Providence Cop Was Fired After Street Fight with Fellow Officer

Providence Cop Was Fired After Street Fight with Fellow Officer

A GoLocalProv investigation has found that the Providence cop who is accusing the department of illegally suspending him nearly lost his job after a fierce street fight with a fellow officer.

Officer Gregory Daniels—who is now on a 20-day suspension on unrelated charges—faced termination in 2002 stemming from an altercation he had with Officer Roderick Soares.

Late in the evening April 5, 2001 Soares had been called down to the intersection of Weybosset and Clemence streets for crowd control at various nightclubs—instead he ended up running into Daniels, who was on a mounted patrol with other officers nearby. The two started fighting and the ensuing brawl played out on two downtown streets, escalating to the point that Soares pulled a gun on Daniels, according to a court account of the altercation. (Click here to read it.)

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Officer Made Threatening Move with Horse

It apparently all started when Daniels made an “aggressive movement” with his horse toward Soares. He then got off horse and punched Soares, knocking him onto the pavement. Soares whacked Daniels with a night stick and then pulled his gun on him when Daniels made another move toward him, according to the court account, which does not explain why the two men were fighting.

The two men stormed away from the intersection, but kept yelling at each other. “Though the other officers attempted to keep Soares and Appellant apart, the two were able to continue a verbal exchange that climaxed when the Appellant once again moved toward Soares to confront him,” Judge O. Rogeriee Thompson wrote in her Dec. 13, 2002 decision that Daniels, whom she refers to as the appellant, could be fired over the incident.

At one point, Daniels also allegedly used pepper spray against his combatant, according to Thompson's account.

Eventually, a third officer separated the two men by charging his horse between them.

Daniels Challenges Firing in Court

The incident landed Daniels in hot water with the Police Department. Then-Chief Richard Sullivan filed a sworn complaint recommending that he be fired, a decision that was upheld in an administrative hearing.

Daniels took the case to court and eventually got his job back after a hard-fought court battle. After initially losing in Providence County Superior Court, he was later reinstated after petitioning for reconsideration.

But now Daniels has once again found himself again at odds with top brass at the Police Department. A year ago, he complained that a female officer had sexually harassed him by hitting him in the testicles. Instead of investigating the matter, Daniels accuses the department of shielding the officer because she is related to Deputy Chief Paul Kennedy, in a complaint he filed with the state Human Rights Commission this month.

He is also facing a 20-day suspension which he claims is in retaliation for making the complaint. On Friday, Daniels filed a lawsuit saying the suspension violates state law, which states that suspensions over two days require a hearing. He is seeking a restraining order that would immediately put him back on the job.

Yesterday, Superior Court Judge Alice Gibney declined to issue a decision on the restraining order.

Paul Sullivan, an attorney for Daniels, declined to comment.