Tom’s Top 3 for 5/22: Murder Suspect Pleads Not Guilty

The trial of a 32-year-old Hinsdale man accused of killing the mother of his four children last month has been moved up to Berkshire Superior Court.

The Berkshire Eagle reports that Michael Boulais was arraigned in Berkshire Superior Court Tuesday on a murder charge. There were two new charges lodged against him: reckless endangerment of a child and the improper storage of a firearm. Boulais is charged in the April 13th shooting death of 24 year old Kassedi Clark in the driveway of his home at 53 Ashmere Drive in Hinsdale. Clark and Boulais, who have four children together, were estranged.

Boulais told police that Clark came to pick up the children that morning when they got into an argument during which he shot her. Clark died from multiple gunshot wounds to her head, torso and upper extremities. Boulais, armed with a 9 mm firearm, was arrested at the scene.

He had pleas of not guilty entered to all three if the charges against him. He is being held without bail at the Berkshire County House of Correction.

Power Outage Caused By Felled Tree Mishap

An errant tree drop left hundreds of homes and businesses in the city without power for about an hour Tuesday.

The Berkshire Eagle reports that according to Eversource officials, a tree contractor was doing work in the area of Parkside Avenue and Longview Terrace around 11am when the tree the workers were cutting down came into contact with electrical lines. The accident tripped a circuit breaker shutting down electricity service to nearly 750 customers.

The utility reports the power lines weren’t damaged. The tree was safely removed and service was restored to all affected by the outage about an hour later.

Police, Fire Budgets Approved

The City Council in Pittsfield preliminarily approved four departmental budgets Tuesday, including police and fire, two of the larger departments.

IBerkshires.com reports that, as it has been for the last few years, the majority of the discussion was centered on overtime in the Police Department. Chief Michael Wynn said for years that budget has been underfunded and that is proposed to continue again in fiscal year 2019.