McCarthy's Pub

McCarthy's Pub in Belchertown is seen in this file photo.

( The Republican file)

BELCHERTOWN - A Massachusetts State Police trooper has been suspended and is scheduled to be arraigned next week on charges of assaulting a Belchertown police officer in connection with a probe of an automobile accident involving the trooper's wife.

Trooper Sean Dennehy, who is assigned to the state police's Springfield barracks, has been charged with assaulting Belchertown detective John Raymer and is scheduled to be arraigned in Eastern Hampshire District Court.

The criminal charges, which include witness intimidation and disturbing the peace, prompted the state police to suspend Dennehy, 46, without pay, and to open their own investigation, the agency confirmed Friday.

Dennehy faces a maximum 10-year sentence in state prison if convicted of the witness intimidation charge.

District Court records indicate that Dennehy created a disturbance at McCarthy's Pub in Belchertown by yelling and swearing at Raymer, who was having dinner with his children.

Dennehy's wife, Tamara Dennehy, who teaches in the Belchertown public schools, is listed as an "involved party" on the town's police log during the McCarthy's Pub incident on Feb. 6.

She is not charged with any crime in this matter, but the witness intimidation allegation against her husband is related to Raymer's criminal investigation of her related to a motor vehicle crash on St. Patrick's Day in March, 2015. That court case remains open.

A state police spokesman said Dennehy was suspended without pay four days after the Feb. 6 incident, in which he allegedly assaulted Raymer inside McCarthy's Pub, which is located at 5 East Walnut St. near the town common.

"Trooper Dennehy was ordered suspended without pay on Feb 10. We have opened an internal affairs investigation into his alleged actions," state police spokesman Dave Procopio wrote in an email on Friday.

"We will monitor the criminal court proceedings," Procopio said. "Trooper Dennehy's duty status will be reassessed upon conclusion of the criminal case and of the internal investigation, and the results of both of those processes will be considered in determining his any future duty status."

Belchertown police officer Valerie Austin wrote in the criminal complaint against the suspended state trooper that: "Unprovoked, Sean Dennehy approached John Raymer and his two young children in McCarthy's Pub. Sean Dennehy became angered and very loud, swearing and cussing about a past incident."

The past incident involves Dennehy's wife, Tamara Dennehy, 45, who last year was charged with leaving the scene of a motor vehicle crash. According to court records, the car she was driving collided with parked vehicle, totaling it, in the parking lot of the Belchertown VFW post at 41 Pelham Road on March 22. She allegedly drove away without informing the other vehicle's owner of the crash, court records state.

That matter was initially investigated by Belchertown police officer Michael Roney, but an illness resulted in Raymer being assigned the case.

The Feb. 8 complaint against Sean Dennehy alleges that "Mr. Dennehy assaulted Raymer when he stood over him and pointed his finger at him and stated 'you're a f**king asshole, f*** you.'"

"Raymer stated he feared Dennehy was going to physically assault him," it says.

There is no indication in the report that Dennehy touched Raymer, and no battery charges were filed.

Neither Dennehy nor Raymer were on duty at the time of the incident.

The Belchertown police log shows Raymer called 911 the evening of Feb. 6, at 7:38 p.m., to report "a disorderly patron."

The intimidation of a witness charge pending against Sean Dennehy is alluded to in the criminal complaint.

"Mr. Raymer has a pending case against Tamara Dennehy, the wife of Sean Dennehy," Austin's criminal complaint states.

Tamara Dennehy's lawyer, Ralph W. Sargent of Worcester, filed a motion to dismiss the case on Sept. 24, 2015. Judge John M. Payne Jr. denied the motion, writing in a Nov. 3 decision: "Detective Raymer undertook an investigation and arranged to have Ms. Dennehy appear at the BPD (Belchertown Police Department) on April 3, 2015. Apparently Ms. Dennehy did not appear and the citation was issued."

In a footnote to his motion to dismiss, Sargent wrote: "Officer Raymer's report fails to mention (that) ... the defendant's husband Sean, a trooper with the Massachusetts State Police, called the Belchertown police and reported his wife had been involved in an accident at the VFW but had left the area. Second, the defendant herself filled out a statement the next day on a Belchertown Police Department voluntary statement form acknowledging she had been involved in an accident at the VFW."

Court records show that Raymer filed a criminal complaint against Tamara Dennehy on April 6 for the March 22 incident at the VFW.

On May 20, a clerk-magistrate found probable cause to proceed with the case; she was ordered to appear for arraignment on July 1.

One charge against her was dismissed at the request of the district attorney.

She is on probation until June involving the other charge - in which she paid a $100 fine and was ordered to enroll in a driver safety class, court records show.

Her husband was also at the VFW during the March incident, court records and police reports show, and video footage from the tavern's security system was used as evidence.

"I first observed Mr. Dennehy on this video feed walk down a short hallway and enter the female bathroom. Mrs. Dennehy came into view a short time later. It was immediately apparent she was having difficulties walking and keeping her balance," Raymer's narrative for the Belchertown Police Department reads.

Later, according to Raymer's narrative, the video shows that she "enters her vehicle and is backing towards the main entrance and impacting the parked vehicle (and) Mr. Dennehy can be seen just outside the main door smoking a cigarette. He also watches as Mrs. Dennehy crashes her vehicle and drives away. At one point I could observe Mr. Dennehy putting his hands in the air."

Raymer's narrative states that the vehicle Tamara Dennehy was driving "sped up causing the vehicle to strike a parked vehicle pushing that vehicle into another parked vehicle."

Tamara Dennehy allegedly "then ... drove around the rear of the VFW and exited onto Pelham Road," according to Raymer's report, which also alleges that she "never stopped to identify herself to the owners of the vehicles damaged."

Sean Dennehy's arraignment is scheduled for 9 a.m. on Feb. 29.