Providence police pursue discipline for sergeant involved with assault on handcuffed man
CRANSTON − Late last year, a Providence police sergeant pleaded no contest to a charge of simple assault in a case brought by prosecutors who had accused him of kicking and punching a handcuffed man as the prisoner lay prone on the ground back in early 2020.
But Sgt. Joseph Hanley never gave up his hope to return to the job once again.
On Thursday, Hanley set out to defend himself from disciplinary charges that he faces under the Law Enforcement Officers' Bill of Rights.
The hearing will be the last such proceeding held under the 1976 version of the Bill of Rights, which calls for a hearing committee with 3 police officers, according to the lawyer representing the police department, Vincent F. Ragosta Jr.
The closed-door proceeding launched in the community room at Cranston's municipal court on Thursday. It is expected to take several days.
Hanley has been suspended since 2020, and without pay since late 2020.
After he made his plea in December, Superior Court Judge Melissa Darigan ordered him to serve a year of probation, which wasn't sufficient for some critics, including Harrison Tuttle, president of BLM RI PAC.
Tuttle called it "a profound dereliction of duty by the Rhode Island criminal justice system."
At the time, Hanley faced a third trial in Superior Court. An appellate proceeding in Superior Court, earlier in 2024, had led to a mistrial. Prior to that, in 2021, Hanley had been found guilty in District Court.
The conclusion of the legal case unfroze the city's pending action to fire Hanley.
Following the bench trial in District Court in 2021, Judge Brian Goldman found that Hanley had kicked and punched a 28-year-old man, Rishod Gore, as he lay handcuffed on a Federal Hill sidewalk in April 2020.
That initial trial came in the wake of 2020 protests, riots and unrest across the country following the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
At that point, prosecutors had dismissed the charges of disorderly conduct and resisting arrest that Gore had faced at the time of his arrest.
On the witness stand, Gore wore a "Black Lives Matter" mask.
Hanley's lawyer, Michael Colucci, argued that the sergeant's actions were within use-of-force standards and warranted to counter Gore's "active resistance."
When Goldman ruled in the matter, he said Hanley had kicked Gore in the side, punched him, put his knee on Gore's head and bounced up and down, kicked him in the head and walked on his legs.
He said he found each of the five strikes to Gore on April 19 'unreasonable, unnecessary and unlawful' under the law.
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Providence police Sgt. Joseph Hanley faces discipline for 2020 assault
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