Projo 7 to 7 News Blog

By John Hill
Journal staff writer

PROVIDENCE -- A grand jury decided there was not enough evidence to indict convicted bribery conspirator Robert R. Picerno on charges he hired two men in 2001 to attack a Lincoln Town Council member, the attorney general's office said today.

Picerno had been arrested in June by the state police on one count of threatening a public official and one count of conspiracy. But after hearing evidence presented by prosecutors, the grand jury voted there was not enough to send the case to trial, said Michael Healey, spokesman for Atty. Gen. Patrick C. Lynch.

Healey declined to discuss the specifics of why no indictment was issued, citing grand jury secrecy rules, saying only that the grand jurors decided "there wasn't enough credible evidence" to support the charges.

"The passage of time was definitely a challenge," Healey said of the seven-year-old case. "People's memories fade with time."

Dean L. Lees Jr, the target of the Jan. 4, 2001 attack, said while he was disappointed with the result, he appreciated the state's effort.

"I like to thank the Rhode Island state police and attorney general's office for being dedicated and professional," Lees said. "Since they began working on this case seven years ago, they have arrested, prosecuted and convicted the two men who carried out the attack. I appreciate their hard work and due diligence, even though this grand jury didn't return a broader indictment."

Two men, Scott P. Coutu and Robert Rinn, pleaded no contest in 2001 to the actual assault, but at the time didn't say if anyone hired them to do it. Coutu pleaded no contest to two charges of aiding and abetting a felony in connection with the attack and to an unrelated breaking and entering charge. He was sentenced to 10 years, with three and a half to serve. Rinn pleaded no contest to simple assault and making threats against a public official. He was sentenced to three years.

The state police had long sought to connect Picerno, who pleaded no contest to four counts of soliciting bribes and three counts of conspiracy to solicit bribes while serving on the Lincoln Planning Board from 2000 to 2002, to the Jan. 4, 2001 attack on Lees, who was a councilman at the time.

Lees was attacked in the parking lot outside the Georgia Carpet Outlet on Branch Avenue in Providence by two men he didn't know. Lees said as left the store and headed to his car, he was struck from behind and hit eight to 10 times on the back of his head. He said recognized one of the assailants as a man who was in the carpet store before the attack.

One of the men told him during the assault that, "You know who I am" and "if you keep doing what you're doing in the town, we'll be back."

Lees had defeated Picerno's son, Robert R. Picerno II, in the August 1998 Democratic Town Council primary and by 1999 the two were bitter political enemies.

In the summer of 1999, Lees accused Picerno, then a member of the Planning Board, of inappropriately lobbying the Town Council about a duplex development in the Lime Rock section. Picerno sued Lees for slander in September 1999, claiming the councilman had smeared his reputation. The suit was dismissed a year later.

Read an earlier story on the case.

 Tags  Patrick Lynch

Comments

Steve B said:

Too bad they didn't indict Picerno. Guilty as sin.

Link | December 5, 2008 9:44 PM
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