« September 12, 2007 |
Today
| September 14, 2007 »
September 13, 2007
Photo: A treat for all the senses

Journal photo / Bob Thayer
Those who make a habit of getting their coffee and pastries at Pastiche on Federal Hill are also treated to the lovely window boxes at the cafe's entrance. Today, employee Derek LaBrie of Providence takes a peek at the equally lovely weather outside.
Posted by Andrea Panciera at 7:00 PM
| Comment
Tonight: Live in L'il Rhody, it's rock and R&B
There's rock and rhythm and blues shows aplenty around the state tonight.
And some jazz: Mac Chrupcala plays Capriccio restaurant, 2 Pine St., Providence. Call 421-1320. 7 to 11 p.m.
ContraBand, acoustic rock, Parente's Restaurant, 1114 Douglas Pike, Smithfield. Call 231-7600. 9:30 pm.
East Side Horns and Mac Odom and Chill, rhythm and blues and Motown, The Hi-Hat, 3 Davol Square, Providence. Call 453-6500. 8 pm to midnight.
The 'Mericans, rhythm and blues, Nick-A-Nee's, 75 South St., Providence. Call 861-7290. 9 pm.
Split Infinity, rock, J.R.'s Bourbon Street Rock House, Mardi Gras Multi Club and Johnny Bahama's Complex, 1500 Oaklawn Ave., Cranston. Call 463-3080. 9 p.m. to 1 a.m.
Take3, rock, Ri-Ra, 50 Exchange Terrace, Providence. Call 272-1953. 10 pm. $5.
For more of what's happening around Rhode Island, visit projo.com's music and calendar listings.
Posted by Mike McKinney at 6:58 PM
| Comment
Update: Still 5 candidates for Traffic Tribunal post
PROVIDENCE — A screening committee today decided it would not eliminate any of the five candidates vying for the new $132,062-a-year position of chief magistrate of the state Traffic Tribunal.
The Magistrate Selection Committee could have provided anywhere from three to five names to Supreme Court Chief Justice Frank J. Williams, whom the legislature has placed in charge of choosing a nominee.
But after more than two hours of interviews and less than 10 minutes of deliberations, the committee decided to forward all five names.
“Some did a little better than others, but there was not such a great difference that would exclude anybody,” said Traffic Tribunal Judge Edward C. Parker, chairman of the Magistrate Selection Committee.
So the five finalists are:
· William R. Guglietta, 46, of Cranston, chief legal counsel to House Majority Leader Gordon D. Fox, D-Providence, and a part-time Cranston Municipal Court judge.
· Kelly A. McElroy, 35, of Warwick, a special assistant attorney general in the criminal division.
· Bruce W. McIntyre, 54, of Jamestown, deputy legal counsel in the state Health Department, where he advises the Rhode Island Board of Medical Licensure and Discipline.
· Gail M. Valuk, 42, of Richmond, deputy state court administrator.
· William J. Vescera, 46, of Woonsocket, who has solo law practice in Johnston concentrating in residential and commercial real estate transactions.
There was no immediate word on when Williams might choose a nominee, who will face Senate confirmation. The chief magistrate will be appointed to a 10-year term and have the power to appoint magistrates to the Traffic Tribunal.
-- Journal staff writer Edward Fitzpatrick
Earlier this year, the General Assembly removed the Traffic Tribunal from under District Court Chief Judge Albert E. DeRobbio and created the position of chief magistrate. Legislators denied they were exacting revenge for DeRobbio’s failure to pick magistrate candidates favored by Assembly leaders. They said the change was part of a budget article creating greater uniformity among the state’s 18 magistrates.
Candidates for the new job are not going through the Judicial Nominating Commission process required for all state judges. Instead, the Assembly put Williams in charge of the appointment, and Williams created the selection committee, which includes Parker, AAA Southern New England Senior Vice President Robert P. Murray and lawyer Alfred A. Russo Jr., a former Democratic state representative from Johnston who served on the transition team of Fox, and Democratic House Speaker William J. Murphy.
Posted by Andrea Panciera at 6:45 PM
| Comment
Fall River man struck, killed while changing flat tire
SOMERSET, Mass. -- A Fall River man who was changing a flat tire on Riverside Avenue died after being struck by a car heading north on the avenue this afternoon, said Lt. Stephen Moniz.
The police have not yet disclosed the identity of the man who was killed, but said he was in his mid-30s. He was flown by helicopter to Rhode Island Hospital from the accident that happened about 2:30 p.m.
Local police are working with a state police reconstruction unit to figure out what happened.
-- projo.com staff writer Michael P. McKinney
Posted by Mike McKinney at 6:20 PM
| Comment
Algae bloom promotes toxin in Ten Mile River
State officials today advise the public to temporarily avoid recreational activities that include contact with water from the Ten Mile River and a related reservoir and pond because of an algae bloom.
The river starts in Massachusetts and forms the boundary between that state and Rhode Island, along the northern half of East Providence and Seekonk, Mass.
The state Department of Environmental Management said today it had spotted a bright green algae bloom in the Turner Reservoir and that lab tests found high levels of the natually occurring toxin microcystin. The algae can undergo explosive growth under certain conditions, such as continued warm, sunny weather.
Health risks from casual contact with water containing the toxin are low, but people could feel serious health effects if they drank the water. High microcystin levels in water can seriously damage the liver. Symptoms of exposure include stomach cramps, vomiting, diarrhea, fever, muscle and joint pain, skin, eye and throat irritation.
"People should avoid recreational activities, such as swimming or fishing, that involve contact with this water, until water samples are safe," David Gifford, the state health director, said in a statement.
The situation is likely to improve over time, the DEM said, noting that Tuesday's rains flushed some of the algae downstream. The shorter, cooler days ahead should also help kill off the algae and reduce toxins.
-- projo.com staff writer Michael P. McKinney
Posted by Mike McKinney at 6:06 PM
| Comment
Cessna, a Textron unit, reaches accord with union
WICHITA, Kan. -- Cessna Aircraft officials say they've reached a tentative three-year agreement with their machinists union.
Cessna is a unit of Rhode Island-based Textron.
The negotiating committee for the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers are recommending workers approve the agreement when they vote Saturday. The union represents 5,400 hourly workers.
Union representatives couldn't be immediately reached for comment.
According to the union's Web site, Cessna's offer calls for a 5 percent wage increase the first year and a 4 percent increase in the second and third year. There's also a $3,000 lump-sum bonus.
Under the deal, insurance premiums for all three health care plans remain the same. Pensions would increase. Workers also will get more time off.
-- The Associated Press
Posted by Mike McKinney at 5:54 PM
| Comment
Update: Bomb in Worden Pond posed no threat
SOUTH KINGSTOWN -- The aerial bomb the police say a fisherman found in two to three feet of Worden Pond waters was heavily rusted and posed no threat, said Kevin Quinn, deputy chief of the Union Fire District.
Quinn said divers located the bomb after about 45 minutes. It disintegrated when they tried to retrieve it, so they left the pieces on the pond floor, he said.
Three divers from the Navy bomb squad and members of the state fire marshal's bomb squad were studying the find, which was in the northwest corner of the pond, to determine whether it was active.
According to the Kingston fire chief, the Navy used the pond for World War II target practice.
In 1999, a diver discovered an unexploded, 350- to 400-pound torpedo warhead at Point Judith Pond. It was removed -- with a backhoe -- without incident.
-- projo.com writers Michael P. McKinney and Brandie M. Jefferson, with reports from Journal staff writer Katie Mulvaney
Posted by Mike McKinney at 5:28 PM
| Comment
Lawyer: Va. daughter took much of Eifrig's money
PROVIDENCE -- In a stunning development, a lawyer for a demented 90-year-old woman told a Superior Court judge today that the woman’s Virginia daughter took more than $300,000 of her mother’s money and deposited it in accounts in her own name, without ever disclosing to him or the mother’s court-appointed guardian that the money existed.
The funds represented about 40 percent of retired schoolteacher Laurette Eifrig's life savings, control over which has led to a long and bitter court battle between two sisters, one of whom lives in Rhode Island.
By late this morning, the daughter in Virginia, Francine Ardito, of Reston, had returned $251,183.27 of the money she had taken.
The money arrived by overnight Federal Express mail, as Superior Court Judge Alice B. Gibney was weighing whether to proceed with a scheduled contempt hearing against her.
She’ll have to repay her mother another $5,000. The rest the judge approved as payment of legal fees to Ardito’s Rhode Island lawyer, Janet Mastronardi, whom Ardito hired in her unsuccessful bid to become her mother’s guardian.
Gibney continued the contempt hearing until Oct. 11. Ardito -- who is currently barred by court order from visiting with her mother -- was ordered to provide a full accounting of Eifrig’s assets by then.
If she does -- and there are no other unforeseen developments -- the battle between Eifrig’s daughters over where their mother should live and who should have control of her money may finally end.
-- Journal staff writer Tracy Breton
Continue reading for the latest. Find more about this story in Tracy Breton's continuing report on elder abuse.
It was supposed to end over a month ago when Gibney signed off on a settlement agreement. The settlement would allow Eifrig to remain living in Rhode Island as she desires but also cost her $186,000 in lawyer and guardian fees -- including $60,122.49 for daughter Ardito’s lawyer.
But the settlement got stalled when Eifrig’s lawyer, Richard A. Boren, and her court-appointed guardian, Paula M. Cuculo, learned that Ardito had used some of her mother’s money, without court approval, to pay Mastronardi and to hire a Virginia lawyer to undo orders issued by Gibney.
Then, earlier this week, they learned from the Virginia lawyer that Ardito had taken almost $302,000 of her mother’s money out of her trust and put the money in various accounts in her own name.
James P. Head, Ardito’s Virginia lawyer, said in a letter to Boren that the reason his client had transferred the money was “to prevent her sister from accessing them.”
He said Ardito did this shortly after her older sister, Suzette Gebhard, a one-time congressional candidate and the former head of the Rhode Island League of Women Voters, moved their mother from Virginia to her house in Warren, without notifying Ardito. At the time of the move, in May 2006, Ardito had power of attorney for her mother and was co-trustee of her mother’s trust.
Head insisted in his letter that Ardito’s transfer of the money was “expressly permissible” under Virginia law because Eifrig’s trust gave her younger daughter the power “to hold property in her name or in the name of nominees.”
But Eifrig’s lawyer, Boren, disputed that today. He said he is “deeply troubled” by Ardito’s actions. Her ailing mother, who is now blind and also suffers from Alzheimer’s disease, needs her savings to continue to be able to afford her $4,900-a-month rent at Capitol Ridge, her assisted-living residence on Smith Street in Providence.
And Boren pointed out that even though Eifrig had testified in summer 2006 that she had about $735,000 in savings at the time of her move to Rhode Island, Ardito had given sworn testimony to Gibney in mid-2006 that the amount she was holding in her mother’s trust was $500,000 to $600,000.
Eifrig, he said, “testified on the mark…In fact it is approximately $725,000.”
Eifrig’s court-appointed guardian, lawyer Paula M. Cuculo, went further. She called Ardito a liar who had engaged in “a cover-up.”
“Who was she protecting the money for? Her or her mother? The excuses her Virginia attorney has come up with are blatantly false. There was no need to put money in her own name when Smith-Barney (a brokerage company) had agreed to freeze all of the funds, and she in fact had deposited several of Laurette’s accounts into the Smith Barney, She could have put all of the money in there.”
Cuculo said that since she first met Ardito in the summer of 2006, “she has repeatedly told me that the only money she was holding for her mother was between $400,000 to $500,000 and that she’d made a mistake on the stand” in claiming there might be $600,000. In fact, it there was much more so it was a cover-up.”
Head, Ardito’s lawyer, has repeatedly said in interviews that Ardito only has her mother’s best interest at heart. But Cuculo disputed that today.
“If she was truly putting the money into her own account to protect it…then she had an obligation to disclose what she had and she repeatedly lied about it. Had Richard and I not asked for Laurette’s tax returns as part of an accounting, I think that’s when she realized we were going to find out about these other funds.”
After Boren received the emoney from Ardito at his law office, he turned over the four checks -- all payable to Cuculo -- who promptly mailed them to an investment adviser in New York who is handling Eifrig's investments.
Posted by Mike McKinney at 4:00 PM
| Comment
Photo: Building a house to call a home

Journal photo / Kathy Borchers
Sheila White and two of her five children, Jenna and Jonah Tate, 9-year-old twins, attend a wall-raising ceremony today at the site of their new home at 815 Potters Ave. in Providence. It will be built as part of a Habitat for Humanity initiative called "First Families Building Homes Across America," a two-year program of Habitat's Women Build program. Among those helping out today were Governor and Mrs. Carcieri and Lt. Gov. Elizabeth Roberts.
Posted by Andrea Panciera at 3:57 PM
| Comment
E. Greenwich teacher talks resume tomorrow
EAST GREENWICH -- Contract talks between the East Greenwich teachers’ union and the School Committee resume tomorrow at 5 p.m.
This is the first scheduled meeting for both sides, since the 235 rank-and-file members were ordered back to work by a Superior Court judge last Friday, following a three-day strike that delayed the start of school.
On the third day, the School Committee filed a compliant against the union in Kent County Superior Court seeking an injunction.
Meanwhile, in Exeter-West Greenwich, mediated contract talks continue tonight.
The 210 teachers in the regional school district reported to work when school began on Aug. 29.
Both unions are working under their previous contracts, which expired Aug. 31.
-- Journal staff writer Lisa Vernon-Sparks
Posted by Mike McKinney at 3:45 PM
| Comment
Traffic Tribunal chief candidates to be interviewed
PROVIDENCE -- A committee this afternoon will interview five candidates for the new post of state Traffic Tribunal chief magistrate, a $132,062-per-year position.
The candidates are:
* William R. Guglietta, of Cranston, chief legal counsel to House Majority Leader Gordon D. Fox, D-Providence, and a part-time Cranston Municipal Court judge.
* Kelly A. McElroy, of Warwick, a special assistant attorney general in the criminal division since 2000.
* Bruce W. McIntyre, of Jamestown, deputy legal counsel at the state Health Department, where he's been legal adviser to the Board of Medical Licensure and Discipline since 1991.
* Gail M. Valuk, of Richmond, a lawyer and deputy state court administrator since 2001.
* William J. Vescera, of Woonsocket, a lawyer with a private practice in Johnston.
The legislature this year created the chief magistrate post, removing the tribunal from under District Court Chief Judge Albert E. DeRobbio.
The legislature put Supreme Court Chief Justice Frank J. Williams in charge of the appointment, and he created a selection committee: Traffic Tribunal Judge Edward C. Parker, lawyer and former Democratic state Rep. Alfred A. Russo Jr., and AAA Southern New England senior vice president Robert P. Murray.
-- projo.com staff writer Michael P. McKinney, with Journal archival reports
Posted by Mike McKinney at 3:10 PM
| Comment
In Newport, an international feast for boaters / Photo

Journal photo / Frieda Squires
Gene Magnetti, left, of Eastland Yachts, Mamaroneck, N.Y., invites visitors to tour the Sabre 42 today as the boat show opens in Newport.
Do you like sailboats?
Power boats?
Boat accessories?
Boaters?
They’ll all be at the 37th annual Newport International Boat Show, which started today and runs through Sunday.
More then 500 companies will be showing off products, and a special project “Newport for New Products” displays the newest of the new products – those released between April 13 and Sept. 13.
Last year, 65 boats were debuted at the show.
And you couldn’t ask for better weather in the East Coast sailing mecca, at least for today and tomorrow, with predicted high temperatures in the low 70s and clear, sunny skies.
Posted by Brandie Jefferson at 2:37 PM
| Comment
Boy, 12, hit by driver Sunday remains critical today
PROVIDENCE -- Eric Jimenez, the 12-year-old injured by a hit-and-run driver on Bucklin Street Sunday, remains in critical condition at Hasbro Children's Hospital this afternoon, a hospital spokeswoman said.
Eric's brother, 8-year-old Ivan, was killed when the pair were struck while walking home, the police said.
Ivan's wake was held last night at Bell Funeral Home on Broad Street, where a funeral service was slated for 10 a.m. today.
The accused hit-and-run driver, Dennis H. Cherry Jr., 26, of no permanent address, faces two felony charges for allegedly having left the scene of the accident, and he is being held at the Adult Correctional Institutions. He also has been charged with leaving his lane of travel, operating left of center, and failure to show due care.
-- projo.com staff writer Michael P. McKinney
Posted by Mike McKinney at 1:52 PM
| Comment
Observances begin together: Rosh Hashanah and Ramadan

Journal photo / Andrew Dickerman
From left, Rabbi Wayne Franklin, his daughter, Batya, 13, Rabbi Alvan Kaunfer and Dr. Steven Peiser, participants in Temple Emanuel-el Rosh Hashanah service, yesterday practice blowing the shofar. The horns will be sounded during observances today in the Providence synagogue and others around the world.
For the third year in a row, Rosh Hashanah and Ramadan are overlapping.
Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, began at sundown last night, and continues through today and, for some communities, tomorrow.
The holiday marks the first day of the Hebrew month Tishrei, 163 days after the first day of Passover. It can come as early as Sept. 5, or as late as Oct. 5.
The holiday is also marked by the shofar, a trumpet made from a ram's horn and prayer.
Like many holidays across religions, meals during Rosh Hashanah are marked with symbolism. Apples and honey are staples that symbolize the sweetness of a new year and round loaves of challah refer to the cycle of a new year.
Food is a symbol in another holiday that begins today; this year, Sept. 13 is the first day of the fast for Ramadan.
Abstaining from food represents discipline during the ninth month of the Islamic year when Muslims focus less on day-to-day affairs and more on faith and community.
The fast begins after a pre-dawn prayer and breakfast and lasts until the end of the fourth daily prayer, at sundown.
While Muslim holidays are tied to a lunar calendar, Jewish holidays are are determined both by calendar that is mostly, lunar but adjusted to keep seasonal constancy.
For the past three years, the calendars have met on these two holidays.
Posted by Brandie Jefferson at 1:11 PM
| Comment
Burrillville teachers tender new contract proposal
BURRILLVILLE -- The town’s teachers have tendered a new proposal in their contract negotiations with the School Committee.
The union’s latest offering is based, in part, on a recent review of the school system’s spending plan for the current fiscal year, Patrick Crowley, a representative of the Burrillville Education Association, said today.
“It’s something that we envision as a way to break the stalemate,” he said.
Crowley declined to discuss the specifics of the proposal in any further detail, but he said union leaders had high hopes for it after they made the offer during a mediation session yesterday.
The union expects a counter-proposal from the school district when both sides meet again at 4 p.m. Wednesday.
-- Journal staff writer Mark Reynolds
Posted by Mike McKinney at 12:46 PM
| Comment
Sen. Reed to give Dems' response to Bush tonight
President Bush will speak to the nation about Iraq at 9 tonight, and U.S. Sen. Jack Reed, D-Rhode Island, will deliver the Democrats' response immediately after.
Reed is on the Senate Armed Services Committee, one of the panels that heard in person this week from Gen. David H. Petraeus, the leading commander of U.S. forces in Iraq.
Petraeus came under questioning from congressmen about the situation relative to current and future troop numbers in Iraq. He and others argued the increase in troop levels, known as the surge, has fostered signs of progress in Iraq while others criticized him as repeating the administration's line while ignoring evidence that means it's time for a larger draw-down there.
Bush is expected to say his approach now is to gradually phase out in escalation in forces in Iraq by next July.
Bush's speech will be broadcast on TV and online. Projo.com will have live streaming video of the speech and Reed's response.
-- projo.com staff writer Michael P. McKinney
Posted by Mike McKinney at 12:04 PM
| Comment
ACLU files suit against Providence police
The Rhode Island Affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union has filed an open records lawsuit against the Providence Police Department.
The lawsuit comes one week after the group released a report citing examples of non-compliance with the state's open records law.
Extra: read the report.
The group says it filed the lawsuit after sending two records requests to Providence Police Chief Dean Esserman asking for information relating to the use of video surveillance in public places.
The ACLU says in a press release that the two requests went unanswered.
ACLU Attorney Staci Kolb calls the lawsuit "particularly troublesome," because two requests were ignored and, she said, because it is similar to a lawsuit filed by the group in 2000 where the court ruled in the ACLU's favor.
"I believe that as a result of this conduct," Kolb said, "the public is left to question the police department's dedication to complying with the Access to Public Records Act."
Posted by Brandie Jefferson at 11:37 AM
| Comment
Grants will help keep pollutants out Narragansett Bay
The state’s Department of Environmental Management has awarded nearly $170,000 for seven projects to restore vegetation along rivers, lakes and ponds across the state.
The vegetation – also known as a riparian buffer -- will act as a filter removing sediment and other pollutants from water making its way through watersheds to a bigger body of water and, ultimately, into the Bay.
“Maintaining riparian buffers in a natural condition is integral to the ecology of natural systems,” DEM Director W. Michael Sullivan said in a statement.
The money is part of the $70 million Open Space, Recreation, Bay and Watershed Protection Bond that was approved in 2004.
In a statement, Gov. Carcieri said he believes Narragansett Bay is the state’s most valuable resource.
“While this work will be performed in communities like East Greenwich and Middletown,” he said, “the benefits of these environmental improvements will be felt throughout Narragansett Bay and throughout all Rhode Island for years to come.”
Middletown will get two grants -- $20,000 to remove invasive plants and plant native ones along Bailey Brook, and $39,000 to restore watershed land on the north end of the Bailey Brook watershed.
East Greenwich will get $32,000 to build a 50-food wide vegetated buffer an both sides of the peninsula at Maskerchugg Creek and Greenwich Cove.
Johnston and Wales University is getting $26,000 to establish a 2-acre vegetated buffer along the Providence/Cranston line.
Two grants will go toward restoration at the DEM’s Arcadia Management Area -- $7,700 to restore vegetation along Brook Trail, adjacent to the Wood River and $34,500 for replanting at Beach Pond.
The Woonasquatucket Watershed Council is getting $10,000 to restore the vegetation on land owned by the Department of Transportation adjacent to Cutler Brook in Gloucester.
Posted by Brandie Jefferson at 10:49 AM
| Comment
Business group opposes Providence waterfront plan
Taking aim at the City Plan Commission’s vision of the Providence waterfront, a group of Providence Port-area businesses, are announcing the formation of the Providence Working Waterfront Alliance.
The new comprehensive plan, which the commission approved on Aug. 23, restricts heavy industrial business south of Thurbers Avenue and uses new zoning regulations to encourage mixed-use development.
In a statement from the new group -- which includes representatives from companies such as J. Goodison Company, Promet Marine Services and Northeast Marine Pilots -- Captain E. Howard McVay, Jr. said although residential development along the port could increase property tax revenues, he cautioned “this gentrification of Providence’s working waterfront is shortsighted.”
The group plans to meet with city officials and the public to share the history of the industrial port and explain why it thinks mixed-use development is a bad economic move.
Posted by Brandie Jefferson at 10:20 AM
| Comment
Injured protester arraigned in wheelchair/ Photo

Journal photo / Bill Murphy
Alexandra Svoboda enters District Court for her arraignment this morning.
PROVIDENCE -- The 23-year-old protester whose leg was broken as she was being arrested by the North Providence police wheeled herself up to the judge's bench this morning for her arraignment.
Alexandra Svoboda, 23, was arrested on August 26 during an Industrial Workers of the World protest of a local restaurant.
The police said Svoboda hit an officer as he was trying to restrain her.
The protesters claimed that the restaurant did business with a distributor that broke labor laws.
She was released on personal recognizance after entering a not-guilty plea during her arraignment this morning in District Court, Providence.
Svoboda’s injury required several surgeries to repair vascular damage and a detached fibula (calf bone).
She declined comment after leaving the courtroom.
Svoboda is due back in court Oct. 4 for a pretrial conference.
-- With reports from Journal staff writer Tom Mooney
Posted by Brandie Jefferson at 10:05 AM
| Comment
Brown chaplain to serve on Hospice board
Brown University’s chaplain has been elected to the board of trustees of Home and Hospice Care of Rhode Island.
The Rev. Janet Cooper Nelson, who is also a faculty member at Brown, has been at the university since 1990.
“I welcome this opportunity to be intimately involved in an organization so clearly and strongly committed to helping people approach the end of their lives with dignity,” she said in a press release, “and to meeting their special needs, whether for medical care, freedom from pain and worry or spiritual well-being.”
Cooper Nelson is a past president of the Association for College and University Religious Affairs, and currently serves on several committees and boards, including at Harvard Divinity School, Women and Infants Hospital, AIDS Project Rhode Island, and the United Church of Christ.
“All of us at Home and Hospice Care of Rhode Island are extremely pleased that Rev. Nelson has joined our board,” the organization’s president and CEO said in a press release.
Posted by Brandie Jefferson at 8:37 AM
| Comment
Mass. man charged in teen's alcohol-related death
NORTHAMPTON, Mass. — An Easthampton man accused of giving alcohol to a teen girl who later died is charged with involuntary manslaughter.
Timothy Parent pleaded innocent at his arraignment Tuesday.
This comes at a time when some Rhode Island officials are looking to strengthen its "social-host" law, which allows adults to be prosecuted if underage drinking occurs in their household.
Parent accused in the February alcohol poisoning death of 15-year-old Alexis Garcia, who was a friend of his daughter.
Garcia’s blood alcohol level at death was between .28 and .33. That’s four times the .08 level at which drivers are considered drunk. The autopsy report said she died from drowning due to submersion and acute alcohol poisoning, according The Republican newspaper of Springfield, Mass.
The 46-year-old Parent is accused of providing the alcohol to Garcia and six other teens.
Parent was released on personal recognizance.
A prosecutor says it’s believed to be the first time in state history an adult has been charged with causing a minor’s death by providing alcohol, and the case didn’t involve a motor vehicle accident.
-- The Associated Press
Posted by Brandie Jefferson at 7:31 AM
| Comment
Church money funded Conn. priest's lavish lifestyle
NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- A former Darien priest pleaded guilty yesterday to stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars of church money by setting up secret bank accounts to pay for a life of luxury, including traveling around the world and buying a condominium.
Rev. Michael Jude Fay, who resigned last year as pastor of St. John Roman Catholic Church, pleaded guilty in federal court to interstate transportation of money obtained by fraud. He set up hidden accounts he called the Bridget Fund and the Don Bosco account to commit the fraud.
Read the full Associated Press story
Posted by Jack Perry at 7:03 AM
| Comment
More gorgeous September weather on the way
It's shaping up to be a gorgeous day with the National Weather Service predicting a sunny day with a high temperature of 73 degrees.
No clouds forecast for tonight, when the temperature should drop to about 54.
Tomorrow should be similar, with temperatures reaching the mid 70s.
For more weather and regular updates, see projo.com/weather.
Posted by Brandie Jefferson at 7:01 AM
| Comment
Today's front page
Today's front page reports that fewer Rhode Island workers receive health insurance from their employers.
Download a copy of today's front page in .pdf format.
Posted by Jack Perry at 7:00 AM
| Comment