Yesterday morning, Ashland town employees received a terse email from Ashland Town Manager Michael Herbert.
Good Morning Everyone – please be advised as of 9AM this morning, Deputy Chief Michael Vinciulla is in charge of the Ashland Police Department. Unfortunately, I have no further information at this time and I will not be able to answer any questions. But please know I have the utmost confidence in you as members of the Ashland Police Department and know you will give Deputy Chief Vinciulla the support that he needs.
Ashland Police Chief Cara Rossi has apparently been placed on administrative leave, and no further details were provided. Rossi was appointed chief in May 2022.
Last April Rossi was named in a civil lawsuit by a woman who previously worked as a dispatcher for Natick PD, and was sexually assaulted by a former Natick police Sergeant, James Quilty. Quilty previously plead guilty to three counts of Indecent Assault and Battery. Rossi was a Lieutenant in Natick at the time, and the suit alleges gender discrimination and a hostile workplace, among other things.
The lawsuit alleges that Rossi, who headed Internal Investigations at the time, attempted to coerce the victim into not reporting the allegations.
Chief Rossi is a good person. We should hold off on speculating until the facts are known. She is the utmost professional in my personal opinion. Hang in there Chief.
Thank you Lou
Thanks Steve,
This one is easy. The chief is a remarkable woman of character. She will come out of this just fine.
The public trust of police officers is at an all time low in Massachusetts Asland,Hopkinton,Canton,Stoughton.
Where does this end? The enforcers are worse than criminals being pursued. Sad
Know the facts before you pass judgement.
Have known Chief Rossi for 30 years , always professional and great individual!
Hang in there
Just in case folks in Hopkinton think we are the only town with lots of drama. Nope. Good to know we have plenty of company in surrounding towns. However, unlike many other towns, we are fortunate to have a newspaper like HopNews that searches diligently to find out the truth of what is happening behind closed doors that politicians would like to keep closed.
Framingham MA. Seems to operate almost silently without any reporting long after politico’s damage is done.Also, Southside voting as expected low, but North???? seems like few care to even vote. I will ????????.
Cannot fathom a world within which Cara Rossi would coerce a woman to NOT report. Cara is a strong ethical woman with a big heart.
I can ,I knew her when she first started in natick and she thought she was on the Gambino squad taking down the mob ,but was breaking up party’s in the woods
U can’t fathom a world where cops will lie cheat and steal to protect each other ? If u haven’t noticed, law enforcement in this country is beyond help , every other day there’s some horrible act committed by a cop
No kidding, apparently some people haven’t read a newspaper or watched a news broadcast for the past 20 or 30 years.
Omg. She came with baggage and lies. Get her out of here.