Lt. Michael Casey Is a Cut Above the Rest -- Lauren Lee Malloy
Lauren Lee Malloy, Guest MINDSETTER™
Lt. Michael Casey Is a Cut Above the Rest -- Lauren Lee Malloy
Now-retired Lieutenant Michael Casey, Rhode Island State Police (RISP) made the cut because he initiated an investigation into what’s become a federal $410 million contamination and corruption case, before releasing an audio recording to GoLocal about a possible murder by another high-ranking member of RISP.
Lt. Casey quietly retired this year, amid the whirling scandal, and it’s an absolute shame to me that he did not receive the recognition he deserved from his own department. I am not qualified to speak to Lt. Casey’s career — but I’ll try my best.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTDuring his honorable, decades-long career of service to our community, Lt. Casey led the charge against organized crime, public corruption, narcotics and more. From 2007-2009, Casey, then a detective with RISP’s major crimes unit, helped bring down a mortgage scheme that stole over $16 million from several banks and dozens of innocent investors and renters.
In 2002, as a member of RISP’s narcotics unit, Casey led an investigation that shut down a major cocaine and narcotics dealer, whose seized drugs alone were valued at over $200K. In 2001, as a member of RISP’s financial crimes unit, Casey collared a man accused of writing himself nearly $160K in checks from his Warren employer. In 1998, after a brief high-speed chase, then-trooper Casey helped catch a New York man in possession of over one kilo of cocaine, who subsequently struck a trooper and tried to break free of his holding cell. Thanks in large part to Casey’s efforts, that man didn’t get the opportunity to hurt anyone’s loved one on the streets that day.
Lt. Casey’s cases — seemingly countless — each start and end the same way. He’d get a tip or a hunch, follow the trail, find some injustice — and fix it. He never backed down in the face of danger, never quit when the odds weren’t in his favor. He just kept going. As Babe Ruth once said, and a great mentor once told me, “It’s hard to beat a person who never gives up.”
If you ask Lt. Casey where his character comes from, he’ll tell you it was instilled from childhood — a testament to the parents who raised him to “do the right thing.”
In GoLocal’s “22 in 2022” photo of Lt. Casey, he’s pictured taking soil samples beside the highway. Look quickly and it’s just that, a trooper taking specimens for testing as part of a job. But look deeper and you’ll see it’s something much more. It’s the image of a man refusing to stand down to something he knows is wrong, choosing instead to stand up for those who need him most, the public he’s sworn to protect and serve. In that one photo, Lt. Casey personifies the epitome of what it means to be a good officer and a great man.
I am not qualified to speak to Lt. Casey’s courageous career, but I can confidently speak to the personal impact his career had on my journey to get justice for my own mother’s cold case. I was truly inspired by the story of a man who didn’t back down when it came to defending people who could never pay him back, who never let fear or doubt overpower his intelligence or compromise his mission. Through the worst of moments, Lt. Casey persisted. Through his actions, Lt. Casey reminds us to continuously question, challenge and dig deeper into things that just don’t make sense. He reminds us to right the wrongs, no matter what.
To put it simply, the colors of Lt. Michael Casey’s character do not fade.
Today, on behalf of Unsolved R.I. and the Licensed Private Detectives Association of Rhode Island — and as a woman who lived and played on the Lancashire Street disposal site in Providence as a child — I send my deepest thanks and congratulations to Lt. Casey on his well-deserved retirement and recognition by GoLocal of differences made in our community.