R.I. man falsely arrested twice settles lawsuit with Woonsocket for $550,000

Boston Globe

25-07-2025

'I am grateful and thankful to God for making everything successful and am happy and glad justice has been done,' Blackie said in a statement.
Advertisement
In an email, Woonsocket City Solicitor Michael J. Lepizzera Jr. wrote 'city is pleased that the matter is behind Mr. Blackie, the officer involved and the Woonsocket Police Department.'
Get Rhode Island News Alerts
Sign up to get breaking news and interesting stories from Rhode Island in your inbox each weekday.
Enter Email
Sign Up
'The city wishes the best to both Mr. Blackie and its WPD officer,' Lepizzera wrote.
Related
:
According to the ACLU, an apartment in Woonsocket was broken into in August 2022, and a resident there, William Grover, told authorities the person who entered was known to him by the name, 'Black.'
'Later, officer Hammond met with Grover and asked multiple times if Mack Blackie was the perpetrator. Mr. Grover — who knew both 'Black' and Blackie — explicitly stated it was not Blackie, a Liberian, and even described the differences in physical characteristics between the two men,' the ACLU said.
Advertisement
Hammond then failed to set up a photo lineup as he had promised so Grover could identity 'Black,' according to the ACLU.
'Instead, Hammond falsely wrote in his witness statement that 'Grover positively identified the suspect male as being Mack Blackie,'' the organization said in a statement. 'Additionally, he later falsely stated in his application for an arrest warrant that Grover told another Woonsocket police officer that Blackie broke into the apartment. Blackie was arrested soon after.'
Blackie, who was homeless at the time and had a medical condition that required attention, was held overnight and collapsed in court, and then taken to a hospital for several days, the ACLU said. Several months later, he was re-arrested and charged with felony breaking and entering and assault, the organization said.
'Because he was on probation at the time, Blackie was incarcerated for 18 days without bail as a probation violator,' the ACLU said. 'When bail was finally set, he could not afford the $100 cash required for release, resulting in his continued incarceration for an extra 13 days, until an employee of a non-profit organization where he volunteered posted the money for his bail.'
Grover realized Woonsocket police arrested the wrong man when he saw Blackie in a courthouse hallway in February 2023 and he alerted the prosecutor, the ACLU said. The charges were dropped and Hammond was later suspended for 10 days and demoted.
'This was an inadvertent mistake by one WPD officer who failed to follow defined WPD protocol and procedures,' Lepizzera wrote on Thursday. 'This however did not involve intentional misconduct.
'Notably, the officer in question quickly acknowledged the shortcomings of his investigation and readily accepted responsibility,' Lepizzera added. 'Not only did he accept responsibility, but he voluntarily agreed to a demotion from detective to patrol officer.'
Advertisement
City police leaders and officials have previously acknowledged Blackie was wrongfully arrested and apologized to him in 2023.
'I want to give credit to the officer for acknowledging his mistake and quickly resolving any personnel issues that arose from this event,' Lepizzera wrote. 'For so many years we have heard public outcry across the state with respect to long drawn out disciplinary disputes involving police officers invoking the Law Enforcement Officers' Bill of Rights (LEOBOR). To his credit, this officer did not invoke his legal rights under LEOBOR and stayed the course by not only accepting responsibility with words but also by his actions.'
ACLU cooperating attorney Joshua Xavier said in a statement the case is 'a stark reminder that our government continues to fall short of living up to the promises guaranteed by our Constitution.'
'While this settlement brings some measure of accountability over the unlawful actions taken by the police against Mr. Blackie, nothing will ever remove the deep distress and psychological pain he suffered and continues to suffer as a result of being arrested twice, criminally charged, incarcerated, and prosecuted for crimes he did not commit, including a felony,' Xavier said. 'Mr. Blackie spent 31 days in prison — 31 days of his life that he will never get back.'
Material from a previous Globe story was used in this report.
Christopher Gavin can be reached at