Board calls for independent review of alleged assault by Providence police sergeant
The civilian board that has oversight of the Providence Police Department wants to do an independent review after a sergeant was charged with assaulting a handcuffed man.
The Providence External Review Authority said in a letter to the department leadership Monday that it wants its investigator briefed on an April incident that led to a criminal assault charge against Sgt. Joseph Hanley. Hanley, Providence police said, struck Rishod Gore several times after Gore was handcuffed.
PERA Executive Director Jose F. Batista on Monday asked the police chief and public safety commissioner to schedule a time to brief PERA’s investigator, Eugene Monteiro.
“Mr. Monteiro is a native of Providence with life long relationships in both the community and police department who has enjoyed an unimpeachable career as a professional investigator in both the military and private sector,” Batista said in his letter to the department’s leaders. “I have the utmost confidence that he will be able to manage this review while strictly adhering to any and all applicable local, state and federal laws.”
The move comes amid national protests sparked by the death of a black man, George Floyd, at the hands of police in Minneapolis. An officer, Derek Chauvin, who is white, forced his knee into the back of Floyd’s neck for almost nine minutes as Floyd lay handcuffed on the ground.
Chauvin has been fired and charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.
A protest in Providence on Saturday brought hundreds of people to Burnside Park and the State House, many holding signs that said, "Black Lives Matter.“ It remained peaceful and, except for some spray-painting and broken windows at the State House, free of the violence and extensive damage in other cities around the country.
The call for a review of the Hanley investigation in Providence began even before Floyd’s death, Batista said. It does, however, highlight the necessity for civilian oversight of police use of force, he added.
“People are in pain,” he said in an interview. “I think we can go a long way to reducing violence, de-escalating violence, by simply taking a step back, applying a fresh set of eyes to this investigation.”
Batista said the board has the discretion under city law to have the review.
Col. Hugh T. Clements Jr., chief of the Providence police, said he’d spoken with Batista Monday.
“The Providence Police Department will cooperate with the review within the guidelines of local, state and federal law,” Clements said.
PERA is made up of eight City Council appointees and one mayoral appointee. The board was first created in 2002, but lay dormant for years before it was revamped more recently. Batista, a former public defender, was hired in early 2019 as its executive director. It’s the first time PERA has called for an independent review since being empaneled in April 2018, Batista said.
Batista was careful to distinguish the situation in Providence from the situation in Minneapolis. He credited the Providence police leadership -- Public Safety Commissioner Steven M. Paré and Col. Hugh T. Clements Jr. -- with putting out a statement condemning the police’s actions in Floyd’s death.
“They get it,” Batista said. “They want to be helpful.”
According to a description of the Hanley incident from police, officers went to Knight Street on the evening of April 19 for a report of a domestic dispute. They tried to take one man into custody, but several other people “attempted to verbally interfere with police by shouting and engaging in other disruptive activity,” police said.
Gore, 28, of East Providence, was among those on scene as officers got the man into a cruiser, according to police. Police said they took Gore out of the passenger seat of a parked car on Tell Street and put him under arrest. The department said Hanley struck Gore multiple times after Gore had been handcuffed.
The Providence Police Department and the state attorney general reviewed the incident, and concluded that Hanley should be charged with simple assault. He’s been suspended with pay pending an internal investigation.
Gore was also charged with resisting arrest and disorderly conduct. Like the simple assault charge against Hanley, those are both misdemeanors. Gore’s attorney did not respond to a request for comment Monday. Efforts to reach a representative for Hanley were unsuccessful.
James Vincent, the head of the Providence NAACP branch, said that he’d been in communication with police leadership about the incident. Vincent, part of the police’s community relations board, said he has been satisfied with their response so far.
Vincent isn’t part of PERA, but he agrees with the call for an independent review.
Hanley, Vincent said, should face the consequences -- including losing his job.
Gore is black and Hanley is white, but, Vincent said: “It’s not white versus black, it’s right versus wrong. You’re there to protect and serve, not occupy and harass. When you can kick and assault a handcuffed man, you’ve forgotten your oath. You need to be in another line of work.”
bamaral@providencejournal.com
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