IAPE Evidence Blog

San Anto­nio Express-News, mysanantonio.com
BYLINE: LAURA CRIMALDI, Asso­ci­ated Press
Link to Article

North Prov­i­dence, RI

SCITUATE, R.I. (AP) — The police chief of North Prov­i­dence, R.I., was arrested Thurs­day by state police on felony charges that he stole more than $700 out a vehi­cle involved in a police chase and then asked police to cover it up.

Col. John J. Whit­ing was charged with lar­ceny over $500 and two counts of solic­i­ta­tion of obstruc­tion of jus­tice after being ques­tioned by inves­ti­ga­tors, said state police Col. Steven G. O’Donnell.

Whit­ing has been sus­pended with­out pay and is sched­uled to be arraigned later Thurs­day at state police head­quar­ters, offi­cials said.

Whit­ing, of North Attle­boro, Mass., is the fifth North Prov­i­dence offi­cial to face crim­i­nal charges in recent months. Three for­mer town coun­cil­men and a for­mer town solic­i­tor were sen­tenced to fed­eral prison ear­lier this year for their roles in a bribery and extor­tion scheme.

A woman who answered the phone at Whiting’s home and iden­ti­fied her­self as his wife said the sit­u­a­tion is a misunderstanding.

“My hus­band is a very hon­est man. You can­not find a bet­ter man than my hus­band,” she said.

“It’s dis­ap­point­ing,” said Mayor Charles A. Lom­bardi at a news con­fer­ence announc­ing Whiting’s arrest. “Some­times there are days that I think I just can’t catch a break. But we’ll move on.”

Whiting’s arrest won’t jeop­ar­dize the police department’s oper­a­tions, Lom­bardi said. Deputy Chief Paul M. Martellini will be tak­ing over, he said.

The 57-year-old Whit­ing was dri­ving to work in an unmarked police vehi­cle on Sun­day morn­ing in prepa­ra­tion for Trop­i­cal Storm Irene when he began pur­su­ing another vehi­cle, O’Donnell said. Whit­ing said some­one inside the car threw an object at his vehi­cle, O’Donnell said.

The pur­suit ended when the car crashed in Paw­tucket and the three occu­pants exited, O’Donnell said. Then, state police say, Whit­ing stole $714 from a purse left behind in the car.

O’Donnell said Whit­ing con­fessed what he did to a Paw­tucket offi­cer about an hour after the crash.

“The chief told him: ‘I’m about to tell you some­thing. I stole some money and I want to give it to you,’” O’Donnell quoted Whit­ing as saying.

Whit­ing asked the offi­cer “to cover it up and not to talk about it to any­body,” O’Donnell said. Whit­ing also asked Paw­tucket police Chief Paul King to fab­ri­cate evi­dence by request­ing the offi­cer return the $714 to the evi­dence room, O’Donnell said.

“There­fore, there would be no inves­ti­ga­tion,” O’Donnell said.

For­mer town coun­cil­men John Zam­barano, Joseph Burch­field and Ray­mond Dou­glas III are serv­ing fed­eral prison sen­tences for their roles in a bribery and extor­tion scan­dal. For­mer North Prov­i­dence Solic­i­tor Robert Ciresi is sched­uled to report to prison Tues­day to begin a 63-month sen­tence for his role in the scheme.

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