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July 31, 2007

Ex-state police head testifies about smoke shop raid

PROVIDENCE – Former state police Supt. Steven Pare took the stand this morning for about an hour to testify about the orders he received before he directed troopers to raid a Narragansett Indian smoke shop in July 2003.

Pare told the court the governor never gave him explicit instructions to withdraw if the police met with resistance, despite what the governor said publicly in the days after the raid.

Pare said he, the governor and the governor’s chief of staff had general discussions in the weeks and days leading up to the raid that “we’ll execute a search warrant, but we’ll do it as peacefully as we can.”

“No one is to die or get seriously injured as a result of executing the search warrant” over untaxed cigarettes, Pare said about those discussions.

Pare said he was not directed to execute the raid at the particular time on the Monday when it was conducted. The decision about when to execute the raid did not come from the governor, he said.

Discussions had broken down on the Sunday before the raid, and at that point, Pare said either the governor of the governor’s chief of staff – he said he couldn’t recall which – told him to go ahead. The decision as to when, exactly, was left to the state police.

After an hour of testimony, Pare left the stand. He is now heading to Louisiana for work.

Carcieri insisted publicly in the days after the raid that state police had specific instructions from him to avoid conflict if they met any resistance. Lawyers for the state have objected to the governor being called to the stand.

Read more in today's Journal about the case.

-- projo.com staff writer Kate Bramson, with reports from Journal staff writer Katie Mulvaney

Posted by Kate Bramson  at 10:44 AM | Permalink

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