According to John DePetro's website:
"Conspiracy,obstruction of justice, and making false statements. So what is the problem? They are just
two lawyers from Providence trying to make a buck. There have been rumors about these guys for years
and the way they operate with drug dealers. Remember, Joe Bev. was very tight with Chief Barney in
Providence. In the picture below, I met up with the boys at the Super Bowl in Houston, Feb 2004.
According to the indictment, the scam was happening while Joe Bev was hanging out with 17 year old
Courtney Calenda. Courtney claimed "Mr. Bev" could get her coke at will. The feds say he and "brother"
John scammed $150,000 from some drug clients. Sources say Juan Giraldo,the interpreter, was once a
driver for David Cicilline ."
"Conspiracy,obstruction of justice, and making false statements. So what is the problem? They are just
two lawyers from Providence trying to make a buck. There have been rumors about these guys for years
and the way they operate with drug dealers. Remember, Joe Bev. was very tight with Chief Barney in
Providence. In the picture below, I met up with the boys at the Super Bowl in Houston, Feb 2004.
According to the indictment, the scam was happening while Joe Bev was hanging out with 17 year old
Courtney Calenda. Courtney claimed "Mr. Bev" could get her coke at will. The feds say he and "brother"
John scammed $150,000 from some drug clients. Sources say Juan Giraldo,the interpreter, was once a
driver for David Cicilline ."
Executive Office, City of Providence, Rhode Island
DAVID N. CICILLINE
MAYOR
Date: February 4th, 2005
For Immediate Release
Contact: Karen Southern, Press Secretary
(401) 421-2489 x 752
ksouthern@providenceri.com
MEDIA ADVISORY
MAYOR CICILLINE HEADED TO SUPER BOWL XXXIX TO CHEER ON THE NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Providence – Mayor David N. Cicilline will be heading to Jacksonville, Florida on Saturday to cheer on the New
England Patriots as the reigning Super Bowl Champions defend their title against the Philadelphia Eagles.
“I had the pleasure of watching our hometown team claim the Super Bowl XXXVIII championship last year as they
defeated the Carolina Panthers in a spectacular game,” said Mayor Cicilline. “Providence is truly ‘Patriots
Country’, and as mayor of New England’s second largest city, I’m looking forward to representing our dedicated
and loyal Pats fans as we cheer on the Patriots to another Super Bowl victory.”
Mayor Cicilline said the Patriots are not only a great team on the field but, under the leadership of Patriot’s owner
Robert Kraft, have also demonstrated a real commitment to the children of our city by donating $100,000 to help
renovate Conley Field and Stadium. The team also gave the Mayor 10 Patriots playoff tickets to help the city raise
an additional $100,000 for the project.
The Mayor is scheduled to arrive in Jacksonville, Florida Saturday, January 5 at 2:10 p.m. on Delta flight 9777. For
more information on the Mayor’s itinerary in Florida contact Karen Southern at (401) 595-9702.
RSS REX
#####
More Press Releases
http://www.providenceri.com/press/article_archived.php?id=120
Cicilline Paying off
Police Officers
Police Officers
Cicilline’s brother, Bevilacqua charged in drug scheme
01:00 AM EST on Saturday, January 6, 2007
By Mike Stanton
Journal Staff Writer
BOSTON — John M. Cicilline and Joseph A. Bevilacqua Jr., two names prominent among Rhode Island criminal-
defense lawyers, were charged in federal court yesterday with scheming to collect $150,000 from drug-dealer
clients to manipulate the criminal-justice system.
Cicilline, the brother of Providence Mayor David N. Cicilline, and Bevilacqua, the son of the late Rhode Island
Supreme Court Chief Justice Joseph A. Bevilacqua, were charged, along with two legal assistants, with
conspiracy, obstruction of justice and making false statements to federal authorities.
The 21-page indictment, unsealed yesterday, alleges that the lawyers conspired with interpreters/paralegals Juan
A. Giraldo and Lisa Torres to provide the authorities with information about other drug dealers, which would then
be used to bargain for more-lenient sentences for their clients.
In return, a husband and wife whom Cicilline and Bevilacqua defended in a federal drug and money-laundering
case in Boston, John and Jacqueline Mendonca, allegedly gave them $115,000 between late 2002 and early
2004. (The remaining $35,000 sought was never paid, according to the indictment.)
Giraldo, a former interpreter, investigator and confidant of Cicilline’s and Bevilacqua’s, has been described by a
federal prosecutor as a high-level drug dealer and by a judge as someone who “played the system.” Giraldo, who
lived near Bevilacqua in an upscale East Greenwich development and owned a vacation condo in Cancun, Mexico,
is serving a federal prison term of nearly six years after pleading guilty two years ago to charges of cocaine
trafficking and tax evasion.
The indictment yesterday caps a long-running investigation, one that authorities say continues.
“Today’s charges should make it clear that justice is not for sale,” U.S. Attorney Michael J. Sullivan said in a
statement. “It is especially troubling that these allegations involve lawyers — who are expected to hold to the
highest ethical standards and conduct themselves with honesty and integrity.”
Torres, 39, of Cranston, was arrested at T.F. Green Airport about midnight Thursday as she returned home on a
flight from the Dominican Republic. She was held without bail.
Cicilline, 49, of Cranston, learned that there was a warrant for his arrest yesterday morning and drove to Boston to
surrender.
Bevilacqua, 57, was just 12 days away from completing an 18-month federal prison sentence for leaking a
confidential FBI videotape to Rhode Island TV newsman Jim Taricani, a conviction that led to his disbarment.
Bevilacqua had been in home confinement, and was taken into custody about noon yesterday after arriving at a
new work-release job in Rhode Island; he was taken to the Barnstable County Correctional Facility in
Massachusetts and is expected to be arraigned Monday.
Giraldo, 41, is in a federal prison in Youngstown, Ohio, and will be arraigned later.
Digital Extra
Read the indictment against Bevilacqua, Cicilline and their two co-defendants All four were charged with
conspiracy. Cicilline and Torres were also charged with obstruction, Cicilline with two counts of making false
statements and Torres with one count of making false statements. Obstruction carries a maximum prison term of
10 years; the other charges a maximum 5 years and $250,000 fine.
Late yesterday afternoon, Cicilline stood before the judge and pleaded not guilty. He was released on $10,000
unsecured bond.
Afterward, flanked by his lawyer, Richard M. Egbert, and his father and law partner, John F. Cicilline Jr., Cicilline
walked out of the courthouse and through a gauntlet of news photographers, declining comment.
The road to indictment for Cicilline and Bevilacqua began in the summer of 2002, with a celebrated drug bust
outside a Motel 6 in Warwick.
Federal agents and local police seized more than $1.3 million in cash and nearly 5 pounds of marijuana from
John C. Mendonca, who gave addresses in Warwick and Fall River. Mendonca and his wife, Jacqueline, were
arrested, as he tried to flee in a taxi.
The Mendoncas, subsequently indicted in Boston, hired Bevilacqua and Cicilline to defend them.
In November 2002, Bevilacqua met with John Mendonca at the Plymouth County House of Correction. According to
yesterday’s indictment, Bevilacqua “told him that for a payment of several hundred thousand dollars, he ... could
keep John Mendonca out of jail.”
In December 2002, the indictment says, Bevilacqua and Giraldo met with Mendonca again and said that in return
for an “up front” payment of $100,000, they would provide information about “a large drug bust” that Mendonca
could pass on to federal authorities to help win a lighter sentence.
Later that month, Giraldo allegedly went to the home of Mendonca’s mother and collected $70,000 in cash from
her and $30,000 in checks made out to Bevilacqua, Giraldo and two unidentified Giraldo associates. Giraldo told
the mother that with this payment, her son “would get out of jail,” the indictment alleges.
In June 2003, with Mendonca still incarcerated and awaiting trial, Cicilline allegedly told Jacqueline Mendonca that
he had spoken to Bevilacqua and Giraldo about the $100,000 payment and “reassured her that Juan Giraldo
would provide information on drug activity that she and her husband would pass on to the DEA as their own in
order to get a sentence reduction.”
But in November 2003, the indictment says, Cicilline asked Jacqueline for another $50,000, telling his client that
he would show the money to Bevilacqua and Giraldo to induce them to provide the promised information about
other drug dealers.
The indictment suggests, however, that while the Mendoncas continued to discuss the scheme to win leniency,
they also began working with the authorities against their defense lawyers.
Starting with a Dec. 1, 2003, meeting that Jacqueline had with Cicilline, Bevilacqua and Giraldo in their Providence
law office, the indictment quotes several conversations that were secretly recorded by the Mendoncas, and even by
the federal prosecutor dealing with Cicilline on the case.
At that meeting, Jacqueline pressed the men to deliver what they had promised or return the $100,000. Giraldo
told her that they would have to come up with information to help the feds make three or four drug cases to earn a
reduced sentence.
“Right. The more the merrier,” says Cicilline, according to the indictment.
On Jan. 11, 2004, Bevilacqua visited John Mendonca in jail and allegedly told him that he would be “getting credit
for a 900-pound marijuana bust that Juan Giraldo had arranged,” according to the indictment, plus another 1,000-
pound marijuana bust that Giraldo was in the process of arranging. Giraldo had gone to Mexico, Bevilicqua
allegedly said, to “initiate” the marijuana deal.
On March 5, 2004, Cicilline allegedly told Jacqueline Mendonca that he would help her misrepresent the truth to
get credit for helping the authorities make a “50-kilogram cocaine bust” — “Juan’s probably got that by truck this
weekend . . . We just want to make it believable.”
In another meeting, Bevilacqua allegedly told Jacqueline, “Don’t you see what [Giraldo] did with some of the
money? ... He gave it up, and he set somebody up with 900 pounds of pot ... That’s what he does.”
The indictment also accuses Cicilline, Bevilacqua and Giraldo of pressuring the Mendoncas to plead guilty so that
they could get credit for the bogus information on other drug deals. In one jailhouse meeting, Cicilline and Giraldo
allegedly told Mendonca that they had recently “gotten someone else credit” for a 500-kilo cocaine bust, but that
Mendonca would have to plead guilty to get a similar break.
Prior to a Sept. 8, 2004, meeting with the federal prosecutor on the Mendonca case, Cicilline allegedly met with
Jacqueline and Torres at the Barking Crab restaurant, next to the Boston courthouse, “to rehearse what they would
say.” The three then went into the courthouse and lied to the prosecutor, the indictment charges.
A few months later, in early 2005, the Mendoncas hired new lawyers, according to the court record. Last year, they
pleaded guilty. Documents in their case remained sealed, however, due to “ongoing legal proceedings and other
confidential matters.” They have yet to be sentenced.
Mendonca, who was released on $100,000 bail last fall and is on house arrest in Fall River, declined comment
yesterday when called by a reporter.
In the spring of 2004, while Giraldo was allegedly conspiring with Cicilline and Bevilaqua in the Mendonca case,
he became the target of a DEA investigation after an informant reported that he was selling large quantities of
cocaine.
The informant arranged to buy a kilogram of cocaine from Giraldo for $23,000, with the DEA and Providence police
monitoring the deal. Giraldo was later arrested. His lawyer, Jack Cicilline, disputed that he was a major drug
dealer, attributing his prosperity to his hard work as an interpreter and his success at the blackjack tables at
Foxwoods. John M. Cicilline defended Giraldo as “a good guy ... a friend.”
Yesterday, in a news conference at Providence City Hall, David Cicilline, who worked in the law office with his
brother and father before running for mayor, said that he knew Giraldo, but that Giraldo didn’t work for him.“I spoke
to my brother earlier this morning, told him that I loved him and I support him and that I would be there for him and
his family,” said Cicilline.
With staff reports from Daniel Barbarisi and Amanda Milkovits
Suspect claims police setup
01:00 AM EDT on Wednesday, July 4, 2007
By W. Zachary Malinowski
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE — An accused crack-cocaine dealer has alleged that Mayor David N. Cicilline’s brother and
members of the Providence Police Department conspired to set him up and take more than $200,000 from him
and his partner.
During a two-day hearing in U.S. District Court, Khalid Mason, who faces three counts of possessing and
distributing crack cocaine, claimed that the Providence police planted the drugs in his apartment and that lawyer
John N. Cicilline, the mayor’s older brother, vowed to make the criminal charges go away if Mason and his
codefendant, Derek W. Isom, each paid him $100,000.
Mason said that Cicilline worked with Lisa Torres, a paralegal/interpreter in his law office, and a Providence police
detective. He testified that Torres told him: “We can make this all go away if you give us the money.”
The allegations surfaced at a suppression hearing before Judge William E. Smith in which Mason’s lawyer,
Michael J. Connolly, of Boston, subpoenaed Cicilline, Torres, Mason and several other witnesses.
The allegations have infuriated the Providence police who privately say that Mason, a felon, has no credibility and
should not be offered a public forum to tarnish the reputation of its officers.
Deputy Chief Paul Kennedy, who attended yesterday’s hearing with Col. Dean Esserman, said they cannot
comment until the proceedings conclude. Three more witnesses are scheduled to testify on July 11.
“I look forward to commenting at the end,” Kennedy said.
If Judge Smith believes Mason and his witnesses, he could suppress some, or all, of the evidence against him
and Isom. Without enough evidence, the case against both men would unravel.
Cicilline and Torres both took the stand but invoked their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. They
refused to answer any questions because they are under indictment on federal charges in Boston for allegedly
participating in a similar scheme. In that case, Cicilline, Torres and lawyer Joseph A. Bevilacqua Jr., the son of the
late Rhode Island Supreme Court Chief Justice Joseph A. Bevilacqua, were charged with plotting to collect
$150,000 from drug-dealer clients to manipulate the criminal-justice system.
Juan A. Giraldo, a paralegal and interpreter for both lawyers, was also charged in the scheme. They have all
entered not guilty pleas and are awaiting trial.
The Mason case is not connected to the federal case in Boston, but the allegations are strikingly similar.
Mason, according to his testimony and court documents, alleged that after he was arrested with Isom on drug
charges in January 2004, he hired Cicilline and his father, John F. Cicilline, to defend them.
Torres, he said, demanded a $25,000 cash retainer fee.
He also said that Torres explained to him that she and Cicilline would work with Providence police Detective Scott
A. Partridge “to resolve things for him and Isom,” and she referred to the officer as “Scotty.”
Mason said he spoke with Cicilline several times and told him that he would be taking him to see the New
England Patriots play in the Super Bowl in 2004 and that they would “figure out a way to take care of things.”
After the Super Bowl, Mason said that Cicilline told him that he had taken Partridge to the game and that they had
discussed the cases against him and Isom. Cicilline, he said, told him that they would need to come up with
$100,000 each “to make things go away.”
Mason said he refused to pay the money and demanded the $25,000 retainer fee back. He also threatened to go
to the police if the money was not returned. He said that Torres returned $15,000. She said the other $10,000 was
used to take Partridge to the Super Bowl and for other work she and Cicilline had done “on their behalf with law
enforcement.”
Partridge, now a sergeant, took the stand over the course of two days and vehemently denied the allegations. He
said that he did not attend the 2004 Super Bowl with Cicilline or anyone else. He said that he met Torres once, in
summer 2005, in a parking lot on Reservoir Avenue where she was meeting with several Providence detectives.
He said he did not know what the meeting was about. He said that he never talked to her before or since.
Connolly, Mason’s lawyer, grilled Partridge about surveillance that he and other members of the Providence police
conducted in December 2003 and January 2004, outside Mason’s apartment at 214 Pavilion Ave., in Providence;
and Isom’s apartment at 85 Dunnell Ave., in Pawtucket.
Partridge conceded that he did not make note of the surveillance work in investigative reports. He also took
umbrage at the suggestion that he or anyone else from the Providence police planted the drugs in either
apartment.
“I’m insulted by the accusation, your honor,” he said.
During cross-examination, Sandra Beckner, a federal prosecutor, attacked Mason’s credibility and pointed out that
he had past convictions for drug possession and for shooting someone in 1999.
“I’m no angel,” he said. “I’ve done some bad things in my life, but I never killed nobody.”
Mason conceded that he never met Cicilline, Torres or Partridge. He also said that he never “saw or heard”
Cicilline or Torres talk to Partridge. Beckner accused him of fabricating a story to avoid a lengthy prison term on
the pending drug charges. She also accused him of concocting the story after Cicilline was indicted in Boston.
“Your real complaint is that your $25,000 wasn’t working,” she said.
Beckner’s pointed questioning unnerved Mason.
“My real problem is that there isn’t an honest person in the Providence Police Department,” he shot back. “I’m not
jumping on no bandwagon in here.”
Mason disappeared after his arrest in January 2004. He assumed a new identity and remained a fugitive until
federal marshals arrested him in Ledyard, Conn., last fall.
bmalinow@projo.com
01:00 AM EST on Saturday, January 6, 2007
By Mike Stanton
Journal Staff Writer
BOSTON — John M. Cicilline and Joseph A. Bevilacqua Jr., two names prominent among Rhode Island criminal-
defense lawyers, were charged in federal court yesterday with scheming to collect $150,000 from drug-dealer
clients to manipulate the criminal-justice system.
Cicilline, the brother of Providence Mayor David N. Cicilline, and Bevilacqua, the son of the late Rhode Island
Supreme Court Chief Justice Joseph A. Bevilacqua, were charged, along with two legal assistants, with
conspiracy, obstruction of justice and making false statements to federal authorities.
The 21-page indictment, unsealed yesterday, alleges that the lawyers conspired with interpreters/paralegals Juan
A. Giraldo and Lisa Torres to provide the authorities with information about other drug dealers, which would then
be used to bargain for more-lenient sentences for their clients.
In return, a husband and wife whom Cicilline and Bevilacqua defended in a federal drug and money-laundering
case in Boston, John and Jacqueline Mendonca, allegedly gave them $115,000 between late 2002 and early
2004. (The remaining $35,000 sought was never paid, according to the indictment.)
Giraldo, a former interpreter, investigator and confidant of Cicilline’s and Bevilacqua’s, has been described by a
federal prosecutor as a high-level drug dealer and by a judge as someone who “played the system.” Giraldo, who
lived near Bevilacqua in an upscale East Greenwich development and owned a vacation condo in Cancun, Mexico,
is serving a federal prison term of nearly six years after pleading guilty two years ago to charges of cocaine
trafficking and tax evasion.
The indictment yesterday caps a long-running investigation, one that authorities say continues.
“Today’s charges should make it clear that justice is not for sale,” U.S. Attorney Michael J. Sullivan said in a
statement. “It is especially troubling that these allegations involve lawyers — who are expected to hold to the
highest ethical standards and conduct themselves with honesty and integrity.”
Torres, 39, of Cranston, was arrested at T.F. Green Airport about midnight Thursday as she returned home on a
flight from the Dominican Republic. She was held without bail.
Cicilline, 49, of Cranston, learned that there was a warrant for his arrest yesterday morning and drove to Boston to
surrender.
Bevilacqua, 57, was just 12 days away from completing an 18-month federal prison sentence for leaking a
confidential FBI videotape to Rhode Island TV newsman Jim Taricani, a conviction that led to his disbarment.
Bevilacqua had been in home confinement, and was taken into custody about noon yesterday after arriving at a
new work-release job in Rhode Island; he was taken to the Barnstable County Correctional Facility in
Massachusetts and is expected to be arraigned Monday.
Giraldo, 41, is in a federal prison in Youngstown, Ohio, and will be arraigned later.
Digital Extra
Read the indictment against Bevilacqua, Cicilline and their two co-defendants All four were charged with
conspiracy. Cicilline and Torres were also charged with obstruction, Cicilline with two counts of making false
statements and Torres with one count of making false statements. Obstruction carries a maximum prison term of
10 years; the other charges a maximum 5 years and $250,000 fine.
Late yesterday afternoon, Cicilline stood before the judge and pleaded not guilty. He was released on $10,000
unsecured bond.
Afterward, flanked by his lawyer, Richard M. Egbert, and his father and law partner, John F. Cicilline Jr., Cicilline
walked out of the courthouse and through a gauntlet of news photographers, declining comment.
The road to indictment for Cicilline and Bevilacqua began in the summer of 2002, with a celebrated drug bust
outside a Motel 6 in Warwick.
Federal agents and local police seized more than $1.3 million in cash and nearly 5 pounds of marijuana from
John C. Mendonca, who gave addresses in Warwick and Fall River. Mendonca and his wife, Jacqueline, were
arrested, as he tried to flee in a taxi.
The Mendoncas, subsequently indicted in Boston, hired Bevilacqua and Cicilline to defend them.
In November 2002, Bevilacqua met with John Mendonca at the Plymouth County House of Correction. According to
yesterday’s indictment, Bevilacqua “told him that for a payment of several hundred thousand dollars, he ... could
keep John Mendonca out of jail.”
In December 2002, the indictment says, Bevilacqua and Giraldo met with Mendonca again and said that in return
for an “up front” payment of $100,000, they would provide information about “a large drug bust” that Mendonca
could pass on to federal authorities to help win a lighter sentence.
Later that month, Giraldo allegedly went to the home of Mendonca’s mother and collected $70,000 in cash from
her and $30,000 in checks made out to Bevilacqua, Giraldo and two unidentified Giraldo associates. Giraldo told
the mother that with this payment, her son “would get out of jail,” the indictment alleges.
In June 2003, with Mendonca still incarcerated and awaiting trial, Cicilline allegedly told Jacqueline Mendonca that
he had spoken to Bevilacqua and Giraldo about the $100,000 payment and “reassured her that Juan Giraldo
would provide information on drug activity that she and her husband would pass on to the DEA as their own in
order to get a sentence reduction.”
But in November 2003, the indictment says, Cicilline asked Jacqueline for another $50,000, telling his client that
he would show the money to Bevilacqua and Giraldo to induce them to provide the promised information about
other drug dealers.
The indictment suggests, however, that while the Mendoncas continued to discuss the scheme to win leniency,
they also began working with the authorities against their defense lawyers.
Starting with a Dec. 1, 2003, meeting that Jacqueline had with Cicilline, Bevilacqua and Giraldo in their Providence
law office, the indictment quotes several conversations that were secretly recorded by the Mendoncas, and even by
the federal prosecutor dealing with Cicilline on the case.
At that meeting, Jacqueline pressed the men to deliver what they had promised or return the $100,000. Giraldo
told her that they would have to come up with information to help the feds make three or four drug cases to earn a
reduced sentence.
“Right. The more the merrier,” says Cicilline, according to the indictment.
On Jan. 11, 2004, Bevilacqua visited John Mendonca in jail and allegedly told him that he would be “getting credit
for a 900-pound marijuana bust that Juan Giraldo had arranged,” according to the indictment, plus another 1,000-
pound marijuana bust that Giraldo was in the process of arranging. Giraldo had gone to Mexico, Bevilicqua
allegedly said, to “initiate” the marijuana deal.
On March 5, 2004, Cicilline allegedly told Jacqueline Mendonca that he would help her misrepresent the truth to
get credit for helping the authorities make a “50-kilogram cocaine bust” — “Juan’s probably got that by truck this
weekend . . . We just want to make it believable.”
In another meeting, Bevilacqua allegedly told Jacqueline, “Don’t you see what [Giraldo] did with some of the
money? ... He gave it up, and he set somebody up with 900 pounds of pot ... That’s what he does.”
The indictment also accuses Cicilline, Bevilacqua and Giraldo of pressuring the Mendoncas to plead guilty so that
they could get credit for the bogus information on other drug deals. In one jailhouse meeting, Cicilline and Giraldo
allegedly told Mendonca that they had recently “gotten someone else credit” for a 500-kilo cocaine bust, but that
Mendonca would have to plead guilty to get a similar break.
Prior to a Sept. 8, 2004, meeting with the federal prosecutor on the Mendonca case, Cicilline allegedly met with
Jacqueline and Torres at the Barking Crab restaurant, next to the Boston courthouse, “to rehearse what they would
say.” The three then went into the courthouse and lied to the prosecutor, the indictment charges.
A few months later, in early 2005, the Mendoncas hired new lawyers, according to the court record. Last year, they
pleaded guilty. Documents in their case remained sealed, however, due to “ongoing legal proceedings and other
confidential matters.” They have yet to be sentenced.
Mendonca, who was released on $100,000 bail last fall and is on house arrest in Fall River, declined comment
yesterday when called by a reporter.
In the spring of 2004, while Giraldo was allegedly conspiring with Cicilline and Bevilaqua in the Mendonca case,
he became the target of a DEA investigation after an informant reported that he was selling large quantities of
cocaine.
The informant arranged to buy a kilogram of cocaine from Giraldo for $23,000, with the DEA and Providence police
monitoring the deal. Giraldo was later arrested. His lawyer, Jack Cicilline, disputed that he was a major drug
dealer, attributing his prosperity to his hard work as an interpreter and his success at the blackjack tables at
Foxwoods. John M. Cicilline defended Giraldo as “a good guy ... a friend.”
Yesterday, in a news conference at Providence City Hall, David Cicilline, who worked in the law office with his
brother and father before running for mayor, said that he knew Giraldo, but that Giraldo didn’t work for him.“I spoke
to my brother earlier this morning, told him that I loved him and I support him and that I would be there for him and
his family,” said Cicilline.
With staff reports from Daniel Barbarisi and Amanda Milkovits
Suspect claims police setup
01:00 AM EDT on Wednesday, July 4, 2007
By W. Zachary Malinowski
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE — An accused crack-cocaine dealer has alleged that Mayor David N. Cicilline’s brother and
members of the Providence Police Department conspired to set him up and take more than $200,000 from him
and his partner.
During a two-day hearing in U.S. District Court, Khalid Mason, who faces three counts of possessing and
distributing crack cocaine, claimed that the Providence police planted the drugs in his apartment and that lawyer
John N. Cicilline, the mayor’s older brother, vowed to make the criminal charges go away if Mason and his
codefendant, Derek W. Isom, each paid him $100,000.
Mason said that Cicilline worked with Lisa Torres, a paralegal/interpreter in his law office, and a Providence police
detective. He testified that Torres told him: “We can make this all go away if you give us the money.”
The allegations surfaced at a suppression hearing before Judge William E. Smith in which Mason’s lawyer,
Michael J. Connolly, of Boston, subpoenaed Cicilline, Torres, Mason and several other witnesses.
The allegations have infuriated the Providence police who privately say that Mason, a felon, has no credibility and
should not be offered a public forum to tarnish the reputation of its officers.
Deputy Chief Paul Kennedy, who attended yesterday’s hearing with Col. Dean Esserman, said they cannot
comment until the proceedings conclude. Three more witnesses are scheduled to testify on July 11.
“I look forward to commenting at the end,” Kennedy said.
If Judge Smith believes Mason and his witnesses, he could suppress some, or all, of the evidence against him
and Isom. Without enough evidence, the case against both men would unravel.
Cicilline and Torres both took the stand but invoked their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. They
refused to answer any questions because they are under indictment on federal charges in Boston for allegedly
participating in a similar scheme. In that case, Cicilline, Torres and lawyer Joseph A. Bevilacqua Jr., the son of the
late Rhode Island Supreme Court Chief Justice Joseph A. Bevilacqua, were charged with plotting to collect
$150,000 from drug-dealer clients to manipulate the criminal-justice system.
Juan A. Giraldo, a paralegal and interpreter for both lawyers, was also charged in the scheme. They have all
entered not guilty pleas and are awaiting trial.
The Mason case is not connected to the federal case in Boston, but the allegations are strikingly similar.
Mason, according to his testimony and court documents, alleged that after he was arrested with Isom on drug
charges in January 2004, he hired Cicilline and his father, John F. Cicilline, to defend them.
Torres, he said, demanded a $25,000 cash retainer fee.
He also said that Torres explained to him that she and Cicilline would work with Providence police Detective Scott
A. Partridge “to resolve things for him and Isom,” and she referred to the officer as “Scotty.”
Mason said he spoke with Cicilline several times and told him that he would be taking him to see the New
England Patriots play in the Super Bowl in 2004 and that they would “figure out a way to take care of things.”
After the Super Bowl, Mason said that Cicilline told him that he had taken Partridge to the game and that they had
discussed the cases against him and Isom. Cicilline, he said, told him that they would need to come up with
$100,000 each “to make things go away.”
Mason said he refused to pay the money and demanded the $25,000 retainer fee back. He also threatened to go
to the police if the money was not returned. He said that Torres returned $15,000. She said the other $10,000 was
used to take Partridge to the Super Bowl and for other work she and Cicilline had done “on their behalf with law
enforcement.”
Partridge, now a sergeant, took the stand over the course of two days and vehemently denied the allegations. He
said that he did not attend the 2004 Super Bowl with Cicilline or anyone else. He said that he met Torres once, in
summer 2005, in a parking lot on Reservoir Avenue where she was meeting with several Providence detectives.
He said he did not know what the meeting was about. He said that he never talked to her before or since.
Connolly, Mason’s lawyer, grilled Partridge about surveillance that he and other members of the Providence police
conducted in December 2003 and January 2004, outside Mason’s apartment at 214 Pavilion Ave., in Providence;
and Isom’s apartment at 85 Dunnell Ave., in Pawtucket.
Partridge conceded that he did not make note of the surveillance work in investigative reports. He also took
umbrage at the suggestion that he or anyone else from the Providence police planted the drugs in either
apartment.
“I’m insulted by the accusation, your honor,” he said.
During cross-examination, Sandra Beckner, a federal prosecutor, attacked Mason’s credibility and pointed out that
he had past convictions for drug possession and for shooting someone in 1999.
“I’m no angel,” he said. “I’ve done some bad things in my life, but I never killed nobody.”
Mason conceded that he never met Cicilline, Torres or Partridge. He also said that he never “saw or heard”
Cicilline or Torres talk to Partridge. Beckner accused him of fabricating a story to avoid a lengthy prison term on
the pending drug charges. She also accused him of concocting the story after Cicilline was indicted in Boston.
“Your real complaint is that your $25,000 wasn’t working,” she said.
Beckner’s pointed questioning unnerved Mason.
“My real problem is that there isn’t an honest person in the Providence Police Department,” he shot back. “I’m not
jumping on no bandwagon in here.”
Mason disappeared after his arrest in January 2004. He assumed a new identity and remained a fugitive until
federal marshals arrested him in Ledyard, Conn., last fall.
bmalinow@projo.com
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2004 SuperBowl
| Christopher Young (Democrat) Candidate for The United States Senate |