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January 5, 2007

Police: Man shot himself, blamed fake robbery

WOONSOCKET -- A local man who blamed a self-inflicted gunshot wound on a fake robbery was charged today with filing a false police report.

Evan Keefe, 21, of 941 Mendon Rd., told the police at Landmark Medical Center that he was walking down Cass Avenue near Elm Street around 1 a.m. when he was approached by two men in hooded sweatshirts. Keefe claimed that one of the men bumped him in the shoulder and then put a semi-automatic handgun to Keefe’s head and demanded his wallet.

Keefe said that when he raised his hand to push the gun away, he heard a gunshot and the men ran away. He told the police that it felt at first like his hand had been cut.

When Keefe saw the gunshot wound, he said he hitchhiked to his apartment and his girlfriend drove him to the hospital.

But the police, who searched the area on Cass Avenue, found no evidence to support Keefe’s story. When the police questioned Keefe again, he said he accidentally shot himself in the hand. He told police that alcohol was involved.

Keefe was charged with filing a false police report, obstructing a police investigation and discharging a firearm within city limits. His brother and girlfriend, who had corroborated Keefe's story, were also charged with obstructing a police investigation.

-- Journal staff writer Kia Hall Hayes

Posted by Steve Peoples at 6:53 PM | Comment

On deck: Active weekend for area sports teams

While the Patriots get ready to host a playoff game on Sunday, the Celtics and the Boston Bruins will take on the teams with the worst records in the NBA and the NHL, respectively.

The Celts are in Memphis to face the 8-25 Grizzlies tonight at 8. The Bruins host the Philadelphia Flyers (11-25-4) tomorrow in a 1 p.m. matinee. Of course, the way the home teams have been playing lately, there’s no such thing as a sure win.

In Providence tonight, rookie Phil Kessel is expected to make his return from cancer surgery with the P-Bruins, who host the Worcester Sharks at 7.

The PC men’s hockey team is also at home tonight at 7 against nationally ranked Boston University. The Friars hoopsters will go for their second straight Big East victory when they host Seton Hall tomorrow night at 8.

Also this weekend, the URI men’s basketball team will try to improve to 2-0 in the Atlantic 10. The Rams host Dayton on Sunday at noon.

Come back to projo.com over the weekend for the results, stories and photos as they become available.

-- projo.com staffer Mike McDermott

Posted by Andrea Panciera at 6:07 PM | Comment

Update: Shotgun found in Providence pond

Journal photo / Sandor Bodo
Members of the North Providence Police and Fire Departments searched for the gun this afternoon in Canada Pond, located in Providence, near Branch Avenue. Divers from the state police and Smithfield were also on the scene.

Authorities have found the shotgun believed to have been used in a shooting incident that led to the arrest of the stepson of Secretary of State A. Ralph Mollis.

A state police dive team discovered a 20-gauge shotgun just after 5 p.m. today in about 15 feet of water about 46 feet off the shore of Canada Pond on the North Providence-Providence line. Authorities had been searching the pond much of the day for the shotgun they allege 19-year-old Gian Piscione used to shoot into a gold Lexus occupied by two men earlier in the week.

Piscione and an acquaintance, James Lynch, 18, of 1362 Mineral Spring Ave., have been charged with two counts of attempted murder. No one was hurt in the shooting, but one bullet hole was found in the right rear fender of the Lexus.

The North Providence police are taking the shotgun back to the police station to determine who owns it, according to North Providence Deputy Police Chief Paul Marino. Mollis has denied ownership.

-- with reports from Journal staff writer Richard Dujardin

Posted by Steve Peoples at 6:04 PM | Comment

Update: Bevilacqua, Cicilline indicted for conspiracy

John M. Cicilline, the brother of Providence Mayor David N. Cicilline, pleaded not guilty to federal conspiracy and obstruction of justice charges in a Boston federal court this afternoon.

It was announced hours earlier that Cicilline and former law partner Joseph A. Bevilacqua Jr. have been indicted in Boston on charges of conspiracy, obstruction of justice and making false statements.

Cicilline, 49, of Cranston, was released in lieu of $10,000 bond. Bevilacqua is set to be arraigned later in the month.

Bevilacqua, who pleaded guilty in 2005 to charges of leaking an FBI videotape to Rhode Island television reporter Jim Taricani, had been completing his prison term in a Massachusetts halfway house. He is the son of former Rhode Island Supreme Court Chief Justice Joseph A. Bevilacqua, and the brother of former Senate Majority Leader John Bevilacqua.

The indictment, unsealed today in U.S. District Court in Boston, charges Bevilacqua and Cicilline with leading a conspiracy in which they took at least $150,000 from clients accused of drug dealing to help them gain a more lenient sentence.

Also charged is Juan Giraldo, who worked as an interpreter for Bevilacqua and Cicilline, and Lisa Torres, a paralegal interpreter, who is also accused of assisting the lawyers in the scheme. Giraldo is serving a federal prison term for cocaine trafficking.

Bevilacqua and Cicilline surrendered to authorities in Boston this morning, according to Samantha Martin, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Massachusetts. Giraldo, who is already in prison, will be summoned at a later date.

The case stems from the 2002 arrest of John Mendonca and his wife, Jacqueline Mendonca, in Warwick by federal and local authorities. Agents also seized marijuana and $1.3 million in cash, and the Mendoncas were subsequently indicted in Boston in 2003 on drug-trafficking and money-laundering charges. Cicilline and Bevilacqua became their lawyers.

-- Journal staff writer Mike Stanton, with reports from Journal staff writer Amanda Milkovits and The Associated Press

According to the 21-page indictment, the defendants solicited and received large sums of money from the Mendoncas, purportedly to help set up other drug dealers with information that would then be credited to the Mendoncas to win themselves a lighter sentence.

The indictment charges that the defendants also pressured the Mendoncas to plead guilty as part of the scheme, and that they lied to federal authorities who prosecuted the Mendoncas.

Shortly after the couple’s arrest, Bevilacqua allegedly met with John Mendonca at the Plymouth House of Correction and told him that for a payment of several hundred thousand dollars, he could "keep John Mendonca out of jail.’’

-- Journal staff writer Mike Stanton, with reports from Journal staff writer Amanda Milkovits

Posted by Steve Peoples at 5:35 PM | Comment

Martines Pina fired as visitors' bureau president

Sheila Martines Pina, who gained local fame as the co-host of a Channel 10 magazine show with Matt Lauer, has been fired from her longtime job as president of the Southeastern Massachusetts Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Martines Pina, who has suffered with alcohol problems, was an “at-will” employee who was let go because of unexplained absences from work, said Rob Gould, chairman of the New Bedford-based bureau's board of directors. “You’ve got to draw the line once you’ve warned somebody so many times.”

The move was not directly related to any alcohol problem, he said. “It really is a shame because she really was good at what she does.”

Gould said the bureau would be looking for a replacement “who wears the face of the agency 24 hours a day, seven days a week and behaves themselves.”

Martines Pina became a local celebrity during her TV stint in the 1980s as co-host on Channel 10’s PM Magazine with Lauer, now co-host of NBC's Today show.

She has had several brushes with the law, and her 18-year tenure has been the subject of repeated controversy within the bureau.

She was convicted of drunk driving in 1989 and 1998, losing her license for two years. She was reported missing in November 2002 by her husband, former Bristol County District Attorney Ronald Pina. That prompted a police search that ended nine days later when she was discovered at Rhode Island Hospital.

She was given a medical leave from the bureau after all three incidents. The decision to reinstate her following the 2002 disappearance prompted protest resignations from the organization.

One of the most bizarre incidents came in 1988 when, while dating Pina and still at Channel 10, she was found locked in the trunk of her car, which was parked in a secluded dirt driveway in Dighton.

She claimed she had been abducted at knifepoint at a rest stop on Route 195 in Seekonk, driven to Dighton and locked in the trunk for 18 hours. No arrests were ever made in the case.

She is now due in New Bedford District Court Feb. 26 in connection with automobile accidents on Aug. 8 and Aug. 23.

-- Journal staff writer C. Eugene Emery Jr.

Posted by Steve Peoples at 5:02 PM | Comment

Missing Prudence Island man, 83, found

PORTSMOUTH — An 83-year-old man reported missing from his Prudence Island home yesterday afternoon was found by local firefighters this morning.

Thomas Swindells was found at 10:45 a.m. in a wooded area a half-mile north of his home on the island in Narragansett Bay, Fire Department Chief Jeffrey P. Lynch said. Swindells was first reported missing yesterday at around 4 p.m.

Lynch also said that Swindells suffers from a medical illness “many elders have," though he wouldn't be more specific. The man “just couldn’t find his way back home,” Lynch said.

Swindells was taken to Newport Hospital for observation.

-- Journal staff writer Alisha A. Pina

Posted by Steve Peoples at 4:42 PM | Comment

Update: It's a girl, for Sen. Jack and Julia Reed

WASHINGTON -- U.S. Sen. Jack Reed is a father, his office announced this afternoon.

Julia Hart Reed gave birth to a healthy girl, Emily Hart Reed, at a hospital in Alexandria, Va. She weighed in at 7 pounds, 8 ounces.

"Mother and daughter are doing well, and we feel truly blessed," Reed said, according to his office.

"Senator and Mrs. Reed are overjoyed and everyone is doing very well,'' said Reed press secretary Chip Unruh. He said the Reeds expressed gratitude for the warm wishes that friends and supporters have given them.

The Rhode Island Democrat, 57, and his wife, 41, were married in April 2005. It is the first child for them both.

Emily arrived a little later than expected, however. Her original due date was two weeks ago.

-- Journal staff writer John E. Mulligan

Posted by Andrea Panciera at 4:06 PM | Comment

Hand sanitizers to be installed in schools

Journal photo / John Freidah
Dr. David Gifford, director of the state Department of Health, at a press conference this afternoon, points out hand sanitizers.

State health officials are moving forward with plans to install hand sanitizers in each classroom in every school in Rhode Island, as they aim at a Monday reopening of schools in three West Bay communities.

The dispensers, which will be placed in all public and private schools in the coming days, will be filled with an alcohol-based gel.

The move was disclosed this afternoon during a press conference at the Emergency Management Agency headquarters in Cranston. It was prompted by an executive order signed by Governor Carcieri yesterday following a rash of bacterial illnesses among West Bay school children that included one death.

The state has recommended that public schools close in West Warwick, Warwick and Coventry until at least Monday.

The state's health director, Dr. David R. Gifford, said today that the schools would likely be opened Monday pending the results of additional testing by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which sent five people to Rhode Island to investigate the sickness.

"If we don’t see an increase [of illnesses] that we are concerned about, we expect to open the schools on Monday," Gifford says.

State health officials learned Wednesday that a Coventry student has been hospitalized with a probable case of meningitis. They've sent samples taken from the student to the CDC labs to check for a connection to three previous cases of encephalitis recently reported at West Bay schools.

Gifford said today that the test results are expected to come back over the weekend.

Posted by Steve Peoples at 4:02 PM | Comment

Pawtucket police arrest bank robbery suspect

PAWTUCKET – A suspect in last week’s robbery of a bank on Newport Avenue has been arrested and turned over to the Pawtucket police.

Stephen A. Davidow, 44, of 120 Cottage St., was picked up by State Police in Central Falls yesterday on a warrant charging him with first-degree robbery, receiving stolen property and “uttering and publishing” a bad check.

Detective Maj. John J. Whiting, the Pawtucket police spokesman, said the receiving stolen property and bad check charges stem from a check from the estate of a relative that Davidow allegedly obtained and cashed early in December.

A warrant was issued, and police were seeking Davidow’s surrender, when a man fitting his description passed a note to the teller at the Webster Bank, 265 Newport Ave., at 1:35 p.m. Thursday and made off with an undisclosed amount of cash, Whiting said.

Davidow was identified as a suspect in the bank robbery through interviews with witnesses, Whiting said. He said Davidow is scheduled to be arraigned today in District Court.

-- Journal staff writer John Castellucci

Posted by Jack Perry at 2:23 PM | Comment

Balmy weather sets new record

Today's unusually warm weather is a record-breaker. The National Weather Service said that at 10:40 a.m., the temperature at T.F. Green Airport reached 62 degrees.

That topped the old record for today, set in 1950, of 61 degrees. The final report is expected to show today's temperature rise even higher. The weather service reported that it was 63 degrees at the airport at 12:05 p.m.

Check current conditions, and get the latest forecast.

Posted by Tim Barmann at 2:05 PM | Comment

Former Mass.speaker pleads guilty, avoids prison

BOSTON -- Former House Speaker Thomas Finneran, once considered the most powerful man on Beacon Hill, pleaded guilty today to obstruction of justice in a deal that spared him prison time for misrepresenting his role in a redistricting plan that diluted the clout of minority voters.

Federal prosecutors agreed to drop three perjury charges against Finneran in exchange for his guilty plea to a single count of obstruction of justice.

Under the deal, Finneran will pay a $25,000 fine and be placed on 18 months of unsupervised probation, according to the documents filed in U.S. District Court in Boston. He has also agreed not to seek political office for at least five years.

Read the full Associated Press story.

Posted by Jack Perry at 12:52 PM | Comment

2nd man charged, with Mollis' stepson, in shooting

The North Providence police have charged a second man with conspiracy and two counts of attempted murder in an alleged shooting by the stepson of Secretary of State A. Ralph Mollis.

James Lynch, 18, of 1362 Mineral Spring Ave., was arraigned this morning, according to a court official.

Mollis’ stepson, 19-year-old Gian Piscione, was arraigned again this morning – on an additional charge of conspiracy – after being arraigned yesterday on two counts of attempted murder for firing a shotgun into a gold Lexus occupied by two men who had been visiting with two women. The police have described one of those women as a female acquaintance of Piscione’s.

Police and fire dive teams are now searching Upper Canada Pond on the North Providence-Providence line for the shotgun they say was used in the shooting, North Providence Deputy Police Chief Paul Marino said. They believe the gun was tossed into the pond after the shooting, in which nobody was struck, but one bullet hole was found in the right rear fender of the Lexus.

-- with reports from Journal staff writer Richard Dujardin

Posted by Kate Bramson at 12:05 PM | Comment

Prosecutors oppose overturning Hatch conviction

In a brief filed this morning with the U.S. Court of Appeals, federal prosecutors argue that Survivor star Richard Hatch's conviction on tax evasion should not be overturned and that his sentence of more than four yours in prison is fair.

Lawyers for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Providence filed the brief in response to Hatch's Dec. 7 appeal of his conviction for not paying taxes on the $1 million he was paid for winning the reality TV show. Hatch, 45, of Newport, is serving his 51-month sentence at the Federal Correctional Institutions at Morgantown in West Virginia.

In his appeal, Hatch's lawyer, Michael Minns, argued that Judge Ernest C. Torres prohibited him from raising allegations of cheating on Survivor. Hatch maintains that the cheating was intended to prevent him from winning and that once he became aware of it he talked to producer Mark Burnett about it. The discussions, he said, led him to believe that CBS might make it up to him by paying his taxes if he won.

-- Journal staff writer Richard Salit

The prosecutors argued in the brief that Torres never ruled that Minns couldn't ask questions about how CBS planned to pay him, only that the judge stopped him from asking about the rules of the Survivor competition itself. The prosecutors said Minns never directly asked Burnett, a witness, nor Hatch, who testified on his own behalf, about whether the Survivor production company had made any promises about payment of Hatch’s taxes.

"The case against Hatch was overwhelming, to say the least," the prosecutors state, going on to argue that the sentence imposed by Torres, at the maximum of guidelines, was appropriate.

Posted by Kate Bramson at 11:28 AM | Comment

Did New Bedford boat catch wooly mammoth tusk?

CUSHING, Maine -- A fisherman pulled up what appears to be the tusk of a wooly mammoth from Georges Bank off the Maine coast.

The Maine State Museum is examining the dark, curved and pointed specimen, which was dredged up in a load of shells by the New Bedford, Mass.-based scallop dragger Celtic.

Fisherman Tim Winchenbach of Cushing brought the piece home to his wife, Michelle, who began researching to see if it could be from a wooly mammoth.

Read the full Associated Press story.

Posted by Jack Perry at 10:24 AM | Comment

Children who want families speak out

Twenty professional portraits now on display of Rhode Island children ages 5 to 17 provide insight into the personalities of children hoping to be adopted. The accompanying essays help shape the images of these children, who talk openly about what they want in a permanent family.

One boy, identified as 9-year-old Raymond, “dreams” of finding a family of his own.

“I want a new family that takes care of kids, that never lets you go, feeds you when you are hungry and doesn’t get mad at me for asking for a toy,” he says in his essay. “I want to be adopted, because I want a family that will take good care of me and isn’t rude to me or yells at me. I wish for a nice family with a big pool … because I’ve never had one … and I’d love to have a dog.”

On display at the Providence Public Library’s central branch beginning today and lasting through Jan. 31, A Journey of the Heart is an exhibit by local photographers. The gallery is available atAdoption Rhode Island’s Web site.

-- projo.com staff writer Kate Bramson

The idea behind the traveling exhibit is that the photographs will motivate people to get involved in the children’s lives – by adopting them, fostering or mentoring them or making a donation to the state’s adoption network.

The portrait gallery began in Rhode Island in 2005, inspired by a then four-year-old New Mexico initiative to inspire people to adopt. Now the second set of photographs is on display in Rhode Island.

At the Central Library, 150 Empire St. in Providence, the exhibit is free and open to the public during the library’s regular hours.

Posted by Kate Bramson at 9:22 AM | Comment

Former Mass. speaker expected to plead guilty

BOSTON (AP) -- Former House Speaker Thomas Finneran, accused of lying during his testimony in a voting rights lawsuit, is expected to plead guilty to obstruction of justice, a person familiar with the agreement says.

A federal lawsuit claimed that a 2001 law that drew up new legislative district boundaries discriminated against blacks and other minority voters in Boston while protecting incumbents, including Finneran.

Finneran's trial was scheduled to begin Jan. 16. A change-of-plea hearing was listed on today's U.S. District Court docket, another indication that a deal had been struck.

Under the plea deal, he won't face prison time and federal prosecutors will drop three perjury counts, the person familiar with the deal told The Associated Press yesterday. Finneran also will agree not to seek political office for five years.

Read the full Associated Press story.

Posted by Jack Perry at 7:54 AM | Comment

Check for closings

After public schools were closed in Warwick, West Warwick and Coventry, some organizations decided to cancel other activities, such as religious education classes, Girl Scouts and figure skating classes.

Check a list of closings from projo.com.

See closings reported to WPRI.

Posted by Jack Perry at 7:07 AM | Comment

Rain and possible record warmth today

The warm weather continues today, and the Providence area could reach a record high, but showers could ruin plans for picnics or trips to the beach.

If the temperature in Providence reaches the expected high of 61 today, it will match the record for the date set in 1950, according to the National Weather Service.
Expect showers and patchy fog, primarily after noon, the weather service says. Periods of showers should continue tonight with areas of dense fog, the weather service says.

For more weather or regular updates, see projo.com/weather.

Posted by Jack Perry at 7:00 AM | Comment

Download today's front page

Stories on the governor's friend getting the top job at Beacon Mutual, the closing of the schools in West Bay and the arrest of the Secretary of State's stepson lead today's Journal.

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Posted by Peter Phipps at 6:52 AM | Comment