Post by WaTcHeR on Feb 9, 2007 12:05:41 GMT -5
PROVIDENCE — As the jury forewoman repeated “not guilty” three times, East Providence Police Officer Eric Lewis gazed back at his mother, wife and sister yesterday and let out a long, deep sigh.
The 32-year-old Cumberland resident was charged with filing a false police report for a Waterman Avenue traffic stop last February. His report stated that the driver he pulled over, Robert J. Fonseca, a 2005 East Providence High School graduate, “jabbed the blade of a four-inch, black butterfly knife straight out the window” toward Lewis.
The department’s internal affairs division believed Lewis submitted the report knowing it contained false and erroneous statements. Lewis was found guilty in District Court, Providence, a few months ago, but he appealed to Superior Court.
The jury of 12, as well as 2 alternates, heard witnesses testify and viewed evidence for five days before deliberating. They came back to Judge Robert J. Krause’s courtroom with a not-guilty verdict in four hours.
Police Capt. Walter Barlow, who led the city’s investigation, declined comment afterward. Dawson Hodgson and Pamela Chin, the special assistants to the attorney general who prosecuted for the state, said they could not comment.
“I feel very good, very believed, vindicated,” Lewis said embracing his wife, Shannon. “I never did anything wrong. I was doing my job, protecting the citizens of East Providence. ”
He was suspended without pay after the District Court verdict in November. Before that, he had been suspended with pay since May.
His lawyers — Gary T. Gentile, of Warwick, and Joseph W. Monahan III, of Cambridge, Mass. — suggested that the department sided with the “so-called victim” because of a pending civil lawsuit Fonseca’s family has against the city. The Fonseca family says the police played a role in the death of Robert Fonseca’s mother, Lucy.
Lucy Fonseca was killed in a motor-vehicle crash in August 2001, when a bar-hopping drunk driver attempted to elude the police in a stolen vehicle. As many as four cruisers followed the suspect at speeds up to 75 mph during the beginning of the chase.
The police previously said officers broke off before Michael Glynn — who was convicted in 2004 and sentenced to 22 years in prison — struck Fonseca’s car, which was stopped at a red light at North Broadway and Greenwood Avenue. The crash killed Fonseca instantly. Robert, who was 14 at the time, suffered serious injuries to his head and leg. He remained in a coma for nine days and in the hospital for weeks after that. He did not know of his mother’s death until long after her burial.
“Officer Lewis didn’t know [Robert Fonseca],” Monahan said in opening statements during Lewis’ trial. “… He didn’t have an ax to grind.”
After the verdict was read, Lewis’ mother, Marilyn Lewis, embraced her son and tried to hug everyone near her.
His acquittal means Lewis is immediately reinstated to the police force. The city also must issue him a check for back pay. Lewis said his annual salary is about $48,000, without overtime, therefore the amount owed to him is about $7,000 to $8,000.
“I knew justice would be served,” Marilyn Lewis said. “... We always believed in him. We knew he was right. He’s a good cop.”
Shannon Lewis said her husband always knew he wanted to be an officer. She said it was his dream. He joined his hometown police force in 2003 after a stint with the North Kingstown Police Department.
Yet, when asked whether he would return as an officer in East Providence, Eric Lewis said, “I don’t know…. I was confronted with a life-threatening situation, and the department, my department, didn’t back me up.”
www.projo.com/news/content/EB_EPROVTRIAL9_02-09-07_H84BLM7.18cbfa0.html
The 32-year-old Cumberland resident was charged with filing a false police report for a Waterman Avenue traffic stop last February. His report stated that the driver he pulled over, Robert J. Fonseca, a 2005 East Providence High School graduate, “jabbed the blade of a four-inch, black butterfly knife straight out the window” toward Lewis.
The department’s internal affairs division believed Lewis submitted the report knowing it contained false and erroneous statements. Lewis was found guilty in District Court, Providence, a few months ago, but he appealed to Superior Court.
The jury of 12, as well as 2 alternates, heard witnesses testify and viewed evidence for five days before deliberating. They came back to Judge Robert J. Krause’s courtroom with a not-guilty verdict in four hours.
Police Capt. Walter Barlow, who led the city’s investigation, declined comment afterward. Dawson Hodgson and Pamela Chin, the special assistants to the attorney general who prosecuted for the state, said they could not comment.
“I feel very good, very believed, vindicated,” Lewis said embracing his wife, Shannon. “I never did anything wrong. I was doing my job, protecting the citizens of East Providence. ”
He was suspended without pay after the District Court verdict in November. Before that, he had been suspended with pay since May.
His lawyers — Gary T. Gentile, of Warwick, and Joseph W. Monahan III, of Cambridge, Mass. — suggested that the department sided with the “so-called victim” because of a pending civil lawsuit Fonseca’s family has against the city. The Fonseca family says the police played a role in the death of Robert Fonseca’s mother, Lucy.
Lucy Fonseca was killed in a motor-vehicle crash in August 2001, when a bar-hopping drunk driver attempted to elude the police in a stolen vehicle. As many as four cruisers followed the suspect at speeds up to 75 mph during the beginning of the chase.
The police previously said officers broke off before Michael Glynn — who was convicted in 2004 and sentenced to 22 years in prison — struck Fonseca’s car, which was stopped at a red light at North Broadway and Greenwood Avenue. The crash killed Fonseca instantly. Robert, who was 14 at the time, suffered serious injuries to his head and leg. He remained in a coma for nine days and in the hospital for weeks after that. He did not know of his mother’s death until long after her burial.
“Officer Lewis didn’t know [Robert Fonseca],” Monahan said in opening statements during Lewis’ trial. “… He didn’t have an ax to grind.”
After the verdict was read, Lewis’ mother, Marilyn Lewis, embraced her son and tried to hug everyone near her.
His acquittal means Lewis is immediately reinstated to the police force. The city also must issue him a check for back pay. Lewis said his annual salary is about $48,000, without overtime, therefore the amount owed to him is about $7,000 to $8,000.
“I knew justice would be served,” Marilyn Lewis said. “... We always believed in him. We knew he was right. He’s a good cop.”
Shannon Lewis said her husband always knew he wanted to be an officer. She said it was his dream. He joined his hometown police force in 2003 after a stint with the North Kingstown Police Department.
Yet, when asked whether he would return as an officer in East Providence, Eric Lewis said, “I don’t know…. I was confronted with a life-threatening situation, and the department, my department, didn’t back me up.”
www.projo.com/news/content/EB_EPROVTRIAL9_02-09-07_H84BLM7.18cbfa0.html