PROVIDENCE — For the second time in a week, Superior Court Judge Susan E. McGuirl grilled a prosecutor about why the state delayed in turning over evidence related to the 2003 state police raid on a Narragansett Indian smoke shop.

“You have a duty to do more than prosecute a case. You have a duty to do justice,” said McGuirl, a former prosecutor. “And justice in this case or any case … is to provide the defendants with the information that they are entitled to.”

McGuirl will rule today on a request that the criminal cases against seven Narragansetts accused of resisting and fighting with the police during the raid be dismissed because the state disclosed evidence just days before the trial was to start last month. Defense lawyers said the state was “grossly negligent” in complying with pretrial discovery rules that require either side in a case to make timely disclosure of information the other side is entitled to. Those rules allow a judge to impose sanctions, if either party fails to comply.

“I would submit it’s almost a cavalier attitude in the state’s response to discovery,” said William P. Devereaux, who represents six tribal members. He asked that the court impose not guilty filings for each of the seven Narragansetts — if the cases were not dismissed — meaning the charges would essentially disappear if the defendants obey the law for a year.

McGuirl barraged Special Assistant Attorney General Pamela Chin about why the state disclosed evidence late and in some cases only after being subpoenaed by defense lawyers, who said they did so after growing concerned about missing statements.

“They’re not supposed to have to subpoena documents,” McGuirl said. “That’s not how it works. That’s not how it’s supposed to work.”

Chin defended her actions, explaining she had repeatedly asked the state police to submit all relevant material. She said she, too, was not aware of some of the hundreds of pages of documents turned over in the past several weeks. “In this case, it wasn’t an intentional nondisclosure,” she said.

She took full responsibility, but said she relied on Sgt. Donald Devine, case agent for the state police, to provide the information. The state police and the attorney general’s office are now working on a policy to avoid similar occurrences in the future, Chin said.

“If anything, this amounts to late discovery from the state’s perspective,” Chin said.

To which, McGuirl responded: “They got it because they subpoenaed it. You didn’t give it to them.”

After commenting on the judge’s demeanor during her argument, Chin got called to the bench. She then apologized for her statements.

Under questioning by the judge, about possible sanctions, Chin said the state had already been penalized when McGuirl granted a six-week delay in the trial start date after new evidence came to light last month. Many of the documents, she said, were not “substantially different” from those previously released. “This isn’t a trial by ambush,” she said.

Defense lawyers pressed for not guilty filings or dismissal — which McGuirl acknowledged was an extreme option. The state’s withholding of evidence had forced the “impoverished tribe” to spend thousands of dollars over the past month for information they were entitled to, they said. Devereaux estimated the tribe has spent more than $150,000 on legal costs.

“I would submit that a not-guilty filing does justice to the state of Rhode Island and the Narragansetts,” Devereaux said. “This trial is going to open up wounds that occurred 4½ years ago,” not to mention deeper wounds related to tribe’s treatment by the state throughout history, he said.

Imposing a not-guilty filing for a discovery violation would be unprecedented and could be appealed, Chin said. “It does not resolve the case on its merits.”

The state police executed a search warrant on the Narragansett smoke shop, at the governor’s order, on July 14, 2003, to stop the tribe from selling tax-free cigarettes. The raid disintegrated into a scuffle. Seven tribal members, including Chief Sachem Matthew Thomas, are awaiting trial Feb. 25 for misdemeanor charges related to the raid — if the trial proceeds.

kmulvane@projo.com