In The News
| Date |
Article |
| 2/6/2004 |
Egbert seeks to join Derderians' defense |
Because he is not a member of the Rhode Island bar, the noted lawyer needs permission from the presiding judge.
PROVIDENCE -- Richard M. Egbert, who is considered one of the top criminal defense lawyers in New England, has filed court papers asking to be allowed to join the team of Rhode Island lawyers representing Michael and Jeffrey Derderian, who each face 200 counts of involuntary manslaughter in connection with last February's fire at The Station nightclub.
Egbert, a Boston lawyer, said last night that he had been retained by Michael Derderian but because he is not a member of the Rhode Island bar, he had filed a motion with Judge Francis Darigan -- who is presiding over the Derderians' case -- to be allowed to enter the case.
Egbert is well-known in Rhode Island, where he has waged tenacious defenses for a wide range of clients -- from mobsters to high-profile politicians -- including former Mayor Vincent A. Cianci Jr. and former Gov. Edward DiPrete. His motion has not been acted on. However, Egbert said he planned to attend a pretrial chambers conference in the case, scheduled for next Tuesday.
Egbert's retention was first reported late yesterday on www.depetro.com, the Web site of WHJJ's talk-show host John DePetro. From Projo.com
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| 1/6/2004 |
Police question Irons' colleagues over Blue Cross, CVS connections |
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The state police are investigating payments to legislators for consulting services.
The Rhode Island State Police have interviewed former Senate leader Paul S. Kelly regarding former Senate President William V. Irons and any ties he may have to CVS and Blue Cross, Kelly said yesterday.
Kelly, the former majority leader and now a stockbroker at Merrill Lynch, said that two detectives called him on Friday, then came to his office later that afternoon and questioned him for about an hour.
"They wanted to know about my relationship with Irons," Kelly said. "He is apparently part of an ongoing investigation involving other people."
Meanwhile, two other senators said yesterday that they had also been questioned by the state police.
Sen. Leonidas Raptakis, D-Coventry, said a state police investigator called him last week. They were calling senators "to see what material we could provide them" that would confirm any connections that Irons or Sen. John A. Celona, D-North Providence, had with CVS or Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island, Raptakis said.
Celona, an Irons ally, recently stepped aside as chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee after The Journal disclosed his financial ties to CVS and Blue Cross.
Sen. Joseph M. Polisena, D-Johnston, said that he met with the state police yesterday, but declined to say what he told them.
"They're trying to piece together information... They did tell me they were going to talk to several other senators," he said.
Col. Steven M. Pare, superintendent of the Rhode Island State Police, said that it would be inappropriate for him to comment on specifics of the investigation.
"We initiated an investigation, and it is continuing," he said. "It is not limited to one person. It is our intention to do an initial investigation of these circumstances to determine what, if anything, is warranted."
Any investigation would not only have to document financial ties between companies and elected officials, but would also require proof that the relationship was illegal, involving a quid pro quo between an official action and a personal benefit.
On Dec. 24, The Journal reported that the attorney general's office and the state police had launched an investigation into "the issue of payments to legislators for consulting services."
A state police major, Steven O'Donnell, characterized the probe as "the Celona investigation." Later, Deputy Attorney General Gerald Coyne said that the investigation, in its early stages, would focus on "more than one person."
Kelly's comments yesterday were the first public indication that Irons, the East Providence Democrat who stepped down as Senate president last week amid unanswered questions about financial ties to CVS and Blue Cross, is also a focus. In the past, Irons has acknowledged he sells policies for Blue Cross and that he owns CVS stock, but he has refused to say whether he has any other financial dealings with CVS.
The investigators, Detective Sgt. Brian Casselli and Detective Shari Russell, asked Kelly about a 1999 incident in which Kelly says he confronted Irons about a potential conflict of interest in weighing legislation opposed by CVS and Blue Cross.
Kelly, who described the encounter to The Journal last month, said that he had heard that Irons, an insurance agent, had a business relationship with CVS and Blue Cross. At the time, Irons chaired the Senate Corporations Committee, which was considering "pharmacy-choice" legislation opposed by CVS and Blue Cross.
Kelly and an ally, then-Majority Whip William Enos, said that Irons would neither confirm nor deny whether CVS was a client, and that the meeting became awkward.
Given a choice of stepping aside or seeking a ruling from the state Ethics Commission, Irons sought the commission's advice. But in a move fueling the controversy that led to Irons' resignation last week, the senator did not disclose the identity of his "corporate insurance client" -- later described by the commission as a "corporate pharmacy client."
The commission responded with an advisory opinion saying that, while the bill could financially affect Irons' client, there would be no conflict for Irons to vote on "broad-based legislation involving general health-care issues of public interest."
In subsequent leadership meetings, Kelly said, Irons cited the Ethics Commission's opinion in saying that he had "a clean bill of health." In April 1999, Irons presided over the Corporations Committee as it rejected the pharmacy-choice bill, which Irons had also opposed in previous years.
Kelly, who was unseated by Irons as majority leader in 2000, says that, in retrospect, he should have investigated further.
Kelly said that he also told the state police about other bills that Irons had been involved with.
"They were investigating different aspects of certain bills and why they were in Irons' committee," Kelly said. "I told them that it was because he was a very effective chairman."
The detectives asked Kelly to describe any other clashes that he had with Irons. Kelly said that he told them about the fierce debate in 1997 over a General Assembly law regarded as one of the nation's toughest in limiting the entry of for-profit hospitals into Rhode Island.
The bill, passed over then-Gov. Lincoln C. Almond's veto, was prompted by Tennessee-based giant Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corp.'s plan to purchase Roger Williams Medical Center in Providence and convert it to a for-profit hospital.
Kelly and Irons, who was part of his leadership team, split on the bill, with Kelly supporting it and Irons opposed. Before their differences became apparent, however, Kelly said that he had assigned the bill to Irons' committee, at Irons' request.
There was no suggestion, however, that Kelly viewed Irons as having any potential conflict of interest in that matter.
Irons could not be reached for comment yesterday.
Raptakis said that the state police questioned him about Irons and Celona.
He said that he told the detectives about a 1996 news release in which he called for senators who served on the Corporations Committee and worked in insurance sales to recuse themselves from voting on legislation dealing with hospital emergency rooms.
Raptakis, who had sponsored the bill, said Irons "blew up on the Senate floor" and made angry comments about the issue. Raptakis said he agreed to give the police both the release and a tape of the Senate session.
He said that he also told the state police that "what didn't make any sense" was that Celona supposedly was working as a consultant to CVS, soliciting the opinions of senior citizens on pharmacy service issues, but Raptakis had never heard of Celona making such an appearance in his area.
After the Celona controversy became public, WHJJ radio talk-show host John DePetro, who had been calling for an investigation, said that he met with the two state police detectives and with a white-collar state prosecutor, Emily Maranjian, at the state police barracks in Wickford.
DePetro said that he passed along tips that he had received, while acknowledging that he had no firsthand knowledge. They also discussed Blue Cross' sponsorship of Rhode Island Health Update, a cable television show that Celona promoted and briefly hosted.
Among other things, DePetro said, the investigators "seemed pretty interested in the people who appeared on [Celona's] show." From Projo.com
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| 12/13/2003 |
Carcieri issues call for officials
to name sources of income |
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In the midst of Sen. John A. Celona's ethics case, the governor says questions about legislators' private clients feed the public's cynicism.
PROVIDENCE -- Governor Carcieri said yesterday that elected officials in Rhode Island should have to disclose specifics not only about their line of work but also about any company that provides them with a "significant source of income."
Carcieri's comments come in the wake of an ethics complaint filed this week by Operation Clean Government against Sen. John A. Celona, D-North Providence, over Celona's ties to several large corporations through his private consulting work.
As The Journal has reported, Celona worked from 2000 to this past August as a consultant to the CVS pharmacy chain, a fact he did not disclose in required financial filings. For most of that time, he was chairman of the Senate committee that regulates the health-care industry. Celona has said he did not believe he was required to list every consulting client, only his primary source of revenue.
The governor's comments also came one day after Senate President William V. Irons, D-East Providence, the owner of an insurance agency, refused to say whether he does business with CVS. Irons, who in the past sought advice from the state Ethics Commission on an unnamed "corporate pharmacy client," says he sells policies for Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island, but has said he is not required to, and will not, name any of his clients.
"If the law doesn't say that, I think the law needs to be changed," the governor said yesterday.
"If it's Don Carcieri's insurance agency, if I have a large account that is a major source of income for me, then absolutely that should be disclosed in my role as a legislator, particularly if that company has business before the legislature," Carcieri said. The situation would be the same for a lawyer, he said.
"That's the point of financial disclosure, so if that company or that person comes before the legislature with some item of business, that is known and it's understood," Carcieri said.
If there is any ambiguity with the requirements, "I think that ambiguity needs to be cleared up, because this is exactly the kind of issue that is fueling the cynicism" of the public, the governor said.
On Thursday, Celona announced he had agreed to step aside temporarily as chairman of the Commerce, Housing and Municipal Government Committee until the ethics complaint is resolved.
The senator had sought advice earlier from the Ethics Commission on whether he should amend his past financial forms to account for the CVS work. He also asked for an opinion on whether he could do work in the future for television-production company CRI Communications. Celona reportedly helped secure a Blue Cross sponsorship for a health-care program CRI produced.
Ethics Commission staff lawyer Jason Gramitt said yesterday that Celona will not get responses to either question until the complaint is resolved.
Gramitt said the Ethics Commission will decide at either its Jan. 6 or Jan. 20 meeting "whether the allegations contained in the complaint, if true, would constitute a knowing and willful violation of the code." If the commission says yes, the complaint will receive a full investigation, he said.
Celona said Thursday that he would ask the commission to "expedite" its work on the complaint. But Gramitt said yesterday there was no way to fast-track a case.
In another development yesterday, a talk-radio host walked into the attorney general's office and asked to open a criminal investigation of Celona's work for CVS, saying that, in his opinion, it amounted to a bribe.
John DePetro said he spoke with Joseph Patrick Youngs III, the head of the office's white-collar crime unit. DePetro said he relayed his opinion of the situation, and told Youngs about an off-air conversation he had with Celona on Dec. 4 that he believed was relevant to the case.
DePetro said Youngs agreed to arrange for DePetro to meet with an investigator from either the attorney general's office or the state police early next week.
Michael Healey, a spokesman for the attorney general's office, confirmed DePetro's visit. But Healey said Attorney General Patrick Lynch believed the Ethics Commission was "the right venue" for an investigation of the issue and wanted to let the commission take the lead. From Projo.com
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| 10/23/2003 |
Probe tops $40,000 in Cianci leak |
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A special prosecutor is trying to compel Channel 10 reporter Jim Taricani to divulge how he obtained an FBI videotape used as evidence in Operation Plunder Dome.
PROVIDENCE -- The federal government has spent more than $40,000 for a special prosecutor to determine who leaked an FBI videotape to a local TV reporter two years ago, during the corruption investigation of former Mayor Vincent A. Cianci Jr.
That figure will climb as the special prosecutor, Marc DeSisto, presses his efforts to compel the reporter, Jim Taricani of Channel 10, to reveal his source.
A federal judge recently ordered Taricani to identify the source, but Taricani and his station's owner, NBC, will appeal on First Amendment grounds to the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston.
DeSisto is seeking to depose Taricani next week, which could be a prelude to the special prosecutor seeking a contempt-of-court ruling against the reporter and Channel 10 if Taricani continues to withhold the identity of his source. Possible sanctions could include fines and imprisonment.
At The Providence Journal's request, Chief U.S. District Judge Ernest C. Torres has released heavily edited copies of DeSisto's bills, which show the hours the special prosecutor has worked and how much he has billed the government -- but do not show what DeSisto did.
Torres, who has declined to release other records in the case, would not release the more detailed bills, saying that it could compromise the ongoing investigation.
The subject of DeSisto's investigation is a secret FBI videotape, made by cooperating witness Antonio R. Freitas, that captured Cianci's top aide and chief fundraiser, Frank E. Corrente, taking a $1,000 bribe in his office at City Hall.
Corrente was subsequently indicted in the summer of 2000 as part of Operation Plunder Dome, the wide-ranging federal corruption probe of Cianci's City Hall. On Feb. 1, 2001 -- two months before Cianci himself was indicted -- Taricani aired the Corrente tape, which he had obtained from an undisclosed source.
Since the tapes were supposed to be secret under a judge's protective order, Torres appointed a special prosecutor to determine whether criminal contempt charges should be filed against the person who leaked the tape.
The tape, one of several made by Freitas in his year working undercover for the FBI in Operation Plunder Dome, was a critical piece of evidence in last year's racketeering trial of Cianci, Corrente and two others.
Cianci and Corrente were convicted, and are serving federal prison sentences. Following their trial last summer, the videotapes, which had been key evidence, became public.
Meanwhile, the special prosecutor's work continued.
Last summer, DeSisto asked Torres to order Taricani to reveal his source. A lawyer for Channel 10, William P. Robinson, countered that Taricani's First Amendment rights outweighed the court's interest in ferreting out the leak, particularly since the trial was over and Torres had rejected defense motions that Taricani's pretrial airing of the tape created unfair prejudice.
But Torres, in a ruling three weeks ago, rejected that argument and ordered Taricani to reveal his source. The fact that Operation Plunder Dome had ended "does not negate the purposes served by prosecuting those who may have willfully violated the Protective Order any more than the fact that a murder has already been committed . . . negates the purposes served by prosecuting the perpetrator."
Taricani was not bound by the court order and would not face prosecution for the leak of the tape. But the person who gave it to him might.
The judge's decision was silent on the question of whether Taricani would face sanctions or whether that will be delayed until the appeal is resolved. Although Torres appointed DeSisto, the judge said that the next move "depends on what Mr. DeSisto may do."
Lawyers could not be reached for comment yesterday regarding DeSisto's attempts to schedule a deposition with Taricani next week.
Torres gave the Journal two bills that DeSisto submitted for work in 2001 and 2002, totaling $42,334. That does not include any work that DeSisto has done on the case since late September 2002. Torres said that those bills were unavailable.
DeSisto, who charged $125 an hour, said during a July court hearing that he had taken six or seven depositions, obtained three or four affidavits, or sworn statements, and spoken to "10 or more" people.
Two of those deposed were Taricani and WHJJ radio talk-show host John DePetro, who each publicly confirmed their depositions. (DePetro said that he was not involved in the leak of the tape.) Beyond that, the identities of those DeSisto has talked to remains secret. From Projo.com
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| 10/17/2003 |
Joan Rivers joins local talk-show wars |
Can we talk?
WPRO-AM (630) has hired a new local radio host to temporarily replace Rush Limbaugh, who has checked into a rehabilitation clinic after admitting that he is addicted to painkillers.
The new host is comedian, jewelry entrepreneur and merciless fashion commentator Joan Rivers. David Bernstein, director of news and operations at WPRO, said Rivers's show is not a syndicated program -- she'll be working solely for WPRO.
She'll be on the air from noon to 3 p.m., beginning Monday.
"Sometimes she'll be working from Providence, sometimes New York, sometimes California," Bernstein said. "I've been trying to figure out how to make that all happen."
Rivers will be broadcasting from WPRO in East Providence Monday through Wednesday of next week. After that, Bernstein said, she'll continue to broadcast for the station but her location may change depending on her schedule.
Current plans call for Rivers to do her show for the next two weeks. Then she'll be off for a week because of prior commitments abroad, then back on WPRO the next week.
Bernstein said he hasn't decided what will air in the time slot during the week Rivers is abroad.
Bernstein said he knows Rivers from WOR-AM in New York City, where he was program director. From February of 1997 to March of 2002, Rivers had a syndicated radio show that originated from the station.
"She's a hoot," Bernstein said. "She's fun, she's funny, she's very spirited. She likes to talk about what's on people's minds. When I heard that Rush was taking off for an extended period of time, I gave her a call and asked if she wanted to do a show for us."
Bernstein declined to say how much WPRO is paying Rivers. "I'll leave that to your imagination," he said.
Rivers will be competing with John DePetro (10 a.m. to 2 p.m.) and then Arlene Violet on WHJJ-AM. DePetro said he was amused by the idea of battling Rivers.
"Was Phyllis Diller unavailable?" DePetro said. "If Joan Rivers calls in sick, is Nipsy Russell going to substitute for her? What does it say about Joan Rivers's career that she goes from filling in for Johnny Carson to coming to Providence to go against me when their regular host can't do the show because he's a junkie?"
Limbaugh announced Oct. 10 that he was addicted to painkillers, originally prescribed for pain following back surgery.
Bernstein said he didn't want to put a Limbaugh clone on the air in his absence.
"This will not be like the Rush Limbaugh show at all, and that's how I want it," he said. "You can't do the Rush Limbaugh show without Rush Limbaugh. So this is completely different." From Projo.com
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| 10/02/2003 |
Party chief calls rival 'hypocritical' |
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In response, the Republican state chairwoman says she sought only advice, not preferential treatment, after her son was arrested.
The state Democratic party chairman is crying foul after Patricia L. Morgan, the Republican state chairwoman, disclosed on a radio talk show this week that she phoned a local prosecutor when her son was arrested by the West Warwick police.
Morgan insists that she sought only advice -- not favorable treatment -- from the prosecutor, but Democratic party chairman William J. Lynch termed her behavior "hypocritical," considering that she has been accusing a prominent Democrat of manipulating the legal system.
In August, after House Majority Whip Rene R. Menard, a Democrat, admitted asking a fellow legislator to omit from a Woonsocket police log the arrest of a Massachusetts town official in a prostitution sting, Morgan demanded a criminal probe and filed a complaint with the state Ethics Commission.
Yesterday, the state Democratic chairman accused Morgan of a similar questionable practice, using her position to seek favorable treatment from the authorities when her son was arrested.
Considering Morgan's vocal criticisms of Democrats, Lynch said, "I can think of no greater example of the pot calling the kettle black."
The accusations came to light Monday, when Morgan appeared on John DePetro's talk show on WHJJ-AM radio. A caller identifying herself as Katrina from North Smithfield asked her, "Did you yourself call a West Warwick prosecutor to get your son out of trouble after he was arrested?"
"No, I didn't," Morgan replied.
Later on the program, Morgan gave a brief account of the arrest and her call to the prosecutor, Gordon M. Smith, although on the radio program she identified him only as "an attorney" from whom she sought advice.
The West Warwick police visited Morgan's home at 411 Wakefield St. on Aug. 3. She lives there with two sons from her first marriage -- Stephen Mulligan, 25, and Brian R. Mulligan, 20.
In an interview yesterday, Morgan said she called the police to the home after her sons began quarreling. "They were fistfighting," Morgan said. "I was afraid that they were going to hurt each other . . . I called the police to get them to help me stop them."
After the police broke up the fight, they checked their computer system to see whether either man was wanted on warrants, said Police Chief Peter T. Brousseau. They found a warrant for Brian Mulligan, so they arrested him.
The younger Mulligan was wanted for failing to appear in court on a charge of driving with a suspended license, Morgan said. He had lost his license after he failed to pay a fine for a speeding ticket, she said.
Just a few minutes after the police drove away with her son, Morgan said she called Smith, a well-known local lawyer and chairman of the Democratic Town Committee. Smith is the assistant town solicitor, an appointed position that involves prosecuting the Police Department's misdemeanor cases in District Court, Warwick. He often represents clients before the Zoning Board of Review, on which Morgan sits.
When Morgan called him that afternoon, she was "bordering on hysterical," Smith said yesterday. He said he made a call to a police officer, who told him about the reason for Mulligan's arrest.
Another police officer called Morgan and told her that Mulligan could be released if he paid the $300 court fine, Morgan said.
In a subsequent phone call, Smith said, he advised Morgan to pay the fine and said there was nothing else for him to do. He said Morgan never retained him as an attorney, as her son needed no representation on the matter.
Morgan said she was furious with her son. She paid the $300 fine, then left him at the police station to walk several miles home.
Both Morgan and Smith said that no improper influence was ever requested, offered, or given. Smith said that he would have no influence over the police's handling of such a case, because the charge originated in South Kingstown, not West Warwick.
Chief Brousseau concurred. "He got no preferential treatment," he said.
Asked why she sought the help of someone from the other side of the political aisle, Morgan said, "I've come to respect Gordon's expertise . . . You would think that it's odd, but I think he's good at this particular section of law, and he's a fair man."
Lynch, the Democratic state chairman, said that by going public with his criticism of Morgan, he wasn't condoning wrongdoing within his own party. "The difference is that Rep. Menard admitted making the call. He said in retrospect he wouldn't do it again.
"Now you've got the number-one person crucifying people, and she had to admit she did the same thing. The height of hypocrisy is what it is."
Responded Morgan: "[The Democrats] have real ethical issues. Their ethical issues and violations are real. What they're trying to do is manufacture them against me and my son." From Projo.com
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| 7/31/2003 |
Immigrant may be freed |
CENTRAL FALLS -- A high-ranking immigration official made two phone calls Wednesday that could lead to the release of an illegal immigrant awaiting deportation, according to the man's girlfriend, Maria Cordero.
Danny Sigui, 31, served as the key witness for the state in a murder trial that ended on June 23 with a guilty verdict. Two days later, Sigui was picked up by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and has since been in a jail cell at the Bristol County House of Corrections in Dartmouth, Mass., awaiting deportation to Guatemala.
The unnamed official twice called Cordero on Wednesday afternoon, offering two potential deals that both involved the release of Sigui.
The first, which came around 1 p.m., would have allowed Sigui 60 days to marry Cordero and complete the paperwork necessary to reside in the United States. It was dismissed by Cordero's lawyer, California-based immigration specialist Nora Milner, as "window dressing, something to satisfy the news media."
The second, however, which came at 4:30 p.m., Milner said was "workable."
The potential deal, according to Cordero, would allow Sigui a certain limited time period to marry Cordero and fill out his paperwork. He would then voluntarily return to Guatemala and await approval from immigration officials, which would likely take between eight and 10 months, according to Milner.
"It's a lot better than the first offer, but this would take time, too," said Milner.
"We'd have to petition the Vermont Service Center, who would then review the petition and send it to the district office in Boston, who then needs to interview Danny and Maria to make sure it's a bona fide marriage. Danny must stay here until the interview or it's useless, but if they agree to that, we could have something."
According to Cordero, that agreement could be finalized by immigration officials as soon as today. Officials at the Boston Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Sigui and Cordero have been dating for 15 months and have lived together in Lincoln since last winter. Before his incarceration, Sigui was supporting two children from a previous relationship, Helen, 3, and Victor Daniel, 1, as a auto mechanic in Narragansett. The children's mother, Glecie Ciron, lives on Earle Street in Central Falls. With no child support from Sigui since he was jailed, Ciron said she and children are in danger of being evicted.
The Times has also learned that Sigui wasn't alone when he witnessed Robert Silvia, formerly of Pawtucket, stab and kill Joseph Lima outside Somewhere Else, a bar at 22 Earle St, on Nov. 30, 2001.
A second man, known only as "Orlando," was with Sigui, according to Assistant Attorney General Laura Pisaturo, but when police arrived minutes after the incident, he had disappeared and police were unable to locate him.
Representatives of the attorney general's office said Tuesday that Sigui's testimony was "crucial in the state's securing the guilty verdict. He was the linchpin in the case."
On Wednesday, parties speaking for Attorney General Patrick Lynch denied knowing for more than a year that Sigui was an illegal immigrant.
Lynch spokesperson Michael Healey said prosecutors learned of Sigui’s status on June 9, just days before the trial began and after Sigui had already testified in two hearings.
Sigui testified under a false name, Victor Estrada, Healey said. A records check under that name yielded no information, Healey said.
Sigui offers a different version of events. In an interview from jail Wednesday, he said the attorney general's office knew of his status for more than a year, and that he had conversations with Pisaturo to this effect months before the trial began in June.
"I did not have a conversation with (Sigui) in which he advised me he was illegal," Pisaturo said. "We confirmed he was illegal on June 10th and informed the proper authorities and the trial began the next day. This the first time an instance like this happened to me. It's an unusual situation.
"I feel bad now," Pisaturo said. "I knew it was a difficult position. I fulfilled my obligation as a prosecutor and reported (Sigui) to INS."
Sigui came to this country in 1992 from Guatemala, entering illegally through Mexico and settling in Providence. A year later, he was deported illegally, members of his family and his lawyer say, without having received the appropriate hearing.
He re-entered the country, again through Mexico, in 1995 and has been living in Central Falls since. Sigui has no immediate family in Guatemala. His mother, brothers, sisters and children are all living in Rhode Island as legal immigrants or U.S. citizens.
In New York, the Guatemalan general consulate, Rosa Maria Merida Mora, spent the day talking with immigration officials and representatives of Lynch’s office.
Her office was flooded with dozens of phone calls regarding the story about Sigui in Wednesday’s edition of The Times. On WHJJ-AM, talk host John DePetro took several hours of phone calls on the topic, saying virtually all were sympathetic to Sigui.
"We are very glad progress is being made," Mora said. "We have been speaking with several officials in immigration and we're seeing what else we can find out.
"We are very worried about him and his children, but the news today is very good."
Sen. Jack Reed has also involved himself on Sigui's behalf.
A Reed staff member said Wednesday that "we are reviewing the case and seeing how we can help. We are sympathetic to the situation and are trying to get his lawyer the records she needs and has been having difficulty getting through the government."
In ore fairly."
From PawtucketTimes.com
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| 7/17/2003 |
Lynch blasts governor |
PROVIDENCE -- Miffed at what he sees as Gov. Donald L. Carcieri shifting blame for the Narragansett Indian smoke shop debacle to the state police and attorney generalÍs office, Attorney General Patrick Lynch took to the radio airwaves Wednesday to say the governor "threw us under the bus."
PROVIDENCE -- Commenting on Carcieri's Tuesday press conference where he apologized to residents of the state because people were hurt in the State Police raid on the Charlestown reservation, said he was advised to seek the warrant by Lynch and that he specifically told the troopers to back off if they met any resistance. With State Police Col. Steven Pare standing by his side, Carcieri said he had directed Pare to conduct an investigation of what happened at the smoke shop.
On WHJJ-AM's John Depetro show, Lynch called the governor's remarks "unfortunate and inappropriate" troubling is about as gently as I can put it.
"As a citizen, as a former prosecutor, as the chief law enforcement officer of the state," Lynch said, "his comments, subjecting the colonel to stand there while he was making those comments was an affront not just to the colonel, but additionally it's a slight on every man and woman who serves us daily in uniform and I think that's terribly unfortunate. To me it was painful to watch the colonel of the State Police be publicly denigrated in that fashion last night. He has, I think, slighted the state police and law enforcement generally and as the chief law enforcement officer in the state, that bothers me.
"He was doing the same thing to me," Lynch said, adding that he was invited to the press conference but was glad he did not attend after reading Carcieri's remarks. "I got advice from this guy, I got advice from that guy."
Lynch told Depetro, "I think it's a shell game to shift the blame. To turn around and try to step away in any form, but specifically to the men and women who responded and did their jobs and suffered injuries as a result — all the while showing great restraint and professionalism, I can only say that is an affront to men and women in uniform and especially the State Police."
The Democrat attorney general speculated that the Republican governor, "had made his decision and obviously he is struggling to live with it."
From PawtucketTimes.com
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| 7/15/2003 |
Governor blames chief for raid |
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WARWICK -- Gov. Donald L. Carcieri placed the blame for Monday's violent confrontation at the closing of the Narragansett Indians' tax-free smoke shop squarely on Chief Sachem Matthew Thomas and other tribe members.
Pronouncing himself "extraordinarily dismayed," by the actions of the tribe, Carcieri told a late afternoon press conference at T.F. Green Airport, "it is clear to me that the chief instigated this confrontation, he did nothing to prevent it and did nothing to calm it down."
Asked what happened to the amicable relationship between his administration and the tribe that culminated in the governor's visit to the reservation last month, Carcieri said, "they lost the casino vote, that's all." A bill to allow a statewide vote on whether to have a gambling casino was passed by the House but died in the Senate two weeks ago.
Thomas, who was arrested along with seven other tribe members, one a juvenile, could not be reached for comment after his arrest.
Speaking on the radio before the raid and his arrest, Thomas said, "No, absolutely not," when asked if he would close the smoke shop on the order of a state court. "If a federal court says to close down, we will," the chief told WHJJ-AM's John Depetro. "If a state court does, we will not."
Thomas said the tribe, beset by financial difficulties and faced with a deficit at the end of this year, "held off as long as we could" waiting for economic development help from the state before opening the smoke shop. "We had to take issues into our own hands."
Shortly before 2 p.m. on Monday, a phalanx of 20 State Troopers accompanied by three Charlestown police officers and German Shepherds from the K-9 corps raided the shop, which had been selling cigarettes without charging state cigarette taxes or sales taxes, dropping the price to half or less that charged by stores that apply the state taxes.
Thomas could be seen on TV news clips grappling with State Police until four troopers brought him to the ground and handcuffed him. "This looks like Mississippi in the damn 60s, Thomas could be heard saying, referring to the violent and bloody civil rights demonstrations of that era. He could also be heard referring to the troopers as "a bunch of goons" and saying "you ought to be ashamed, Governor Carcieri," for the benefit of reporters and TV cameras.
Eight persons were reported injured in the melee, none of the injuries were considered serious.
State Police Col. Steven Pare said eight tribe members were arrested on charges of resisting arrest and misdemeanor assault on a police officer. All but one was released on personal recognizance, the other posted a bond, he said.
Carcieri said he gave the order for the search warrant to be executed.
"They have no sovereign immunity," Carcieri said of the Narragansetts. "Under federal law, Rhode Island law is in full force and effect on settlement lands." The governor acknowledged that the tribe disputes that interpretation, but said that is a matter to be dealt with in court.
Asked whether the Narragansetts, if they took that dispute to court and won, could find themselves on a direct path to opening a casino, Carcieri said, "there are all sorts of possibilities. That is possible. But until that is litigated and resolved, (the Narragansetts) under the Settlement Act (under which the Narragansetts obtained their 1,800 acre reservation) they are bound by Rhode Island law.
The Narragansetts, he said, "Had no right to resist" the execution of the warrant.
All parties are expected to attend a RI Superior Court hearing today on the state's application for a temporary restraining order (TRO) to stop the tribe from continuing to sell cigarettes tax-free at the smoke shop.
Asked about the incident, Attorney General Patrick Lynch said, "to me, it illustrates incredible restraint on the part of law enforcement." He said Carcieri salso demonstrated "remarkable patience," in dealing with the recalcitrant Narragansetts.
Asked why the state didn't first go to court to obtain the restraining order before taking the smoke shop by force, Carcieri and Lynch said the state was following proper procedure by getting a search warrant. The warrant to search the shop and seize any contraband was the purpose of Monday's raid. The information gathered in the raid will be used to obtain the TRO.
Lynch compared seeking the TRO without first carrying out the warrant to a golfer not having an important club in his bag.
A reporter told Carcieri that Thomas said he would consider such a raid an act of war and asked if the state was at war with the Narragansetts, the governor snapped, "of course not. That kind of language is exactly the problem. That is totally inappropriate language." Carcieri suggested that Thomas "tone down the language" of the discussion.
Carcieri said he and members of his administration had been talking with Thomas and the tribe to avoid butting heads over the cigarette issue but, "their demands were totally unacceptable. "They demanded that in return for closing the smoke shop, I drop my opposition to a casino. From my perspective, that was outrageous." From PawtucketTimes.com
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