Police Log

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DISORDERLY CODUCT

Officers Parkinson and Cotoia responded to a John Street residence on December 22 around 12:47 a.m., the second call from the residence within a 10-minute interval, for a tenant dispute.

Arriving back on the scene, the officers spoke with the victim, who stated she was in her bedroom trying to sleep when the upstairs tenant, identified as Crystal Jordan, of 30 John Street Apt. #3 in Johnston, once again began banging on the floor and screaming. According to the report, the noise from upstairs had been ongoing for about two hours.

While speaking with the complainant at the threshold of her doorway, Jordan approached and again began yelling. While the officers attempted to calm Jordan down to obtain her version of events, she refused to stop her verbal harassment, began to yell louder and then began to come closer to the officers. She was instructed to stop yelling, but ignored the officers’ statements and continued to approach closer to the victim and increased her aggression towards the victim.

Due to Jordan repeatedly disobeying the officers’ verbal commands, she was arrested and taken into custody. Jordan was searched and then transported to police headquarters, where she was processed and charged with disorderly conduct.

SHOPLIFTING

Patrolman Remy Mendez responded to the Walgreens Pharmacy on Putnam Avenue on December 22 around 3 p.m. for a report of shoplifting that occurred earlier that day.

Officer Mendez spoke with the store manager, who stated that around 2 p.m. he noticed that the fragrance case had been left open. After looking through the case, he noticed several perfumes were missing.

The manager then reviewed the store’s security tapes and observed a white male wearing a green jacket, eyeglasses and blue jeans enter the store around 11 a.m. The suspect then approached the case on three separate occasions, where he took fragrances and then concealed them on his person. The man then left the store with merchandise valued at $514.90 and entered a white Ford Explorer.

A statement was taken from the store manager, who stated that the store wished to press charges, and an image of the suspect was obtained from the video surveillance. That suspect was later identified by Officer Protano as Roy Defusco, 52, of 31 Argonne Street, Apt. LKA in Johnston, who had several previous shoplifting convictions on his record. Defusco was also wanted by the Cranston Police Department for felony shoplifting and conspiracy. The report was then sent to the Detective Bureau for further investigation.

On December 24 at 3 p.m., Defusco was taken into custody by Detective Crosby at 20 Park Street and transported to headquarters. He was charged with felony shoplifting and being a habitual offender and was processed and held because of the time and the holiday.

Defusco was arraigned on December 26 before Justice of the Peace O’Brien and later transported to the ACI pending his court appearance.

FALSE PRETENSES

On November 23 just after 2 p.m., a victim responded to police headquarters in reference to money that was owed to him.

Officer Derek Parascandolo met with the complainant, who stated that on May 25 he had purchased 4,000 yards of loam, valued at $20,000, from AAA Loam located at 20 Simmonsville Avenue in Johnston. He advised that he paid the full amount owed for the loam in cash to the owner, identified as Nicola Ricci, 58, of the same above address.

Ricci then made and signed a printed invoice of the purchase, which the victim provided. According to the report, Ricci told the victim that he could come “anytime” to pick up the loam and that there was “no rush” to remove it from the property located at the end of Elks Drive, where it was stored.

The victim stated he contacted Ricci the week of November 23 to inform him he was having a company respond to Elks Drive to screen and remove the loam that he had purchased. The victim was then told that Ricci was very busy and not to have any equipment on his property without him being present.

A few days later, it was discovered that the purchased loam was no longer present on the Elks Drive property. At no time during the prior six months had Ricci contacted the purchaser to have him come and remove the loam. When Ricci was contacted about the loam and asked where it was, he replied, “I don’t have your loam or your money.”

The officer contacted Ricci regarding the matter, and he told the officer he would respond to police headquarters to complete a statement on his behalf, and the case was forwarded to the Investigative Division for further review.

Detective Steven Lopes attempted to contact Ricci on December 1 but was unsuccessful. Lopes then left a voice mail message advising Ricci to contact him to make arrangements to turn himself in on Monday, December 1 at 11 a.m. By December 6, however, several attempts to contact Ricci were still unsuccessful, and voice mail messages left for him remained unreturned. An arrest warrant for Ricci was then issued.

On January 3 around 8:30 a.m.  Ricci responded to police headquarters to turn himself in on the active arrest warrant. He was charged with a felony of obtaining money under false pretenses and transported to the Third District Court for arraignment.

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