Mattiello attorney in line for plum job

PROVIDENCE — Rhode Island's senators are poised to confirm Michael DiChiro Jr. — the lawyer who defended House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello in a campaign-finance skirmish — as a $155,215-a-year state traffic court magistrate after a confirmation hearing that had the makings of a family reunion.

"I feel — and I mean this from the bottom of my heart — I feel like it's a family member being brought before this committee. I've known you so, so long and our stories parallel so, so much much, being first-generation Italian," Sen. Frank Lombardi, D-Cranston, told DiChiro during the April 11 Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. 

"I am very, very proud of you," lawyer-legislator Lombardi continued. "I'm proud of you like a family member."

The Senate Judiciary Committee chairwoman called him "Mike." Another lawyer-legislator — Sen. Stephen Archambault — told DiChiro: "You really are the consummate gentleman.... You can hit the ground running.... It's a pleasure — truly — to see you here today."

On the heels of the Senate committee's unanimous vote of endorsement, the full Senate is scheduled to vote Tuesday on DiChiro's appointment to a 10-year term on the R.I. Traffic Tribunal.

Unlike judges, magistrates are not, as a rule, screened by the state Judicial Nominating Commission and, ultimately, nominated by the governor from lists of finalists forwarded to her by the nominating commission. They are generally hand-picked by the chief judges in each state court.

In this case, DiChiro was selected by Supreme Court Chief Justice Paul A. Suttell from a field of five finalists that included former public defender Kensley Barrett, Wakefield lawyer John R. Bernardo III, personal injury lawyer Kathleen Wyllie and Lincoln Probate Judge Stephen M. Miller.

Suttell chose DiChiro for an opening created when William Guglietta, the former traffic court chief, was not reappointed. Former Sen. Domenic DiSandro moved up from administrative magistrate to chief judge, and Joseph Abbate, the former director of the General Assembly’s law revision office, moved up to administrative magistrate, leaving Abbate’s former position open.

A graduate of Suffolk University law school, DiChiro began his legal career at Caprio & Caprio and later formed an association with two lawyer brothers who work for the legislature: Frank and John Manni. He is currently a sole practitioner with the Law Office of Michael DiChiro. 

In the late 1990s, he co-founded and published the Italia-USA newspaper, which was dedicated to the promotion of Italian and Italian-American culture and history. Since 2000, he has been a part-time Johnston municipal court judge and, for the last four years, the $15,000-a-year chief judge of a court that meets once a week, on Wednesdays, and has occasional Tuesday trials. The court handles certain state moving-traffic violations and all local Johnston ordinance offenses, including parking, zoning, housing-code violations and animal-control matters.

He has been a member of the Narragansett Bay Commission since 1997, and for the last four years, a member of the Rhode Island Blue Cross Blue Shield board of directors.

According to information provided to the senators, he is also a gambling aficionado who favors the Foxwoods Resort Casino, where he has, over time, amassed a "lifetime buy-in amount of $93,600," which in casino parlance usually means purchasing that amount of table-game chips.

He listed former state Democratic Party Chairman William Lynch among his references. On the day his appointment by Suttell came to light, Mattiello said: “Mike is a friend and a very talented attorney who has an excellent judicial temperament."

DiChiro was Mattiello’s lawyer in two long-running cases before the Rhode Island Board of Elections. In one, the board concluded there was no evidence tying Mattiello to the behind-the-scenes actions of campaign aides to arrange a 2016 mailer in which Shawna Lawton, a failed GOP primary candidate for his House District 15 seat in Cranston, endorsed him.

Mattiello escaped with only a warning, although the board referred a potential violation by one of his campaign operatives to the attorney general. 

In the second case, the elections board in April 2018 approved a consent order requiring Mattiello — and more specifically, his campaign account — to repay $72,067.80 to a leadership PAC, which he controls, that spent more on his behalf than state campaign-contributio­n limits allow.

While much of the PAC money went to other Democrats, the Board of Elections’ campaign-finance administrator, Richard Thornton, found that the Mattiello-controlled PAC spent “$77,350.60 for advertising, consulting and professional services on behalf of candidates, with $73,067.80 of that total expended on behalf of candidate Mattiello.”

By Thornton’s tally, that exceeded the allowable annual donation limit of $1,000 by $72,067.80.

“It was a mistake," Mattiello told reporters after the consent order was finalized. “But there was nothing intentionally done wrong.... We used the wrong checking account. Everything else was 100-percent appropriate.”

Of all the state courts, Lombardi said, "these appointments, that is, to the traffic tribunal, are sometimes the most important because it may very well be the only experience litigants have before a court, and you are it."

In his time at the microphone, DiChiro told the senators a bit about himself: "I am the youngest of five children and I was born and raised in Johnston, R.I.... I am a graduate of the Johnston school system."

"And that's the town where I grew up, so I am trying to keep this very close to home," quipped Chief Justice Suttell when he took his seat at the witness table to sing DiChiro's praises.

"I will tell you that I did not know Mr. DiChiro very well before the [magistrate-selection] process began, but I could not have asked to find a more experienced or suitable candidate."