COURTS

R.I. settles police brutality case; trooper pursues conspiracy, defamation claims

Katie Mulvaney
kmulvane@providencejournal.com
Lionel Monsanto has agreed to a $125,000 settlement with the state of Rhode Island. [The Providence Journal / Kris Craig]

PROVIDENCE — The state has reached a $125,000 settlement with a Central Falls man assaulted by a state trooper in 2014, but the case remains alive as the trooper in question accuses the attorney general's office and former State Police Col. Steven O'Donnell of colluding to prevent a video of the alleged assault from being disclosed.

The state in September agreed to settle with 35-year-old Lionel Monsanto. Under the terms, Monsanto would receive $110,000 from the state and $15,000 from Trooper James Donnelly Taylor, who admitted assaulting Monsanto at the Lincoln state police barracks in February 2014. In exchange, Monsanto agreed to release all claims against the state. No party admitted fault or liability.

It's Donnelly Taylor's no-contest plea to simple assault on Monsanto — and a video he says the state wants to keep under wraps — that is the focus of a cross claim he brought against the state, Attorney General Peter F. Kilmartin, the state police and his former boss, O'Donnell, in U.S. District Court. Donnelly Taylor is also challenging the attorney general's refusal to defend him against Monsanto's claims — a decision that the state Supreme Court later upheld.

Donnelly Taylor accuses O'Donnell of ordering him to plead to assault in order to prevent a release of a video taken at the barracks that captured the alleged assault. Despite Donnelly Taylor's desire to take the case to trial, he says O'Donnell told him to "take one for the team on this one." The video remains under seal in federal court.

Donnelly Taylor argues that O’Donnell "subjectively" decided that public knowledge of the tape would be harmful to the state police and, "more specifically ... to his political and personal relationships with leaders of the minority community."

The trooper faults O'Donnell and the state police for conducting an internal investigation without consulting a use-of-force expert to assess whether Donnelly Taylor's actions were reasonable in light of his allegations that Monsanto presented a threat.  O’Donnell never interviewed Donnelly Taylor before or after dropping the charges against Monsanto, he says.

"Colonel O’Donnell relied on his subjective opinion that releasing the tape to the public and defending a state trooper’s right to defend himself on the job would be politically, professionally, and personally harmful," Donnelly Taylor's lawyer, John T. Martin, wrote.

Instead, the police conspired with state prosecutors to send the case to the grand jury, Donnelly Taylor says.

O'Donnell, now chief executive officer of the YMCA of Greater Providence, dismissed Donnelly Taylor's claims.

"His complaint is so ludicrous on its face. We'll just let it play out in the courts," O'Donnell said.

Robert Caron, Monsanto’s lawyer, dismissed Donnelly Taylor’s calls for release of the video absurd.

“He has convinced himself of innocence while any reasonable person who may view the film would readily appreciate the trooper's despicable conduct,” Caron wrote on a text message. 

Caron noted that Donnelly Taylor had paid a portion of the settlement and that it was fair in that Monsanto did not suffer serious permanent injuries. He faulted O’Donnell for keeping Donnelly Taylor on the force, at taxpayers’ Expense.

“Showing the video to the public would not help anyone, certainly not Rhode island's  image and most certainly not Trooper Donnelly Taylor's quest whatever that may be,” he said.

Donnelly Taylor says the state violated the state police contract by using his indictment and plea as grounds not to defend or indemnify him for any damages, as required. State prosecutors failed to investigate allegations that he had been coerced, and instead pushed a false narrative to the press, the suit says.

The lawsuit quotes Kilmartin saying to a Channel 10 news reporter in February 2017: “Committing the crime of assault upon a prisoner — or anyone — is outside of the course and scope of the duties of a state trooper, and the taxpayers should not have to defend or pay for the criminal actions of Donnelly Taylor.”

"The plea of nolo contendre has created a media frenzy in which Trooper Donnelly Taylor has been villianized, demeaned, humiliated, and mischaracterized as a trooper who physically assaulted an unarmed prisoner without legal justification," Martin wrote.

He says he is now unable to perform his duties due to extreme emotional distress and humiliation that has led to him being permanently disabled by PTSD.

According to the account in Donnelly Taylor's suit, he and another trooper stopped Monsanto early Feb. 26, 2014, after seeing a car he was driving pass at a high rate of speed. The police charged Monsanto with obstruction of justice after he grew belligerent. He called them "racists" and threatened them as they drove him to the barracks and grew increasingly menacing as he was being processed.

Donnelly Taylor says that Monsanto tried to strike him him the face with his elbow as he escorted him to a cell. "The trooper then used appropriate force to subdue Monsanto, who was not handcuffed or otherwise restrained," the suit says.

Donnelly Taylor asserts that he was damaged by the state's refusal to defend him and further by the settlement reached with Monsanto.

Donnelly Taylor charges that his due process rights were violated in the handling of his case and that O'Donnell and Kilmartin conspired against him in violation of his rights. He accuses both of defaming him and is seeking unspecified damages.

The state police and the attorney general's office declined comment.