DISPATCH FROM THE DEERFIELD RIVER VALLEY — NO PUNCHES PULLED
By John F. Sendelbach — Filed April 2026 — Shelburne Falls, MA
On July 13, 2021, Sergeant Kurt Gilmore of the Shelburne Police Department wrote the following sentence in his own official incident report (21BUC-54-OF):
“She stated in her email that she wasn-t interested in taking him to court but wanted someone to speak with him to get him to stop. I have done this in the past as he has had other issues with people in town・ Speaking with him doesn-t work and he continues his behavior. I responded to her email and advised that the best course of action sould be for her to seek a Harassment Order at血e Greenfield District Court,”
That single documented line is the Permission Structure. It is not an offhand remark. It is departmental policy, written by a sergeant, never retracted, and followed for years. Everything that followed — eight uninvestigated reports, a criminal charge that collapsed the moment evidence was examined, ignored warnings of violence, five cameras never pulled, a public beating on a sidewalk, a recording phone thrown into the Deerfield River, and a $14,000 merit raise requested after a federal civil-rights ruling — flows directly from that policy.This is not a story of isolated mistakes. It is a system operating exactly as designed.Here is the lunatic openly declaring her hatred for me:
The Permission Structure in Operation (2020–2023)Between 2020 and 2023, Katherine Hennessey filed approximately eight police reports against me. Under the Gilmore policy, I was never contacted or interviewed before any of them. Officer Christopher Pettengill and Detective Tucker Jenkins acted on that framework when they drove to Hennessey’s residence on March 3, 2023 and co-signed Report 23SHL-8-AR, charging me with criminal harassment under M.G.L. c. 265 § 43A. The report itself states they were already “aware of prior incidents.” They assembled eight complaints — all sourced exclusively from one side — without speaking to me.
An emergency Harassment Prevention Order was issued ex parte. On March 22, 2023, Judge Mazanec vacated it after hearing the actual audio recording of the encounter Hennessey had described as containing a homicidal threat. She was laughing. My words were calm. On June 6, 2023, at the show-cause hearing, I presented approximately one hour of video and audio. The clerk-magistrate found No Probable Cause. Detective Jenkins sat through the entire hearing and watched the charge he had co-signed fall apart. No corrective action. No perjury referral. No adjustment to the Permission Structure.The Cardiac Record and the Pulse RefusalI have atrial fibrillation, diagnosed in 2021 and attributed by my physician to the documented stress of this six-year pattern. On October 16, 2025, in active atrial fibrillation with a pulse near 180, I stood in front of Chief Gregory Bardwell at the Neighbors gas station on Mohawk Trail and asked him to feel my wrist. The video exists.
Chief Bardwell said, on camera: “I don’t want to.” He then stated he “can’t charge false police reports,” directed me to the Attorney General’s office, and walked away for coffee.
Three days later, on October 19, 2025, Massachusetts State Police Officer Sheerer witnessed a full episode at the Shelburne barracks. A Stryker LIFEPAK 15 cardiac monitor recorded my heart rate between 130 and 230 beats per minute. The machine has no opinion. It simply records what it reads.
The Warning, the Trespass, and the Assault — November 29–30, 2025On November 29, 2025 at 6:45 PM, I sent a mass email to the entire Shelburne Police Department, both Selectboards, and others warning that lawsuits were imminent and naming the pattern. The department had that email in its system.The next morning, Katherine Hennessey drove onto my rented property at 1 Ashfield Street without invitation, flashed obscene gestures directly at me, and left. I reported the trespass within fifteen minutes. Sergeant Kurt Gilmore responded, reviewed bodycam footage, walked the property line, and took no action.
That afternoon at Floodwater Brewing, Brook Batteau charged out and shoved me hard off the curb. I fell backward onto the pavement. He jumped on me. Katherine Hennessey followed seconds later. A second individual pinned my arms from behind while Hennessey struck me repeatedly in the head and face. My iPhone — still recording — fell to the road. Hennessey picked it up, walked 75 feet to the Deerfield River bank, and threw it in while the screen was lit. She then walked back and resumed striking and kicking me — a second, separate battery after deliberate destruction of evidence.
Neutral eyewitness Zachary Livingston, co-owner of the brewery, provided a sworn statement to Sergeant Gilmore on December 9, 2025: “Brook Batteau pushed [Sendelbach]. He admitted it and said ‘You don’t understand, John has been after my family for five years.’ … It was clear that Hennessey and Batteau did not go outside to confront Sendelbach’s filming — they went outside to confront Sendelbach.”
Sergeant Gilmore issued probable cause findings on December 11, 2025: Hennessey with two counts of Assault and Battery and Malicious Destruction of Property; Batteau with Assault and Battery. Hennessey filed a new HPO petition the next morning claiming her hands were in her pockets the whole time. On December 15, 2025, Judge Mazanec denied it with prejudice after viewing contradicting video — the third judicial finding of bad faith against the same complainant.
Five cameras were never pulled: Neighbors Gas Station (would have disproven Hennessey’s December 1 affidavit), Crystal Visions, the law office across State Street, and Floodwater Brewing interior (requested nine days later — data already overwritten). The most important recording now rests at the bottom of the Deerfield River.The 2025 Jenkins Scandal and the Federal Civil Rights CaseIn January 2025, Mohawk Trail Regional School investigated Detective Tucker Jenkins, then serving as school resource officer and forensic science teacher, for an inappropriate relationship with an 18-year-old female student. He made 25 phone calls totaling 67 minutes to her over a 30-day period and deleted related text messages. The Berkshire District Attorney’s Office found the relationship “beyond that of a teacher/student” but filed no criminal charges because the student was above the age of consent. The Shelburne Selectboard voted to retain him after a three-hour executive session on April 3, 2025. Chief Bardwell publicly described community concern as “reckless spreading of reputation-wrecking rumors.”
On March 12, 2026, U.S. District Judge Mark G. Mastroianni denied qualified immunity to Detective Tucker Jenkins (and Sergeant Adam Paicos) in their personal capacities in Mlynick v. Town of Erving et al (3:24-cv-30108). The court found it plausible that Jenkins provided “misleading information,” omitted exculpatory facts including the actual Homing Agreement, and manufactured probable cause in what was fundamentally a civil dog dispute. The case is now in discovery, with a status conference held on April 14, 2026 and further proceedings scheduled into 2027.Thirteen days after that federal order, Chief Bardwell requested $14,000 in merit raises for his “fantastic crew.”
The Hereditary Defect — The Full Cast Across the Shared EcosystemThe Shelburne-Buckland law enforcement world is small and interconnected. The pattern of non-correction is consistent:
- Former Chief James T. Hicks — resigned in disgrace following sexual misconduct allegations.
- Paul John “PJ” Herbert — part-time Buckland officer who spent thirteen years claiming combat service in northern Iraq, an IED strike, and survival when British Royal Marines were killed. He collected $344,000 in fraudulent VA benefits. Pleaded guilty in March 2025. Caught by federal investigators, not local ones.
- Jacob Wrisley — part-time officer for Buckland and Bernardston, sentenced in February 2024 to 4–5 years in state prison for secretly filming a naked eight-year-old girl and possessing thousands of organized child sexual exploitation images. Permanently decertified by the Massachusetts POST Commission in April 2025 (Case No. 2025-020).
- Officer Christopher Pettengill — co-signed the 2023 criminal harassment charge built entirely on one side’s unverified complaints.
- Sergeant Kurt Gilmore — author of the written non-contact policy and the officer who “suggested” the defendants seek Harassment Prevention Orders the night of the November 30 assault.
- Detective Tucker Jenkins — co-signer of the false charge, subject of the 2025 student investigation, and the officer denied qualified immunity in federal court.
- Chief Gregory Bardwell — refused the pulse on camera, claimed he couldn't charge Hennessey with false police reports, asserting it was the AG's job....(on video), defended retention of Jenkins, and requested merit raises while the town defends the federal lawsuit.
The Merit Raise and the Institutional ResponseOn March 25, 2026, Chief Bardwell told the Selectboard and Finance Committee that his officers were doing “fantastic work” and requested 3.6–3.8% merit raises on top of the 3.5% COLA — approximately $14,000 added to a police budget line that had already grown 22% the previous year. Selectboard Chair Rick LaPierre described it as “well worth it.”This request came while the department required outside legal compliance assistance, while defending a federal civil rights case naming its detective and chief, and after every documented warning had been met with inaction.The Central ClaimA written departmental policy of non-contact with one resident produced a predictable chain of failures: uninvestigated reports, a false criminal charge, ignored predictions of violence, destruction of evidence, and institutional non-correction even after multiple judicial findings of bad faith. The Permission Structure was never retracted. The merit raise was still requested.
The Greenfield Recorder amplified the 2020 edited video without correction for six years. The Bridge of Flowers Committee never contacted the artist whose work they tried to erase. Courts issued three not-credible findings against the same complainant, yet the department made no adjustment.
The phone is in the Deerfield River.
The record is not.
Documented sources on the record (partial): Police reports 21BUC-54-OF, 23SHL-8-AR, 25SHL-46-AR, 25SHL-47-AR, 25SHL-114-OF. Court dockets 2641CR000158, 2641CR000159. Federal case Mlynick v. Town of Erving et al, 3:24-cv-30108 (Order March 12, 2026; Scheduling Order April 15, 2026). LIFEPAK 15 data October 19, 2025. Bardwell gas-station video October 16, 2025. Walker letters September 2024. Hennessey December 1, 2025 affidavit. POST Commission decertification order for Jacob Wrisley, Case No. 2025-020. All primary video and audio available in the Deerfield River Archive.The record has been screaming for six years.
It is still screaming.
