinsdale.
On Feb. 28, Rathbun emails Strout to say she found Zipp’s decision to wait on reporting Mercier’s threat against the dispatcher “concerning,” says she has dismissed allegations against the officer, and that his previous comments about the dispatcher were being handled internally. The email also alludes to “strained” communications between Hinsdale and the Dalton dispatchers.
In other emails obtained by WAMC, Dalton's dispatch team expressed concerns that the Hinsdale PD regularly bypassed them to make off-record calls.
Director of the Dalton Communications Center Gabrielle Taglieri tells Rathbun that the practice challenges “the continuity and accuracy of logging calls, dispatching services, and keeping our officers safe.”
An April 2024 message specifically cites Mercier as not answering calls from dispatch while on duty.
Another message that month from Taglieri to Hinsdale Town Administrator Robert Graves points out that a cellphone number unrelated to the Hinsdale PD’s dedicated line had been put in the contact section of the town’s website. She describes it as dangerous and “a HUGE liability issue,” and that the police department is “going to great lengths to avoid using Dalton communications.”
Graves responds saying he recognizes the liability but is “unsure who authorized the change,” telling Taglieri that it is the Hinsdale Select Board that supervises the police department and not him.
Some of the fallout of Mercier’s threat to the Dalton dispatcher is apparent in changes to the Hinsdale Police Department’s ranks.
Sgt. Zipp, who started with Hinsdale in 2017, resigned from the town police department not long after she formally complained about Mercier’s behavior to then-Chief Rathbun in early 2024. She was hired shortly thereafter by the North Adams Police Department.
In May 2024, Strout emailed her staff to inform them that, per a message from Rathbun, Mercier was on administrative leave due to “an incident that took place over the weekend” and that she is to be warned if officers see him acting in the capacity of a police officer for Hinsdale. Strout reiterates that Mercier is still banned from Dalton Police facilities.
Mercier resigned from the Hinsdale PD in June 2024 and now works for the nearby Adams Police Department.
Rathbun also left the department in 2024. She was succeeded by Chief Shawn Boyne in May 2024.
As scrutiny continues over the incident that left Biagio Kauvil dead in January 2026, a pair of emails from April 2025 detail another mutual aid request during a tragic incident.
According to Dalton Police Sgt. Tyler Miller and Officer Chelsea Eichstedt — the latter of whom would later back up the Hinsdale PD in the call to Kauvil's home — the officers were shocked to arrive on scene to discover a resident of the home bleeding from a self-inflicted throat wound in bed.
Dalton Police Officer Tyler Miller's account of an April 2025 mutual aid response in Hinsdale, part two.
The injury was not mentioned in the Hinsdale PD’s call for assistance, and both Dalton officers report that Hinsdale Officer Jose Gonzales had not attempted to render any medical aid to the resident. Eichstedt notes the discordant calmness and lack of urgency Gonzales displayed amid the bloody scene.
Records from the Dalton PD indicate that Hinsdale Police Chief Boyne requested and accessed the Dalton officers’ body cam footage from the call.
Gonzales resigned from the Hinsdale PD in June of 2025.
The most recent complaint from the Dalton PD about the Hinsdale PD comes from just last month. In a letter to Hinsdale Select Board Chair Margaret Gregory, Chief Strout of Dalton filed a formal complaint about Boyne appearing at the April 8, 2026, Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association Vendor Show alongside Acting Chief Bruce Cullett.
According to Strout's complaint, Boyne wore a lanyard identifying himself as the Hinsdale police chief while he was on administrative leave after Kauvil's killing. According Strout, Boyne interacted with one of her officers who responded to the call, Chelsea Eichstedt.
Strout says Eichstedt was left with “significant discomfort” given Biagio Kauvil’s death and Boyne’s subsequent attempt to shift blame onto her in his interviews with state police during the investigation into the killing. Strout says the “unsolicited contact” between Boyne and Eichstedt raises questions of professionalism, judgement, and why he was even at the event given his current status.
The letter ends with Strout asking the Hinsdale select board to review the matter and determine whether Boyne had acted consistently with his administrative leave or expectations of professional conduct.
WAMC has reached out to Acting Chief Cullett, Town Administrator Robert Graves, and the Hinsdale Select Board for comment.
Despite a documented history of tension between Dalton and Hinsdale, Hinsdale Select Board Chair Gregory said at a meeting last week she was “flabbergasted” by the Dalton PD’s decision to end mutual aid in April.
The Hinsdale situation remains in flux, with public outcry and calls for town leaders to resign continuing in the wake of the Kauvil killing. The town announced it had chosen an outside investigator to perform an audit of its police department voters unanimously approved in March, but it chose a law firm — Daigle Law Group — with previous professional ties to Boyne.
WAMC has requested records related to the Hinsdale PD over a number of questions still processing, including its history with body and cruiser grants that went unused and other issues around past misconduct allegations.
