Defense lawyer William P. Devereaux gives closing arguments to the jury in the smokeshop trial yesterday. Devereaux represents six of the seven defendants.

>

The Providence Journal / Kathy Borchers

PROVIDENCE — Though yesterday marked four years, eight months and 17 days since the state police raided the Narragansett Indian tribe’s tax-free smoke shop, emotions surrounding that day’s events remain raw, and personal, as made clear in arguments in Superior Court, Providence.

To lawyers defending seven Narragansett Indians arrested as state police executed a search and seizure warrant, the timing and manner of the raid was motivated by money and intended to humiliate the tribe.

“It was to send a message — to put a fist down on the Narragansett Indians, to put a fist down on the smoke shop,” said William P. Devereaux, representing six tribe members on trial.

To prosecutors, the Narragansetts, led by Chief Sachem Matthew Thomas, willfully broke Rhode Island law and orchestrated the circumstances to embarrass the state police in the national and local media.

“He wanted a fight on his land, on his turf, and he got it,” Special Assistant Attorney General Maria Deaton said.

Jurors digested these radically different takes during closing arguments yesterday in the trial of the Narragansetts accused of resisting and fighting with state police during the raid. The jury heard from 25 witnesses over 16 days of testimony about issues ranging from state police e-mails that were alleged to be missing to the federal government recognizing the tribe as a sovereign nation in 1983. They watched hours of video that often filled the courtroom with screams from the dramatic scene.

After the Judge Susan E. McGuirl gives the jury instructions this morning, many jurors will begin deliberations bearing notebooks loaded with notes taken over the past five weeks.

The tribe began selling tax-free cigarettes on its land in Charlestown as a moneymaking endeavor July 12, 2003, over Governor Carcieri’s objections. Dozens of state police executed a warrant two days later to stop the sale of tax-free tobacco from the roadside shop.

Federal courts have ruled the state police had the authority to execute the warrant and seize cigarettes that day. Now the jury must decide whether seven Narragansetts are guilty of misdemeanor crimes of resisting arrest, disorderly conduct and simple assault related to the confrontation.

Kevin J. Bristow, representing tribe conservation officer Thawn Harris, faulted the raid as an overly aggressive action intended to send the tribe a message. Why else wouldn’t the state pursue the issue in court, execute the raid in the early morning or take statements from civilian witnesses at the scene? he asked.

The only explanation, he said, is “This is politically motivated action by law enforcement at the direction of the commander in chief, the governor of the state.”

Over three hours, he and Devereaux challenged the credibility of some of the 13 troopers to testify, arguing their accounts were inconsistent, unbelievable and scripted. “Why can’t they give you a consistent account … if it’s the truth?” Bristow said. “That’s the problem with not telling the truth.”

In particular, Bristow honed in on Trooper Ann Assumpico, Sgt. Douglas Newberg and Detective Joseph Philbin, who placed Harris under arrest after allegedly seeing him hit Assumpico. All testified to events not clearly evident in photos or video. Harris, 29, is charged with resisting arrest.

Devereaux took it a step further, accusing state police of using excessive force. He asked why state police commanders weren’t called to testify about why they executed the warrant using a riot control team, SWAT team and a camouflaged officer with a German shepherd. He called Lt. Robert Mackisey, who arrested three tribe members and struggled with another, “a one-man wrecking crew” who took down four people in eight minutes. He showed images of Detective Kevin Barry’s dog biting Tribal Councilman Hiawatha Brown as he lay face down on the ground.

“Who’s going to be held accountable for knocking people down and then sicking the dog?” Devereaux said. The troopers did not intend to arrest anyone for selling the tax-free cigarettes and yet one of the defendant’s ankles was snapped in two places, a teenager was put face-first into the dirt, and a pregnant woman, defendant Bella Noka, was taken to the ground, he said. He called on jurors to assess who caused the raid to erupt into a violent and tumultuous scene.

“When you look at those charges, were people reasonably defending themselves?” he said.

He questioned why the tribe wasn’t shown the warrant until it was given to the Narragansetts’ lawyer 25 minutes into the raid. He argued Sgt. Donald F. Devine didn’t have the warrant in his pocket, as Devine testified, but had to get it from the car.

“To equate the Narragansett Indian tribe with the Hell’s Angels — that is repugnant,” he said, alleging that state troopers used more force on the Narragansetts than they did in the 2002 raid on the motorcycle club. “There’s something wrong with that kind of thinking.”

Devereaux dissected the charges against each of the six tribe members he represented using a timeline, photos and video. Assumpico, he said, placed her arm in the shop door as Tribal Councilman Hiawatha Brown closed it. Thomas, he said, was acting as “a good leader” when he went to protect Brown by grabbing a trooper. First Councilman Randy Noka was not flailing and kicking and resisting arrest as police said.

Calling the case historic, Devereaux asked the jury to acquit the tribe members. “I’m asking you to prove the mentality has changed,” he said.

But Deaton implored the jury to trust its observations: “Trust yourself. Trust your eyes. Trust the photos and videos.”

The state police, she said, were peacefully upholding their oath that day and showed incredible restraint in the face of being spit on, kicked, having someone jump on their back. They have wrongly been called “goons,” “wife beaters” and repugnant throughout the trial’s course, she said. “They used the minimum amount of force to restrain people who were attacking them,” she said.

As state police Supt. Brendan P. Doherty and Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch looked on, Deaton accused the tribe and Thomas of leading a campaign to make the state police look bad and deliberately plotting to violate Rhode Island law by opening the shop. She dismissed arguments that the tribe tried to negotiate the tax issue, saying that Thomas didn’t seek a court resolution first “because he knew what the answer would be.” He knew state criminal and civil laws applied on tribal land, she said.

Contrary to testimony that the tribe was surprised by the raid, she said their own testimony showed they knew it was coming. A trooper had alerted tribal police a day earlier and Harris urged his wife to leave the area with their children shortly before the raid.

Deaton accused Thomas of deliberately prompting his own arrest in front of TV cameras after realizing he hadn’t been arrested, while other tribe members had. She questioned testimony that Narragansett leaders just happened to be at the shop that day, saying Thomas organized resistance.

Thomas, she said, “doesn’t tell people to stand down and let state police do their job. … They had no intention of honoring state law that day.” Videos show they weren’t going to let anyone near the smoke shop, she said.

She asked jurors to send the defendants a message that they cannot commit crimes such as assaulting, spitting, kicking or grabbing the throat of a trooper as Hiawatha Brown is accused.

“The seven defendants want you to give them a pass because of what their ancestors went through,” she said. She added: “We are a nation of laws, not men and we’re going to honor the laws of Rhode Island, no matter who we are.”

kmulvane@projo.com