KEITH J. HENCHEY
WESTFIELD – Alleged thieves who stole a full-sized school bus in West Springfield and crashed it in Westfield may not have known that video cameras in many school buses begin recording when the bus starts.
On Dec. 30, a man called Westfield police to report that he had observed a school bus “doing donuts” in the parking lot at the Hampton Ponds Playground and crashing into the woods.
A heavy-duty tow truck was summoned and a city dispatcher contacted a representative of Five Star Transportation, the owner of the bus, who said that nobody had signed out the bus and it should have been in West Springfield. The bus was later reported, to West Springfield police, to have been stolen.
Officers Steven Carrington and John Barnachez were the first officers to arrive at the playground and report that two persons found coming out of the woods said that they had found the bus — which was about 30 feet into the woods crashed against a tree – while walking in the woods about two hours earlier.
Det. Lt. Stephan Dickinson said later that the duo said that they had beens staying with a nearby resident –later identified as Melissa L. Guilbault, 31, of 97 Pequot Point Road, Westfield – who appeared on the scene a short time later and supported their claim.
KIRSTEN E. CHASE
Dickinson said, however, that officers were not convinced and Det. Andrew Cekovsky was assigned to investigate the incident.
Cekovsky reports in court documents that Barnachez felt that the hood of the bus was still warm when he found it and advised the two persons that a witness had reported seeing the bus moving in the parking lot minutes earlier. Despite that, the pair, subsequently identified as Keith J. Henchey, 31 of no fixed address, and Kirsten E. Chase, 31, of 805 College Highway, Southwick, continued to claim they had found the bus hours earlier.
A check of records shows that in 2013, when Henchey was arrested for motor vehicle violations, his address was 97 Pequot Point Road, Westfield.
Dickinson said that the automatic video recording system in the bus had been disabled before the officers arrived but the hard drive was intact.
Cekovsky reports that both audio and video data were recovered which showed that Henchey stole the bus from a parking lot on Union Street in West Springfield about 6 a.m. that day. He also said that the keys for the bus were later found to still be under the company’s control but Henchey apparently used a screwdriver to hot-wire the ignition before he managed to drive the bus away.
The video continued recording for about two hours before it was disabled.
He also reports that evidence recovered from Chase’s phone shows that she asked him to pick her up a short time later and he replied that her would pick her up at in West Springfield telling her “I’m in a big ass yellow bus.”
MELISSA L. GUILBAULT
When arrested, Chase told Cekovsky that she did not know the bus was stolen and “also stated that she was too scared to get off the bus because Henchey would ‘kill her’ if she did.” However, the video evidence shows that Henchey made several stops during the hours he had the bus and both suspects repeatedly got on and off the bus.
Henchey, with no fixed address, was not found, but a warrant for his arrest was issued. He was located and arrested by Agawam police on Wednesday and arraigned in Westfield District Court before Judge William O’Grady on charges of receiving a stolen vehicle, larceny of a motor vehicle, obstruction of justice and malicious damage to a motor vehicle. He was released on $2,500 personal surety pending a Feb. 5 pre-trial hearing.
Chase was arrested at her home on Friday and charged with larceny of a motor vehicle and, because she had lied to the officers, obstruction of justice.
Guilbault, because she lied to the officers in an apparent attempt to protect the two suspects, was arrested the same day and charged with obstruction of justice.
The two women appeared in Westfield District Court Jan. 6 before Judge Jennifer Tyne and both were released on their personal recognizances pending pre-trial hearings scheduled for Feb. 5.
