Police Log

ARSON CHARGED

Johnston detectives reported going to a fire at 1 Yale Ave. around 8:15 p.m. on Oct. 24 to meet with Johnston firefighters after firefighters determined that the start of the fire in the unoccupied building was suspicious. Neighbors in the area also mentioned seeing a group of four juveniles behind the house who scattered in four different directions just before smoke was seen coming from the house. Patrolman James Provuncher said firefighters also reported finding empty alcohol bottles and said the fire apparently started in the basement. BCI personnel arrived to process the scene.

On Nov. 3, Patrolman Mario Mennella reported he was on his way to Auburn Street around 5:20 p.m. when he saw smoke and flames coming from the second floor of 87 Greenville Ave. He said he and another patrolman ran into the building looking to see if anyone was in there. He said he saw through the smoke that the house had no furniture or personal belongings just before firefighters arrived and began to put out the fire and learned later that it was a foreclosed property.

Det. Robert Lemieux said he was called to the scene by BCI personnel and met with Michael Sweeney, the chief investigator for the Rhode Island Fire Marshal. Sweeney informed him that a borrowed accelerant-sniffing dog from Connecticut located ignitable fluids on the second floor, which appeared to be the starting place for the fire. Sweeney also informed him that witnesses said a group of young people had been hanging out in front of 43 Lee St., a group that, Lemieux said, Johnston Police had prior contacts with. Lemieux said he had an interview with a juvenile that lead to an adult suspect who was interviewed on Nov. 5. He said Brian Rosa, 21, of 43 Lee St. told him that it was a 17-year-old juvenile male who lit a blanket on fire in the second floor of 87 Greenville after they stole copper piping from the abandoned property. Det. Brian Loffredi said Rosa also admitted breaking into the house at 1 Yale Ave. and taking only two pieces of copper before the juvenile gathered up all kinds of paper and set the basement on fire. Loffredi said Rosa told him the juvenile involved “has a problem with wanting to burn stuff.” Rosa and the 17-year-old were charged with breaking and entering, larceny, arson and conspiracy.

FINGERED SUSPECT

Patrolman James Provuncher reported going to a home on Hartford Avenue around 1:35 a.m. on Sept. 25 for a breaking and entering complaint. A woman told him she heard a noise outside her bedroom around 1 a.m. and it sounded like someone running down some stairs. She said she dismissed it as being her adult son returning home. She knew he had left the house about an hour earlier but her son knocked on her bedroom door several minutes later and told her he came home to find the back door open and assumed an animal had knocked it open and was roaming around inside and he went looking for it. He said that, instead of an animal, he found the house had been ransacked and there were items missing from the house, including $250 in cash, a $900 watch and a $100 camera from his room. He also said the dining room and his sister’s room had been ransacked but he was not sure if anything was missing. BCI detective Joshua Heywood came and lifted some latent prints from items in the house and, after eliminating residents’ prints, sent the other prints to the Rhode Island State Crime Laboratory. Heywood reported that on Oct. 22 he got word back from the crime lab that they located a suspect and they came back as those of Christopher D. Cole, 51, of 15 Whelan Rd. in Providence, with a criminal record dating to 1980. Det. Anthony Sasso reported that he went to the ACI, where Cole was being held as a probation violator stemming from a break-in in Smithfield on Oct. 5. He said neither the mother or the son who were the victims of the September break-in were familiar with Cole. Sasso said he and Detective Thomas Dwyer went to the ACI to speak with Cole but he refused and referred them to his public defender.

UNFOUNDED

On Oct. 30, a North Providence man told Patrolman Adam Parkinson he didn’t tell him what his real identity was because he was afraid there were some outstanding warrants out for him. Unfortunately for him, his persistence in not revealing his identity garnered him a charge of obstructing a police officer. Parkinson said he stopped a van that had been reported circling around the area of Shun Pike and Peck Hill Road around 1:30 p.m. He said the driver and passengers all had valid identification and had a reason to be in the area, except that one of the men told Parkinson his name was “Luis Vargas” but refused to give information that could be verified by BCI, IMC or the DMV and he was taken to headquarters and had his fingerprints taken and run through the AFIS system, which came back with a “hit” on Kenneth Perez, 23, of 59 Ledge St. Parkinson said he ran that name and, while he found at least nine prior arrests, he could find no outstanding warrants at that time. He was released with a summons for obstructing an officer.

SIMPLE ASSAULT

Patrolman Jeffrey Cicchitelli reported he went to the parking lot in front of Johnston High School for a report of a disturbance around 1:45 p.m. on Oct. 30. He said several people told him about a confrontation between a mother and her teenaged daughter and another girl. The other girl said she was in the lot after school when the mother pulled up and her daughter jumped out of the car and started screaming at her and attempted to hit her. She said the mother got out of the vehicle and grabbed her and appeared to want the girls to fight before the altercation was broken up. Cicchitelli said the mother, accused of the assault, was uncooperative and was insulting other people and interrupting him as he was trying to find out what happened. He said an independent witness told him that the mother grabbed and lifted the girl off the ground and appeared to be instigating a fight. He said he called the girl’s mother who said she would press charges on behalf of her child and Rosemary Calenda, 51, of 111 Manuel Ave. in Johnston was arrested and charged with simple assault and disorderly conduct. Cicchitelli said she was also told not to return to school property or she would be arrested for trespassing.

SOVEREIGN

Patrolman Remy Mendez reported stopping a car near 1400 Plainfield St. on Nov. 1 because both occupants were not wearing seat belts. When he explained why he stopped them, he said the driver informed him that he was “a sovereign citizen” and that Rhode Island law did not apply to him, which Mendez took to mean that he was one of those people who are, according to their own thinking, answerable to only “common law” and not statutes imposed by state, federal or municipal authorities. He said the driver also said it was not his car and he was not driving it. He also refused to identify himself. Mendez said running the plate number identified the driver as David A. Merola, 28, of 939 Atwood Ave., but Merola refused to show Mendez any paperwork. Nevertheless, Mendez learned Merola’s license was suspended and he was arrested for driving on a suspended license. Mendez also said that Merola refused to give his passenger, a licensed driver, his permission to drive the car, so a tow truck was called to remove it from the road. He said they also found two sharpened produce knives tucked between the driver’s seat and the console and a samurai sword in the back seat. He said Merola claimed he used the knives for work and the sword was a collector’s item. Mendez said Merola recorded the proceedings on a Sony voice recorder. He was charged with driving without a license and refusing to show evidence of registration, license or insurance for the car, and for not wearing seat belts. Det. James Brady reported that Merola was arraigned the next day and released on $1,000 personal recognizance (after identifying himself to the justice of the peace).