Projo 7 to 7 News Blog

He said the main accusation involved an automobile that was donated to the Pawtucket Avenue vocational school -- which is associated with the city's high school -- and repaired by the students. It was later sold on craigslist.com for $4,500, Neill said.

School officials were tipped off about the sale in late February. After a preliminary look into the matter, Cirillo alerted authorities and placed Rocha on administrative paid leave. With the police present, Rocha was escorted out of the school building on March 4.

The School Committee voted to make the leave unpaid last month while the state police's financial crimes division continued its investigation. Rocha's retirement letter -- which states he is leaving because he has an illness that needs a "stress-free environment" to recover from and is also departing "at the advice of legal counsel" -- shortly thereafter.

"He handled the money appropriately," Neill said.

Said Cirillo, "That's not what the state police told us."

The superintendent also said the district did not speak with Neill. They spoke with the two detectives who investigated the matter, Cirillo said.

"The state police told us that they quite frankly sympathized with us, but there was not enough direct evidence to show probable cause," said Lonnie Barham, the district's chief operating officer.

Barham and Cirillo also said the state police said they were "very busy" and didn't have the manpower to remain involved. In addition, they said they asked the state police to investigate two specific issues that they still can't share with the media, but emphasized the donated car wasn't one of the issues.

Said Cirillo, "This is far from over."

Rocha's retirement was effective April 7. The Warwick resident was first hired by the School Department as a vocational teacher in September 1974. He left in 1987 to pursue another career and then returned to education as a director of a vocational school in Massachusetts.

He was selected to be East Providence's vocational school director in July 2002.

Rocha has not returned The Journal's phone call, but his letter to the district states, "Unfortunately, the current situation with the School Department has unnecessarily caused me more stress, heartache, mental and physical fatigue than anything in my life. Consequently, with this in mind and at the advice of legal counsel, I am exercising my option to retire...

"I would be remiss if I did not state that the past seven years have been challenging and rewarding in being able to be a major part of rejuvenating a run-down and, for the most part, neglected career and technical center (as previously noted by the [state] Department of Education) into its current vibrant state-of-the-art facility within most of the skill areas. For this I am very grateful to have had the opportunity to play a mjor role in this transformation process."

The original version of this story was published at 11:13 p.m. Tuesday.