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October 20, 2006

Witness testifies to alcohol, drug use with former councilman

PROVIDENCE _ The man whom former East Providence City Councilman Gerald R. Lynch is accused of sexually assaulting as a boy testified that he drank liquor with Lynch and also smoked marijuana before several of the assaults occurred.

The witness, now 37, offered the testimony this morning in Superior Court, where Lynch is being tried on nine counts of sexual assault.

The prosecution says the alleged sexual assaults occurred in 1982, 1983 and 1984, when the witness was an employee of the flower shop Lynch owned with his wife on Newport Avenue in Pawtucket.

Lynch’s wife Jane worked at the flower shop part-time, usually arriving at mid-morning and leaving between 3:30 and 4 p.m., said the witness, whose name is being withheld because of the nature of the charges.

When his wife left, Lynch would drink vodka martinis, the witness testified, sharing the vodka with him although he was only 13.

A year later, the witness testified, he started smoking marijuana with Lynch, at first bringing it from school, where he bought it; eventually growing it with Lynch in a greenhouse behind the flower shop.

The flower shop was seized by a creditor in 1996, after Lynch filed for bankruptcy.

-- John Castellucci, Journal staff writer

Posted by Sheila Lennon  at 2:06 PM | Permalink

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