Driver held without bail in suspended-license case
1:21 PM Wed, Oct 28, 2009 | Permalink
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WARWICK, R.I. -- Robert A. Notarianni faced a 17th charge of driving on a suspended license Wednesday, but what really tripped him up was number 16. Standing before Judge J. Terrence Houlihan Jr. in Kent County District Court on Wednesday morning, Notarianni protested that he had had his license reinstated and should be released on bail. "I've never missed a court date," he told the judge. "I live on a farm. I have a 9-year-old son." But the license renewal didn't matter, Houlihan said, because on Jan. 21 Judge Frank J. Cenerini had given Notarianni a one-year suspended sentence with a year of probation for suspended license offense number 16. Notarianni's arrest by Scituate police Oct. 16 triggered a process that demanded the defendant be held without bail pending a hearing on probation violation, Houlihan said after both the court probation officer and the police prosecutor urged the court to deny bail. "I really need a lawyer here," Notarianni said. Extra: Watch a video of Notarianni's court appearance Earlier in the morning, the defendant got a brief postponement when he told Houlihan that his lawyer was tied up in an adjacent courtroom. But Houlihan, in a bench conference, then learned from Renee Bevilacqua, lawyer-wife of the lawyer in question, that John Bevilacqua was not representing Notarianni. "Mr. Bevilacqua is not coming in this morning," Houlihan told Notarianni when the defendant was brought forward. Houlihan said he would enter a not-guilty plea on the probation violation, and referred Notarianni to the public defendener's office. Sheriffs then handcuffed Notarianni, 44, of 47 Cucumber Hill Rd., Foster and led him away in handcuffs. His next court appearance will be Nov. 5. Notarianni's arrest by Scituate police on Oct. 16 was one of two high-profile cases involving the same offense within days of each other. In the other case, Paul Rocha, 47, of 348 Old Plainfield Pike, formerly of South Kingstown, was charged on Oct. 15 with driving on a suspended license -- his 18th time, according to Deputy Police Chief Stephen B. Lang. "It's disgusting. It's disgraceful," Lang said at the time. "The two of them should be riding a RIPTA bus together," he said of Notarianni and Rocha. Rocha also had been scheduled to appear before Houlihan Wednesday, but obtained a postponement until Nov. 18. Lang said that Rhode Island law should be amended to follow the pattern in cases of domestic assault, in which a third offense automatically rises to the level of a felony, carrying a more serious penalty. "When you look at the amount of bad accidents we have, or the [drunken-driving cases], most of the time, we discover that their licenses were suspended," he said. Beryl Kenyon, a spokeswoman for Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch, said earlier this month that under some circumstances a third offense of operating on a suspended license can already be considered a felony. She said, for instance, that a driver can be charged with a felony for having a suspended license if the driver commits one or more of various other offenses at the same time. Among them are operating under the influence of alcohol or drugs, driving to endanger with death resulting or committing three moving violations within a one-year period. Kenyon said that Lynch might take up the matter before the General Assembly. 
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I am again torn with this RI violations system. He is PROBABLY guilty of the suspended license and PROBABLY guilty of violating probation and the suspended. My problem is that if here were to found innocent on the license charge, he would still be facing a year in jail and is automatically held without bail with judges having no discretion. Let these people get bail like the Constitution says, begin violation proceedings and if found guilty, give him the year. But this automatically being assumed guilty and in violation by being arrested by the police who lie every single day is a bit much. I do agree there is not much grey area in a suspended license case.
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Mike: He was on probabtion. He already had his chance at bail. He obviously does not care about his farm and family if he continues to drive on a suspended license while on probation.
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On October 13,1995 my sister was killed by a man whose license had been suspended 27 times!!!! And that was not a felony!!! When will something be done with these people?
I pray that no one forgets that Bernard Coleman smashed into a hayride on Rt.44 in Chepachet killing Linda Martin Cahill. I ask that all Rhode Islanders urge their representatives to lobby for more stringent laws regarding these repeat offenders.
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