Stockbridge — Robert M. Eaton, who resigned last year as police chief of Stockbridge after only two years, has been fired from his current post as police chief of Townsend in Middlesex County.
The Lowell Sun newspaper reports that the Board of Selectmen voted unanimously to terminate Eaton’s contract at a hearing on Friday morning, despite pleas from his attorney that the meeting be postponed because of Eaton’s ongoing treatment for post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
But Eaton evidently has supporters in the town. Gordy Clark, who chairs the Board of Selectmen, could be seen in video of the hearing repeatedly admonishing the audience whenever it reacted with boos and wisecracks during the 20-minute proceeding, which was originally scheduled as a closed-door proceeding but was held in public at Eaton’s request. (See video of meeting below.)
At issue was misconduct alleged by the selectmen on the part of Eaton. An investigation by town counsel revealed that, despite being told by his superiors not to do so, Eaton had launched an investigation into a newly hired assistant to the town administrator, accessing a state records database to obtain information about her.
Eaton had been on administrative leave since Feb. 10, shortly after he blasted the town counsel investigation as a “strategic assassination” of the police department in a Facebook post that was later deleted.
Eaton’s attorney claimed that since being placed on leave, Eaton has been undergoing treatment at McLean Hospital in Belmont for PTSD. He showed a letter from Eaton’s doctor requesting that any questioning of Eaton be postponed until after treatment concludes at the end of May. But in dismissing the request, town counsel said there was nothing in the letter specifying the trauma Eaton purportedly experienced.
After the selectmen voted to fire Eaton, a woman in the audience complained that she could not hear the selectmen casting their votes. “Louder! Own it!” she shouted. A chorus of raucus boos followed. “You are not our selectmen. You ought to put your egos aside!” another woman yelled.
Tensions between Eaton and the selectmen flared earlier this year, as Eaton and Town Administrator James Kreidler began sniping at each other in an apparent power struggle. Residents began circulating petitions for a recall election for two selectmen.
Only seven months after Eaton started in Townsend in 2016, the selectmen hired Arlington Police Chief Fred Ryan to serve as a mediator in the dispute between Eaton and Kreidler, but Ryan quit in frustration shortly after issuing his report.
Eaton staged an awkward exit from Stockbridge in February 2016, as word leaked out of his intention to leave before the selectmen had even received a letter of resignation.
Eaton, who had served on the Smithfield, R.I., police department for some 25 years, replaced the legendary longtime chief Rick Wilcox in 2013. Some town residents were upset that an outsider had been chosen to replace Wilcox ahead of Stockbridge’s own Brian Shaw, who later took the chief’s position in Egremont but retired last year.
Still others had questioned Eaton’s tactics in fighting crime in Stockbridge and his calls for increased police budgets and additional equipment. Others called for his contract to be renegotiated. Others, however, staunchly defended Eaton.
