RI’s Influential: Berating, Verbal Abuse, Threats Against Police

RI’s Influential: Berating, Verbal Abuse, Threats Against Police

“You're a dick!"

“I'm an AG!”

“This is not worth f—ing up your career over!”

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These are the types of mantras that Rhode Island’s political elite say to try and intimidate police officers when stopped.

There is little penalty for this behavior.

Here are just some of the outbursts and threats by those with political connections - when stopped by law enforcement - over the years:

 

"You're a Dick"

On December 18, GoLocal was the first to report the episode in which Cranston Democrat Maria Bucci was stopped by East Greenwich Police. 

She faces a number of charges, but Democratic gubernatorial candidate Helena Foulkes saw no problem with Bucci’s behavior and went on campaigning with her just hours after her arrest.

Bucci continues in her role as the Democratic Committee Chair for Cranston.

 

 

 

"I'm an AG"

In August, GoLocal was the first to publish the video capturing the arrest of a Rhode Island Assistant Attorney General by Newport Police at the Clarke Cooke House.

Body camera video secured by GoLocal via an Access to Public Records Act request shows Devon [Flanagan] Hogan, a Special Assistant Attorney General on the staff of Attorney General Peter Neronha, berating Newport Police when they responded to a call about her and others being disruptive at the restaurant.

Hogan was charged with “willful trespassing.” Newport Police say that she repeatedly berated them.

“I approached the host stand and briefly spoke with an employee and the calling party, who stated he wanted the parties to leave and to be trespassed for their behavior, stating something to the effect of, ’Anything we can do to get them to leave,'” wrote one of the Newport Police officers in his report.

Hogan was later suspended by Neronha after the incident, but is expected to return to the AG’s office in February.

 

 

Congressman's Sister

Former Narragansett Town Council President Susan Cicilline-Buonanno was pulled over on live national television under suspicion of driving under the influence in August of 2018.

Cicilline-Buonanno is the sister of then-United States Congressman David Cicilline. Today, he is the head of the Rhode Island Foundation.

A&E Live PD started filming with Warwick Police earlier in the year.

In the episode, host Dan Abrams says that Cicilline-Buonanno has “already admitted to drinking.”

SEE VIDEO HERE — Cicilline segment starts at the 1:08:05 mark.

During the segment, she appears to be unable to follow the police officer — Matt Moretti's — direction. 

She denies that she takes medication (she shakes her head "no" to the question).  Later in the incident, Moretti tells the audience via a car cam that she was released because he believes she was "under medication."  It did not appear she took a breathalyzer. 

Warwick Police refused to comment on the incident. 

 

 

“This Is Not Worth F—ing Up Your Career Over”

In 2010, GoLocal broke the story of then-Attorney General candidate Stephen Archambault bullying a law enforcement officer during a routine traffic stop in 2008, according to a police report on the incident that GoLocalProv obtained.

According to the report, Archambault launched into an expletive-ridden tirade about how the officer had no jurisdiction to pull him over and was risking his career by doing so.

“This is not worth f—ing up your career over,” Archambault told Officer Adam Hill during the roadside altercation, according to the incident report on the April 22 stop. “You have no idea who you’re talking to. You picked the wrong guy to pull over.”

Archambault—for reasons that are not clear in the report—mentioned that he had a pilot’s license, a master scuba diver certification, and a 4th-degree black belt.

He then informed the officer that, “I will be running for Attorney General for the State of Rhode Island in 2010 with the full backing of the state Democratic Party, and I will win!” according to the report.

Archambault did not formally announce his run for Attorney General until about a year later.

And he ended up not winning the state party endorsement. 

 

"Friends With the Chief"

Members of the media are not exempt from dropping a name.

As GoLocal reported in 2013, then-progressive blogger Bob Plain, who previously was a reporter and editor in East Greenwich and is a native of the town, threatened the police officer.

"Plain began to have a poor attitude with me and threatened me, stating he was friends with Chief Coyle," according to the police officer's report.

And, these are just the ones we know of.