HANOVER — The town manager and all five members of the Selectboard have filed civil stalking petitions against a resident who has had a contentious history with the town. 

Officials filed the petitions after comments David Vincelette, 69, made at a February Selectboard meeting.

In her petition to the court, Selectboard member Joanna Whitcomb stated Vincelette’s comments resulted in the cancellation of the board’s subsequent meeting “due to our personal fear of the defendant and our concern for the safety of others.”

The six town officials filed the petitions in mid-March. They are asking Lebanon District Court Judge Michael Mace to impose multiple restrictions: Vincelette must refrain from “further acts of stalking or acts of abuse or threats of abuse”; must not come within 300 feet of the town manager and Selectboard members; and must 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. 

During the public comment period of the Feb. 23 Selectboard meeting, Vincelette accused Whitcomb, Town Manager Robert Houseman, Selectboard Chairman Carey Callaghan, Selectboard members Jennie Chamberlain, Athos Rassias and Jarett Berke of crimes against “me and my family.”

“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.” 

After roughly five minutes, Callaghan interrupted Vincelette to tell him his allotted time for public comment had expired. 

“Your time is up too, you just don’t know it,” Vincelette replied. 

After the meeting, the Hanover police officer in attendance escorted the town manager and the Selectboard members to their cars, according to Whitcomb’s statement of facts in her stalking petition against Vincelette.   

Voice messages to Vincelette and Laura Spector-Morgan, attorney for the town officials, were not returned. Vincelette doesn’t have an attorney, court records show.  

In his request for a no-stalking order from the Town of Hanover following Vincelette’s comments on Feb. 23, Houseman wrote to Lebanon District Court describing “a pattern of escalating behavior that has caused me serious concerns for my safety and the safety of others.” 

According to Houseman, Vincelette has attended public meetings for approximately 10 years and “repeatedly directed verbal attacks toward me.” 

Prior to becoming town manager in October 2024, Houseman had been director of the Hanover Department of Planning, Zoning and Codes since 2016.

After Housman’s appointment as town manager, Vincelette accused him of being a “Nazi,” a “federal criminal” and asserted he should be “locked up,” Houseman stated in the letter. 

Houseman went on to write that at the Selectboard meeting on Feb. 23, Vincelette’s “comments and the way they were delivered were perceived by those present as a direct threat.” 

The board canceled its March 2 meeting and resumed meeting on March 16.

“The Town prioritizes the safety of staff, elected officials and the public and strives to keep Selectboard meetings and Town facilities safe and accessible for everyone,” Houseman wrote in an email last week.

During his public comments at the Feb. 23 meeting, Vincelette made a number of allegations against the town of Hanover, the city of Lebanon, Dartmouth College and Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center. 

“We don’t deserve to have Hanover putting poison in our water,” he said. “We do not deserve having Lebanon poison our water. We don’t deserve all of the schools at Dartmouth and Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center putting pollution in our water.” 

The 69-year-old former National Guardsman, who has lived off Lebanon Street by Mink Brook since the 1990s, 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 his possessions — wood pallets, metal scrap and used cars — onto the town-owned Tanzi trail along Brook Road off Route 10, the Valley News reported in August 2017.  

According to the statement of facts filed in the six stalking petitions against Vincelette, town officials allege that he “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 Tanzi trail.

Final hearings on two of the stalking petitions were held on March 23 and “are under advisement with the judge,” Lebanon District Court Clerk Pamela Kozlowski said on Monday.

The other four civil cases against Vincelette are scheduled to have final hearings on Friday at 8:30 a.m. in Lebanon District Court. All of the petitions are pending Mace’s decision.

If granted by the judge, the orders of protection can remain for up to a year, Kozlowski said.