"School panel to consider display of prayer
The School Committee has been asked to remove a prayer displayed for decades in a high school auditorium. The American Civil Liberties Union seeks removal of the banner with the prayer, saying it violates the First Amendment. After hearing arguments on the issue Monday, the School Committee named a subcommittee to recommend a course of action. The banner starts with the words “Our Heavenly Father’’ and encourages students to do their best in school (AP)."
"5 candidates to square off at forum
Four Democrats and one Republican who hope to succeed Patrick Kennedy in Congress will meet in a forum in Newport tonight. The Newport County Chamber of Commerce and The Newport Daily News are cosponsoring the forum at Community College of Rhode Island’s Newport campus. Jody Sullivan, executive director of the Chamber of Commerce, said the candidates are state Representative John Loughlin, a Republican, and four Democrats: Mayor David N. Cicilline of Providence; Bill Lynch, former state party chairman; state Representative David Segal; and businessman Anthony Gemma. (AP)."
Related: 1st attack ad airs in R.I. race
"Search ends for man feared drowned
The search ended yesterday for a 25-year-old Massachusetts man who fell into the water off Narragansett, R.I., Sunday. Several Coast Guard crews, including a cutter, a 45-foot boat, and a Falcon jet, covered more than 1,200 square miles searching for the man, the Coast Guard said, but no sign of him had been found by 6 p.m. yesterday. The Coast Guard received a report about 2 p.m. Sunday that four people had fallen into the water, said Petty Officer Connie Terrell, a Coast Guard spokeswoman. Three were rescued, two of whom were taken to a hospital. The missing man was not identified."
Four Democrats and one Republican who hope to succeed Patrick Kennedy in Congress will meet in a forum in Newport tonight. The Newport County Chamber of Commerce and The Newport Daily News are cosponsoring the forum at Community College of Rhode Island’s Newport campus. Jody Sullivan, executive director of the Chamber of Commerce, said the candidates are state Representative John Loughlin, a Republican, and four Democrats: Mayor David N. Cicilline of Providence; Bill Lynch, former state party chairman; state Representative David Segal; and businessman Anthony Gemma. (AP)."
Related: 1st attack ad airs in R.I. race
"Search ends for man feared drowned
The search ended yesterday for a 25-year-old Massachusetts man who fell into the water off Narragansett, R.I., Sunday. Several Coast Guard crews, including a cutter, a 45-foot boat, and a Falcon jet, covered more than 1,200 square miles searching for the man, the Coast Guard said, but no sign of him had been found by 6 p.m. yesterday. The Coast Guard received a report about 2 p.m. Sunday that four people had fallen into the water, said Petty Officer Connie Terrell, a Coast Guard spokeswoman. Three were rescued, two of whom were taken to a hospital. The missing man was not identified."
"Mother and son admit extorting money
For the St. Laurents clan, crime is truly a family business. Dorothy St. Laurent, 71, and her son Anthony St. Laurent, Jr., 44, both admitted in US District Court in Providence yesterday that they extorted money from bookies operating in Taunton, Mass., at the behest of the family patriarch, Anthony St. Laurent Sr. The elder St. Laurent, according to federal authorities, is a longtime “made member’’ of the Patriarca organized crime family based in Rhode Island. He is being held pending trial on a charge of solicitation to commit murder for hire and for participating in the protection racket, officials said. The elder St. Laurent was the strategist, while his wife was the “primary collection agent’’ and their son was the enforcer, who not only threatened to harm reluctant bookies, but did so on at least one occasion, federal officials said."
"Work to replace bridge set to begin today
The Chestnut Hill Road Bridge in Glocester will close today for about a year as a new span is built over the Chepachet River. The state Department of Transportation says the 102-year-old span is structurally deficient because of deteriorated steel girders. The bridge was last rehabilitated in 1954. In the $1.2 million project, a replacement spillway structure adjacent to the bridge also will be built and wetlands will be restored (AP)."
Also see: R.I. hospital receives $15m gift
R.I. loan to 38 Studios pushed back
Schilling’s company signs Providence lease
US to give R.I. $13m more in flood aid
Pair rescued after abandoning boat
Child, 9, dies in R.I. after van, car collide
Teen faces more charges after fatal crash
Smoky house fire kills two residents
Stanley Black & Decker factory closing
Thermo Fisher shutting plant in Rhode Island
Thermo Fisher rises on buyback plan
Another rising in Rhode Island:
"Officer to be sentenced for rape at station
A suspended Providence police officer convicted in April of raping a woman while on duty is scheduled to be sentenced this week. Prosecutors said Marcus Huffman picked up the woman outside a club where she was turned away for being intoxicated, then drove her to the nearby substation and raped her. Huffman’s lawyer argued at trial that any sexual contact that occurred was consensual (AP).'
PROVIDENCE — A suspended Providence police officer who raped a woman inside an empty police substation, then responded to her family’s 911 call, was sentenced yesterday to 40 years in prison by a judge who called his actions “something out of a horror movie.’’
Marcus Huffman, 40, was convicted of first-degree sexual assault for the March 2007 rape of a woman he picked up outside a Providence nightclub while on duty. Prosecutors say that the woman was drunk at the time and physically helpless and that Huffman offered her a ride home but drove her to a substation, raped her, and left her on the bathroom floor.
The woman walked to her aunt’s house, and after her family called 911 to report the attack, Huffman was among the officers who responded. Prosecutors say he never mentioned he had encountered her earlier.
“That is something out of a horror movie,’’ contended Superior Court Judge Netti Vogel, who said Huffman had tarnished the Police Department and described him as a “wolf in sheep’s clothing.’’
Huffman, who joined the force in 1994 and has been suspended without pay, tearfully apologized in court to the woman, his family, and to the Police Department for what he described as a lapse in judgment.
But he and his lawyer have maintained that no rape occurred and that the woman instead invited him into the substation bathroom and engaged in a consensual sex act with him.
The woman testified at trial that she is a lesbian, is not physically attracted to men, and never consented to sex with Huffman....
Huffman met the woman outside a Providence nightclub three years ago after she was turned away for being too drunk.
I swear nothing good ever came from drink.
Tests revealed she had a blood-alcohol level three times above the legal limit for driving.
Holy s***! She was PLOWED!!
Huffman was on duty and in a marked cruiser when he invited the woman into the car and told her he would take her home....
Besides his prison term, Huffman also faces a 20-year suspended sentence and 20 years of probation. He was ordered to undergo sex offender counseling and to register as a sex offender after he’s released from prison.
Going to see what life is like on the other side! Protect that bung hole, copper.
Prosecutor Maureen Keough said the woman was too traumatized to appear in court to address Huffman. She said the rape had left the woman, who was 19 at the time, afraid of police....
Then HOW COULD SHE BE DRINKING in a NIGHTCLUB?
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