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May 29, 2008

Suspended police officer gets 20 years in prison / Photo

Journal photo / Steve Szydlowski
Suspended North Providence police officer Michael Ciresi, center, and lawyers, Richard Corley, left, and John Lynch, right, react to the sentencing.

PROVIDENCE -- Michael Ciresi, a suspended North Providence police sergeant, will serve a minimum of 20 years in prison after being sentenced today for several crimes, including two burglaries.

Ciresi, who had been on home confinement since February, was ordered to the Adult Correctional Institutions in Cranston by Judge Robert J. Krause.

On Feb. 11, a jury convicted Ciresi on two counts of burglary, one stemming from an armed home invasion in Pawtucket in which his gun was found.

He was also found guilty of two counts of conspiracy to commit burglary, the use of a firearm to commit a crime of violence, attempting to steal money from a stolen ATM after a police raid, receiving a stolen generator, obstructing a police officer and harboring a criminal by hiding a traffic summons in his police locker.

The verdict ended an investigation that started in 2004 when a man caught in an armed home invasion of a drug dealer in Pawtucket told police Ciresi had given him the gun.

Ciresi indicated today to the Providence County Superior Court judge that he wanted to make a brief statement. But, after talking to his lawyer, Richard Corley, he did not on the lawyer's advice. At that point, Ciresi, who has showed little emotion during the course of the trial, got teary-eyed.

On the first count of breaking and entering into the Pawtucket home, he was sentenced to 35 years with 20 to serve. He received lesser sentences on other counts, which are to run concurrently. On a count of using a firearm to commit a crime of violence, he was sentenced to serve 10 years consecutively, but that sentence was suspended.

Lawyer Corley said he would be preparing an appeal for Ciresi.

-- With reports from Journal staff writer Richard C. Dujardin

Posted by Mike McKinney  at 4:28 PM | Permalink

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