Court Battle: Judge Rules Deposition of Former State Police Superintendent to Continue

Court Battle: Judge Rules Deposition of Former State Police Superintendent to Continue

At a contentious hearing in Providence Superior Court before Judge Christopher Smith on Thursday, David Cass, an attorney for retired State Police Lt. Michael Casey, charged that former Rhode Island State Police Superintendent James Manni violated the court’s instructions and “hijacked his deposition.”

Cass said, “In 32 years and 400 depositions, I have never had to come to the court” on an issue like this.

In Cass’s motion before Judge Smith, he asked the court to admonish the Attorney General’s office and order the continuation of a deposition that was scheduled for four hours but stopped after just 36 minutes. The deposition relates to Casey's lawsuit against the Rhode Island State Police and a number of top officers.

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Rhode Island Assistant Attorney General Natalya Buckler who is representing Manni in a legal battle that has been going on for four years, claimed that the deposition was disrupted by Cass and that the court should take the unusual step of ordering a rule 37 protective order where Manni’s deposition would be suspended and he would be able respond to written questions.

Between Cass and Buckler, Judge Smith had 40 pages of fillings relating to the dispute over Manni's deposition. Manni is currently the Town Administrator in South Kingstown.

Ultimately, Judge Smith rejected Buckler’s argument and ordered Manni’s deposition to restart, and warned both attorneys.  He did not grant an extension that Cass sought for additional time beyond the four-hour time limit, but said if Manni’s “answers are elusive” then Cass could return to the court.

For the better part of a year, Bucker has been trying to stop the deposition.

Judge Joseph McBurney who previously heard aspects of the case had ordered the deposition to move forward on the case.  The case was first filed in May of 2020.

 

The Basis of the Case

According to court filings, "Casey’s complaint asserts that while working as a RISP trooper, he was assigned and conducted a background check on RISP applicant Garrett Demers. That same month of the background check, Casey alerted Joseph Philbin, then the Lieutenant Colonel at RISP, to various negative findings regarding applicant Demers, which rendered him ineligible for appointment as a RISP trooper. Casey complained to Lieutenant Colonel Philbin that applicant Demers’s father [a former State Police officer] was claiming that Plaintiff was rude to his son. As a result of Casey’s investigation into Demers, and Plaintiff’s unwillingness to change the background report he wrote on the applicant, Lieutenant Colonel Philbin, as well as Dennis Fleming (then a Major at RISP) and Gerald McKinney (then a Captain at RISP), retaliated against Casey.”

The senior Demers was tied to another controversy in his role at the Rhode Island Convention Center.

Further court documents filed by Casey’s attorney “alleges that a background report Casey wrote back in 2011 [an unrelated background review], regarding his background investigation of applicant Evan Johnson, was modified in a manner similar to how Casey was asked to modify his Demers report.”

The complaint filed by Casey’s attorney states, “Casey reported these concerns and alleged violations to Ann Assumpico, RISP’s Superintendent at the time, over a span of six weeks, between April and May of 2018. In or around May of 2018, Plaintiff also sent an interdepartmental memo regarding the alleged modification of applicant Johnson’s background report. Immediately thereafter, Casey was informed that he was being assigned to night shifts as an act of retaliation.”

And that was just the beginning of the conflict.

Later, Casey went out on sick leave, and the conflict escalated.

“While Casey was out on leave, Lieutenant Colonel Philbin made false statements about him, which prompted Casey to again complain, this time to human resources in October/November of 2018. Lieutenant Colonel Philbin and Major Fleming held a detectives’ meeting during which they discussed Plaintiff’s allegations against them,” according to Casey’s filing.

When Assumpico was replaced as head of the State Police by Manni, Casey’s attorney asserts that Manni had knowledge of the situation and influenced the State Police’s management of the conflict.

“Casey asserts that he has been subjected to improper and retaliatory changes to his work status and that the defendants have attempted to terminate plaintiff’s employment without cause,” according to the filing.

And, the filing claims, “Mr. Manni, upon taking the position of Superintendent, with the knowledge of the allegations plaintiff had made, threatened Casey’s employment, threatened to terminate Casey's employment unless he came off of IOD.”

 

Manni, Casey, Philbin, Sanzi, and State Police Allegations

Casey was in the news in 2020. He was the State Trooper who initiated the investigation into contaminated soil dumped in one of the poorest neighborhoods in Rhode Island.

The dumping by the lead contractor of the 6/10 project — Barletta Heavy Division — took place under the supervision of the Rhode Island Department of Transportation.

As a result of Casey’s work, the story of the contamination was unveiled by GoLocal in September of 2020.

Superiors at the State Police threatened Casey with insubordination for investigating the dumping.

Casey’s efforts directly led to actions by the U.S. Attorney.

Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management enforcement action on the contamination being dumped next to families and businesses is pending before Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha.

The federal case led to a project manager on the 6/10 project who worked for Barletta Heavy Division to plead guilty to federal charges and for Barletta to sign a non-prosecution agreement with the Department of Justice and pay $1.5 million

Casey was also the Trooper who captured former Major Timothy Sanzi on tape reciting the story of former Lt. Col. Joseph Philbin.

 

Sanzi said in the call with Casey, “I thought about it the other night, and I was like, I can’t believe I didn’t...I forgot all about this, but I think it was like 2012 or 2013. It was around that time, one night I get, I’m sitting in my house, and I get a fucking absolutely panic phone call from Joe [Philbin]."

Sanzi said that when Philbin called him, he sounded very intoxicated, according to the tape recording. LISTEN ABOVE

"He was like, I got something to tell you, you can't tell anybody -- and I never did," Sanzi told Casey. "I never told anybody until right now."

According to Sanzi, Philbin told him that "he hit a guy in a bar in East Greenwich. The guy fell down and split his head open on the curb. He thinks -- he thought that he killed him.”

Sanzi, in the call, said to Casey, “Now...I’m sure it happened…I am positive it happened.”

After GoLocal published the Sanzi allegation of Philbin's utterance, the Attorney General and the State Police claimed they investigated the issue and did not move forward.

Philbin told GoLocal that Sanzi's allegations were not true.

In another case relating to the Rhode Island State Police in 2022, GoLocal secured a copy of an audio recording in which then-Rhode Island State Police (RISP) Superintendent James Manni admits under oath that former RISP Lt. Colonel Joseph Philbin was “Giglioed.”

A Giglio designation is often called a "Death Letter" or "Scarlet Letter" for a member of enforcement.

“There is a document that stated he was 'Giglioed’ regarding an affidavit that [Philbin] filed years ago during an investigation," said Manni.

"It means less than truthful in a sworn statement as a law enforcement officer, and in future testimony, you would have disclosed that you were Giglioed,” said Manni.