LEBANON – A Hanover resident who has had a long running dispute with the town appeared in Lebanon District Court on Friday morning for a hearing on one out of six civil stalking petitions filed against him in March by the town manager and all five Selectboard members.
The petitions were filed in response to perceived threats by David Vincelette during the public comment period of the Feb.23 Selectboard meeting, where he accused Town Manager Robert Houseman, Selectboard Chairman Carey Callaghan, and Selectboard members Joanna Whitcomb, Jennie Chamberlain, Athos Rassias and Jarett Berke of crimes against “me and my family.”
Four hearings were scheduled to take place on Friday before Lebanon District Court Judge Michael Mace to review stalking petitions by Houseman, Whitcomb, Chamberlain and and Rassias.
However, only Whitcomb’s case against Vincelette was held due to time constraints on the day’s docket, which delayed the town manager’s hearing from being heard, and Selectboard members who could not attend as they were out of town.
During Whitcomb’s hearing on Friday, which lasted roughly 40 minutes, she testified in support of her statements in the petition against Vincelette, referencing the February Selectboard meeting when she alleged that he made “direct” threats.
“Look at your policeman,” Vincelette said, according to the meeting transcript. “…You got an armed man here sitting with a gun because you need protection. You’re right. You do need protection and Joanna Whitcomb needs protection and Athos Rassias needs protection and Robert Houseman needs protection because they have committed federal crimes and I’ve been patient. I’ve waited patiently to get on the agenda. I’ve waited for almost 20 years. That seems like it’s patient enough.”
When Chairman Carey Callaghan informed Vincelette that his time for public comment was up, Vincelette replied: “Your time is up too, you just don’t know it.”
In her testimony, Whitcomb, who has served on the Selectboard since 2015, alleged that Vincelette’s conduct at Selectboard meetings has escalated over the years.
In addition to the Feb. 23 meeting, she specifically cited comments from Vincelette at meetings on Dec. 8 and Jan. 26, including calling the board “a bunch of Dartmouth democratic stooges who concealed crimes” and “sons-of-bitches” and “evil bastards.”
Vincelette, a 69-year-old former National Guardsman, has been in and out of court with the town since 2011, both to accuse town officials of pollution and to respond to charges stemming from the overflow of debris from his Lebanon Street property — wood pallets, metal scrap and used cars — onto the abutting, town-owned Tanzi trail along Brook Road off Route 10.
In the civil stalking petitions against him, town officials wrote that Vincelette “suffers under the misapprehensions that the Town of Hanover and Dartmouth College have ‘polluted’ Mink Brook by disposing of asphalt in the brook; that the town unlawfully took his properties from him for failure to pay the real estate taxes on those properties; and that the town ‘imprisoned’ him and his family by erecting a fence, pursuant to a Superior Court order, to prevent defendant from placing his personal junk materials on the town’s property.”
Town officials also allege that over the course of 30 years, Vincelette has “made veiled threats against the Town and its employees,” citing an incident in 2016 when he was arrested and convicted of criminal contempt of court after he “aggressively confronted town officials and a contractor attempting to carry out a court order” to remove the debris from his property spilling onto the abutting Tanzi trail.
Town officials are asking Lebanon District Court Judge Michael Mace to impose multiple restrictions: Vincelette would have to refrain from “further acts of stalking or acts of abuse or threats of abuse”; not come within 300 feet of the town manager and Selectboard members; and temporarily relinquish any firearms or other deadly weapons.
Town officials are also seeking to have Vincelette legally barred from attending Selectboard meetings and hearings, and entering town offices.
He would be, however, allowed to send letters “through a commercial carrier, to the Town Manager at the Town Hall,” the petitions seeking the court orders stated.
In court on Friday, Vincelette, who was representing himself, was given the opportunity to cross examine Whitcomb, which he did for about 30 minutes.
Vincelette attempted to challenge the allegations that he suffers from “misapprehensions” regarding pollution in Mink Brook, citing complaints made to the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services in 2017 and 2018, along with other grievances with the town including the court-ordered fence erected by the town around Vincelette’s residence in 2016 and the 2017 seizure of his parcels of his land for lack of tax payments.
The town’s lawyer, Laura Spector-Morgan, objected on the basis of relevance, and Mace urged Vincelette to narrow the scope of his questions to the alleged threats recorded in Whitcomb’s stalking petition.
“How did I directly threaten you,” Vincelette asked Whitcomb, who answered when he stated at the Feb. 23 Selectboard meeting that the town officials need “protection.”
“You do,” Vincelette replied.
“I’m sorry, what did you just say?” Judge Mace interjected, to which Vincelette repeated, “You do.”
“As in present tense, you’re telling her that in my courtroom,” Judge Mace said.
“Not that I’m threatening her,” Vincelette said, explaining he meant “she needs protection from the law.”
Mace sternly warned Vincelette “you do not threaten people in my courtroom.”
“It happens again, we’re going to proceed to a direct criminal contempt proceeding and that may result in me walking you out the back door into sheriff’s custody,” Mace said.
At the conclusion of Vincelette’s cross examination of Whitcomb, he decided against testifying when offered the opportunity and expressed frustration over the court limiting his ability to question Whitcomb on past legal disputes with the town.
Future hearings for the petitions of the town manager and the other two selectboard members scheduled to take place on Friday will be rescheduled within the next 30 days, Mace said.
Hearings for the stalking petitions filed by Selectboard Chairman Carey Callaghan and member Jarett Berke were held on March 23.
All of the petitions are pending Mace’s decision. If granted, the orders of protection can remain for up to a year.
After the Friday hearing, Whitcomb and Spector-Morgan both declined to comment.
During an interview with the Valley News in a neighboring conference room, Vincelette said that all six town officials lied “in their depositions or their affidavits.”
But, he explained, he never meant anything he said at the Feb. 23 Selectboard Meeting as a threat.
“I was in the Army 25 years,” he said, choking back tears. “I was a peacekeeper in Germany. I’ve been peaceful my whole life. I’m a Christian man. I don’t hurt people. I defend people.”
