Police Log

Posted 12/30/14

The Police Log is a digest of reports filed by the Warwick Police.

DUI AND REFUSAL

Officer Matthew Smith reports responding to an accident on Jefferson Boulevard around 1:50 a.m. on Dec. 14. He …

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Police Log

Posted

The Police Log is a digest of reports filed by the Warwick Police.

DUI AND REFUSAL

Officer Matthew Smith reports responding to an accident on Jefferson Boulevard around 1:50 a.m. on Dec. 14. He said one car was damaged beyond driving condition when he arrived, and he was told the other vehicle involved was on Lincoln Avenue.

The first driver reportedly said he pulled over to avoid being hit by a car coming over the yellow centerlines. He said he was hit anyway, and a woman was driving the car that hit him.

Smith said he found the woman around the corner and thought her voice and demeanor indicated she was under the influence of alcohol. He said he gave her a field sobriety test, which she failed. She was taken to headquarters, where she refused to take a breath test.

Lainie Vanesse, 23, of 24 Farnum Pike in Smithfield, was charged with DUI, refusal and operating a vehicle with no proof of insurance. She was later released to a sober adult.

Officer Matthew Moretti reports he was on patrol around 6:45 p.m. on Dec. 14 when he followed a car that was operating erratically on Airport Road and crossed the double yellow lines before it was stopped on Commerce Drive.

Moretti said the driver appeared to be drunk and smelled of alcohol. He said he gave the driver a field sobriety test, which the man failed. A portable breath test reportedly indicated a .176 blood alcohol content, and the driver was taken to headquarters, where he refused to take another breath test.

Antonio M. Pimentel, 46, of 48 Fairfield Drive in East Providence, was charged with DUI and refusal and later released to a sober adult.

Sgt. Stephen Fernandez reports he was heading north on Route 95 around 10:15 p.m. on Dec. 13 when he clocked a car doing 88 mph as it drifted across lanes and initiated a traffic stop.

Fernandez said the car pulled over near the Pawtuxet River Bridge. He said he could smell marijuana as he approached the vehicle. He said he told the driver why he was pulled over and the man then began to argue that his car could not go that fast, and reportedly said that Fernandez was not a state trooper and had no jurisdiction on the highway.

Fernandez said he asked the driver about the smell of marijuana, and the man reportedly said he had a medical marijuana card and showed it to him. The sergeant said he asked the man to take a field sobriety test, and the man reportedly began yelling and said he was in a hurry and had to leave. The sergeant said the man continually questioned his jurisdiction and claimed his car, a 2002 Mercury Mountaineer, could not go that fast.

Fernandez reports the driver eventually said, “This is stupid. It’s not like I was drinking. I only smoked.” He said the driver continued to yell and ignore instructions and was arrested for suspicion of DUI. The man was then taken to Kent Hospital, where he refused to submit to a blood test.

Gino J. Page, 19, of 2 Whispering Pines Court, West Warwick, was charged with DUI and refusal and later released to a sober adult.

CHILD PORN CHARGE

The Rhode Island State Police announced that on Monday the Rhode Island Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force arrested Joseph Bradshaw, 27, of 295 Love Lane in Warwick, on charges of possession and transfer of child pornography.

Task force members recently initiated an investigation of an individual trading images and videos of child pornography on the Internet. Police said the Internet connection at 295 Love Lane was identified as sharing child pornography, and the task force subsequently executed a search warrant at the residence. Bradshaw was identified as the owner of the digital media involved in the possession and transfer of child pornography, according to police.

Bradshaw was arraigned Monday morning in District Court. If found guilty on the possession charge, he could be fined as much as $5,000 and imprisoned for five years. He could be imprisoned not more than 15 years and fined $5,000 if convicted of transferring child porn.

The ICAC Task Force is comprised of members of the Rhode Island State Police Computer Crimes Unit and detectives from Warwick and other towns and cities in Rhode Island and agents from Homeland Security Investigations and U.S. Postal Inspection Services.

STOLEN WIRE

A North Providence contractor told police he recently won a contract to demolish a building at 757 Jefferson Boulevard with the stipulation that he could salvage anything of value as part of the deal. He said he was last in the building on Dec. 4 and everything was as it should be, but when he returned on Dec. 11 he found that someone had been in the building and stripped all of the electric boxes and conduits of copper wire and all of the copper pipes. He estimated that $65,000 worth of copper was taken from the building. There were no suspects or witnesses. Police said there were multiple ways that thieves could get into the building, the most likely being a one-and-a-half to two-foot gap between the garage door and the floor. The report was forwarded to detectives.

RESCUE ASSAULTED

Officer Randy Francis reports he was dispatched to Toll Gate Road and Commonwealth Avenue around 11:35 p.m. on Dec. 19 for a report of an assault in progress.

Francis said officers arrived in time to see two ambulances from West Warwick on the side of the road and several firefighters struggling with a man on the ground. He said he helped them get handcuffs on the man and strap him down on a stretcher. He said the man was extremely intoxicated.

The rescue workers told Francis they picked the man up at Boneheads Wing Bar on Washington Street and were taking him to Kent Hospital for detox when he slipped out of the restraints and began to pummel a rescue worker. There was another rescue truck following the first rescue, which pulled over to help subdue that man until police arrived.

Francis said the victim of the assault pressed charges and told police the assailant punched him three times in the face before he was subdued. The officer said there was swelling and bruising on the firefighter’s face.

Francis said they took the man to Kent, where he remained combative with the staff and was put in restraints while they treated him. He was later taken to headquarters, where he was processed.

Edwin J. Almanza, 55, of 10 St. John St. in West Warwick, was later released on $2,500 personal recognizance.

CREDIT CARD FRAUD

An Exeter woman told Warwick Police she was shopping at the Christmas Tree Shoppe on Quaker Lane on Dec. 17 and when she went for her wallet in her purse, strapped to the baby seat of the carriage, she found the wallet was missing. She said she checked her car and the wallet wasn’t there. She said she was in the store between 5:30 p.m. and 7 p.m. and called police from the store. She said she also called her husband, who called the credit card companies and learned that two $3,000 purchases at Target were made, along with a $2,400 purchase at Best Buy, three $300 purchases at TJ Maxx and a $3,030 purchase at a grocery store. The woman said she also had over $200 worth of gift cards in the wallet. Officer Eric Lima said the store was closed before he could get to it.

BAIL FRAUD

Police took yet another call about an elderly woman who was conned out of money by someone claiming her grandson was being held by police and needed $2,000 for bail.

The 88-year-old woman said she got a call around 2 p.m. on Dec. 11 from a man who put someone on the phone who claimed to be her grandson and told her to go to the CVS store and buy four Green Dot money cards for $500 each and then read the numbers to him over the phone. She told police she did what she was told and was charged an extra $4.95 for each of the cards.

She said she recited all the numbers for the person on the phone. She said she later called her grandson’s cell phone and learned she had been scammed. The report was forwarded to detectives.

LARCENIES

Four tires and rims worth $3,400 were reported taken from a Dodge Ram at Bald Hill Dodge on Dec. 11. There were no suspects or witnesses.

A FedEx package containing a $50 coffeemaker was reported taken from a house on Kilvert Street on Dec. 16. The owner told police it was due on Dec. 4, and he called Sam’s Club when it didn’t show up. They told him it was dropped off on Dec. 4 as scheduled and must have been taken from his property. There were no suspects or witnesses.

A Grandview Drive resident told police all the tools from his toolbox and the box itself were taken from the bed of his truck sometime overnight on Dec. 16. He said he normally kept the tools indoors but neglected to bring them in that night and they were gone by morning. He said they were worth $2,200. There were no suspects or witnesses.

CAUGHT SUSPECTS

Warwick Police have arrested two people in connection with the Dec. 26 bank robbery at the Citizens Bank on West Shore Road.

Michael Watts, 25, of North Kingstown, was taken into custody following a joint investigation between the Warwick and the North Kingstown police. Watts was arraigned at Warwick Police Headquarters and charged with second-degree robbery and conspiracy. He was remanded to the ACI on $50,000 surety bail.

North Kingstown Police took a second man, Andrew Feinstein, 26, also of North Kingstown, into custody. North Kingstown Police will be charging Feinstein with possession of heroin, and further charges related to the robbery are forthcoming by Warwick Police, who intend to charge Feinstein with second-degree robbery and conspiracy.

As part of the investigation, Warwick and North Kingstown detectives executed two search warrants, seized numerous pieces of evidence connecting the two to the crime and also recovered a quantity of U.S. currency related to the robbery.

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