Providence police sergeant convicted of assault on handcuffed man providencejournal.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from providencejournal.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
“All his moves were measured and tactical and designed for police purpose,” says Hanley’s lawyer, Michael Colucci.
These were among the key points that Judge Brian Goldman fielded Friday morning when lawyers delivered their closing arguments at Hanley’s trial in District Court, Providence.
The police sergeant is trying to fend off a charge of simple assault.
Citing video evidence and the statements of witnesses, prosecutors have asserted that the veteran Providence police sergeant assaulted Rishod Gore during his April 19 arrest on a disorderly conduct charge that was later dismissed.
Hanley is accused of kicking Gore twice, once in the side and once in the head, punching Gore, applying his knee to Gore’s head and neck area, and standing on Gore’s lower legs with all of his weight.
PROVIDENCE Wearing a mask lettered with “Black Lives Matter,” a 29-year-old man testified at the trial of a Providence police sergeant Thursday, accusing the veteran of punching him as he lay on the ground in handcuffs and kicking him repeatedly, delivering one blow to his face that made a noise.
The witness, Rishod Gore, also testified that Sgt. Joseph Hanley’s use of words such as “savage” during the encounter evoked a racial animus.
“He was using slurs that were borderline racial,” Gore testified.
Hanley is accused of simple assault. Providence police paved the way for prosecution after they fielded a bystander’s complaint and gathered video, discovering along the way that they had no video from Hanley’s body-worn camera.
Two men in handcuffs.
In both arrests, Providence police officers felt the need to apply greater force over their restrained prisoner.
In the first matter, a cuffed man who repeatedly refused to get into a police cruiser drew a squirt of pepper spray. The officers moved on with their careers.
In the other matter, however, a Providence police sergeant, Joseph Hanley, has been accused of kicking and punching the detainand charged with assault.
The differences between the two situations, big and small, were the focus of lawyers on both sides of the case Thursday in District Court, Providence.
The analysis has been enriched by a collection of video captured by the “body-worn” cameras of Providence police officers. The video also includes cellphone footage captured by a woman who described herself as a “nosy” observer.
New team built from the ground up by the Attorney General will focus on civil-rights violations in Rhode Island Tom Mooney, The Providence Journal
PROVIDENCE In a divisive year that has seen more hate crimes and racially charged incidents of excessive force by police sparking demonstrations nationwide Rhode Island’s attorney general is giving renewed priority to civil-rights abuses.
Attorney General Peter F. Neronha has created a special four-member team of investigators to handle all civil-rights complaints that reach his office.
Previously such cases could have been handled by any of the office’s dozens of prosecutors, or often at the local community level by a city or town solicitor.