Mental health specialist alleges harassment within Hartford Police Department

HARTFORD — In January, Brieanna-Lyn McKeage began working as a mental health specialist embedded within the Hartford Police Department’s community outreach division.

The division, which was created in 2023, also included a crime data analyst from the police department and a substance use responder from Clara Martin Center, she said.

McKeage’s work often had her responding to incidents of “sexual assault victims, domestic violence, all of some of the worst calls,” she said. “You want to have a very stand-up and professional person beside you.”

While McKeage was employed by Health Care and Rehabilitation Services — the nonprofit community mental health agency serving Windsor and Windham counties — in Hartford she reported to Lt. Karl Ebbighausen, who oversaw outreach division’s all-female staff, McKeage said.

To ease professional communication, members of the division eventually exchanged personal phone numbers, McKeage said. Soon after, Ebbighausen began sending “some very odd things” in the division’s group chat — including a picture of “his girlfriend’s or former girlfriend’s feet in the bathtub,” McKeage said.

“It was just very uncomfortable,” but McKeage ignored it, she said.

It only worsened.

On March 11, former Hartford Police Chief Greg Sheldon was in Miami to celebrate his retirement. He had announced his departure at the end of 2024 and left in February after having served as chief for two years.

At 8:33 p.m. that Tuesday night, Ebbighausen texted McKeage, asking her: “Wanna help me get the Chief laid?”

Neither Ebbighausen nor McKeage were in Miami at the time.

“I’m searching ‘Miami Escorts’….” Ebbighausen texted shortly afterward, proposing to pay $200 for a “smoking hot girl.”

McKeage, who had already gone to sleep, did not reply.

Later, around midnight, Ebbighausen sent an email to command staff and the division staff informing them that he was calling in sick for the next day, McKeage said.

Around 5 a.m. on March 12, McKeage woke up and saw Ebbighausen’s messages about the chief. She responded: “I think we’ve reached the thresholds of conversations I shouldn’t be a part of.”

The following week, McKeage filed a formal harassment complaint against Ebbighausen, who retired a week later, following over 30 years in law enforcement.

Last month, the Vermont Criminal Justice Council announced that Ebbighausen had been stripped of his state certification to work as a law enforcement officer. Ebbighausen signed a statement acknowledging that if his case had gone to a hearing, there would have been sufficient evidence to find him guilty of professional misconduct.

The state of Vermont alleges that between July 2022 and March 2025, Ebbighausen “sexually harassed a number of persons who worked closely with the Hartford Police Department,” according to the stipulation agreement posted last month on the council’s website.

The agreement bars further details of the case from becoming public.

Ebbighausen did not respond to voicemails seeking comment for this story.

McKeage said she doesn’t think the texting incident was the sole cause of his decertification.

“There’s no way in God’s green earth that my complaint alone would end his career,” McKeage said.

McKeage alleges that following her complaint against Ebbighausen, other people in the department retaliated against her and that she became embroiled in workplace conflicts within the department. Ultimately, the town suspended HCRS’ contract with Hartford Police Department on Aug. 14.

In an interview, Town Manager John Haverstock said that Hartford officials are “comfortable with the way the town has handled these matters,” from Ebbighausen to the suspension of the HCRS contract.

An ‘unworkable’ atmosphere

Near the end of 2023, Sheldon created the community outreach division to deal largely with cases of drug abuse, homelessness and mental illness. He had previously overseen a similar division in Rutland before coming to Hartford.

From the beginning, Sheldon put Ebbighausen at the helm, Haverstock said.

By the time McKeage joined the department on Jan. 6 this year, Sheldon had announced his plans to retire, but had not yet departed.

Sheldon and Ebbighausen “were very close,” McKeage said. “Greg would spend hours in our division just small-talking with Ebbighausen.”

Sheldon, who has since moved to Summerfield, Fla., according to his LinkedIn profile, did not respond to voicemails seeking comment for this story.

Working alongside Ebbighausen was “fine at first,” McKeage said. “It was comfortable. He didn’t really strike me as being inappropriate, so to speak.”

But after he sent McKeage the salacious texts concerning Sheldon in Miami, others in the division encouraged her to report it.

On March 12, the day after the texts were sent, McKeage went to the new chief, Constance “Connie” Kelley, a longtime member of the Hartford department who took the position on March 1.

McKeage said that during their conversation, she brought up past instances of harassment involving Ebbighausen that she had heard from her coworkers.

Kelley, frustrated that employees were openly discussing internal investigations, “expressed that she was pissed off that people were coming to (McKeage), and that she wished they would stop running their mouths. And she had rolled her eyes,” McKeage said.

McKeage said she told Kelley that she appreciated people coming to her, “because much like other victims, I probably wouldn’t have said anything had I thought it was just an isolated incident.”

McKeage left feeling dissatisfied and brushed off, she said.

“She is very much an ‘I-don’t-want-to-deal-with-this’ kind of person,” McKeage said.

In a phone interview, Kelley declined to comment on details about the situation. “Personnel matters are confidential,” she said.

On March 13, following his missed day of work, Ebbighausen became “very quiet” around McKeage, she said. “It was just evident, ‘OK, this happened, and now it made this atmosphere just kind of unworkable,’ ” she said.

Neither of the two worked on Friday, March 14. 

The following Monday, feeling like no action would be taken otherwise, McKeage went back to Kelley, who then asked McKeage to submit a formal complaint, which she sent to Kelley that day.

In the complaint, McKeage details the incident that, she wrote, “leaves no room for confidence in our leadership and demands immediate accountability.”

After receiving the complaint, Kelley placed Ebbighausen on administrative leave, McKeage said.

On Wednesday, March 19, the outreach division’s three female employees were asked to not come to work, McKeage said. Ebbighausen was escorted out that morning, and another officer drove him home because he had been using a police department vehicle to commute, McKeage said.

A week later on March 26, Ebbighausen informed the town he was retiring, according to Haverstock, the town manager.

‘Defamatory allegations’

In the aftermath of her complaint against Ebbighausen, McKeage alleges that others in the department retaliated against her.

In the spring and summer, she filed additional complaints against employees in the department, including Kelley. She said she believes these complaints to have led to the suspension of the HCRS contract with the town in August, which she saw as further “retaliation,” she said.

On May 12, six weeks after Ebbighausen left, Kelley came to McKeage alleging that she had engaged in sexual activities with a Hartford officer while on duty, McKeage wrote in a formal complaint she sent to Haverstock on July 16.

The complaint details a timeline of alleged rumor mongering and “harassment” against McKeage.

Haverstock declined to comment on the allegation and complaint.

“We are constrained by rules and policies having to do with the privacy of the accusers and accusees,” Haverstock said.

McKeage wrote in the complaint that she confronted Kelley about her allegations, and Kelley was unable to substantiate them.

“I think (Kelley) just felt so comfortable to be able to make some sort of accusation like that and not have somebody call her out,” McKeage said. “That’s the type of environment that is at Hartford PD.”

Prior to sending a formal complaint in July, McKeage had written an email to Kelley on June 6 asking her to talk to police department employees about spreading rumors.

McKeage said she and an officer began dating shortly after her email to Kelley, but that they did not violate any of the the department’s policies.

“Our personal lives are not impacting our professional roles,” McKeage wrote of her relationship with the Hartford Police Department employee. “If, at any point, my job performance becomes an issue, I would expect to be addressed directly and professionally, based on evidence — not on speculation or rumor.”

Kelley did not reply to the email, McKeage wrote in her July complaint to Haverstock.

Afterward Kelley “wouldn’t even talk to me,” McKeage said. “Like, if she saw me in the patrol room, she would walk out the door towards dispatch just to avoid even making eye contact with me for months.”

Kelley also launched an “informal ‘investigation” by contacting multiple staff members to ask if anyone had witnessed any inappropriate conduct, McKeage wrote in her complaint to Haverstock. This “fueled further gossip,” while “no misconduct or unprofessional behavior was found,” McKeage wrote.

In the July 16 formal complaint to Haverstock, McKeage wrote that she sought to address the “defamatory allegations and lack of action by Chief Kelley.”

It also asked for “no retaliation against myself (or the accused officer) or any interference with the professional relationship between HCRS and Hartford PD.”

The complaint against Kelley appears to be under investigation by Tamara Chase, who works for CSC Investigations, a private investigation group that specializes in misconduct in employers and academic institutions, according to its website.

McKeage said she talked to Chase about a month ago, but hasn’t been in communication since.

Haverstock said that Cornwall, Vt.-based CSC is one of the vendors that the Hartford Police Department contracts with directly for third-party investigations.

Chase declined to comment.

Contract suspension

After the complaint in July, Kelley attempted to set McKeage’s previously undefined work hours. Then on July 23, she attempted to “pause” the HCRS contract, McKeage said: “That was her first attempt at retaliation.”

This didn’t go through because Kelley “couldn’t give HCRS a valid reason” for the change in hours, McKeage said.

On Aug. 14, frustrated by what she considered to be ongoing harassment and cyberstalking by police department employees, McKeage brought the issues with her coworkers to Kelley.

“I started crying once I was in Chief Kelley’s office because I was expressing to her how tired I am that my whole life is on display at this police department, or I’m being harassed, or I’m being stalked,” McKeage said. “And I had asked her to put a stop to it.”

McKeage said in response, Kelley pointed to the ongoing complaint that McKeage also had against her and said there was nothing she could do.

“She just kind of shrugged her shoulders and tucked in her chin,” McKeage said. “And she was like, ‘No.’ ”

Kelley declined to comment on the specifics of the August meeting with McKeage, but said she responds to all complaints employees bring to her. 

“I’m still going to handle (it) if someone brings a complaint to me,” Kelley said. “Whatever their complaint is, it’s going to be handled in the manner that would be appropriate.”

About three hours after the meeting the chief, McKeage got an email from Haverstock that the town was “suspending our relationship with HCRS, effective immediately,” the document reads.

The town alleged that “in an agitated state this afternoon,” McKeage “made threatening comments toward Hartford staff,” as the reason for the suspension.

McKeage denies wrongdoing. “I did not, and would never, threaten a law enforcement officer,” she wrote in an email to HCRS leadership on Aug. 15.

The mental health specialist position has been vacant since August when the contract was suspended, Haverstock said.

The position is funded entirely by HCRS, though the town provides an annual social service appropriation of just under $10,000 to the Springfield, Vt.,-based nonprofit.

Town officials have asked HCRS to appoint someone else to work with the police department, Haverstock said. HCRS has not yet responded to the request, Haverstock said.

HCRS did not reply to requests for comment.

McKeage left HCRS on Sept. 10 after declining assignments from HCRS to work at the Westminster, Vt. police department and the Royalton State Police barracks.

In addition to the long drive, she declined the offers because her experiences have turned her away from working in police departments.

She declined to share where she works now. She currently lives in Canaan and avoids Hartford “like the plague,” she said.

McKeage said that there are people working for the Hartford Police Department with concerns similar to hers who can’t speak up out of concern of losing promotions or their jobs.

“They’re absolutely not going to come forward because there’s fear of retaliation,” she said.