A Narragansett Tribe member says he was forced to the ground by state police and had his foot twisted.

01:00 AM EST on Wednesday, March 23, 2005

BY KATIE MULVANEY
Journal Staff Writer

PROVIDENCE -- Adam Jennings was plagued by sleepless nights after the state police raided the Narragansett Indian Tribe's smoke shop almost two years ago. Again and again he recalled his forehead being forced into the dirt and the circumstances surrounding his ankle being broken, he told a 10-member jury yesterday in U.S. District Court.

"I didn't deserve to have my ankle broken," he said.

Jennings was among five witnesses to testify in the second day of a civil trial brought by Jennings, his mother Paulla Dove Jennings, and shop manager Keith Huertas. The three have accused seven state troopers and state police Supt. Steven M. Pare, of using excessive force and violating their civil rights in the July 14, 2003, raid.

Lawyers for the state police chipped away at that testimony, digging out inconsistencies from previous sworn statements.

Adam Jennings testified yesterday that he turned to see someone pushing Paulla, his mother, in the smoke shop doorway that July afternoon.

"Don't hurt my mom," he recalled saying to a man who appeared to be carrying a gun. Jennings urged his mother to move to the side and gripped the counter to keep his hands free, he said. Under questioning from Assistant Attorney General Rebecca Partington, he later said he held onto the counter at police command.

According to Jennings, he was obeying Detective Ken Bell when he tried to leave the smoke shop. He came within a few feet of the door when "suddenly there were hands all over me" as a handful of officers moved to place him under arrest, he said.

Jennings was taken to the ground, where one officer, identified Monday as Kenneth Jones, clutched his leg, he said. Jennings said he warned the trooper that his ankle had been broken previously.

"I told him 'Look you're going to break my ankle' and he twisted it more," Jennings said.

Jones, who is trained in crowd control, testified Monday that he applied the leg technique because Jennings was resisting arrest by refusing to be cuffed. He said he was concerned Jennings might be armed.

Jennings claimed he could not pull his arm free from under his body because of the officers' weight upon him. "Anything they told me to do, I did. I didn't do anything to threaten anyone," he said.

Partington questioned Jennings' credibility. She referred to a sworn statement in which he failed to divulge that Richmond police charged him with resisting arrest on July 14, 2004.

She also challenged the testimony of Dan Piccoli, a Warwick resident who went to buy tax-free cigarettes at the smoke shop the day of the raid. Piccoli told the jury that he had been thrown down the stairs by the state police and that he watched Jones grit his teeth as he twisted Jennings' leg inside the shop.

Partington noted that Piccoli told a review panel led by Brown University President Ruth Simmons in August 2003 that the troopers arrested Jennings outside. Yesterday, he said he watched the incident from outside the shop but that it occurred inside.

Paulla Dove Jennings, Huertas, and Domingo Monroe repeated the claim that the shop workers initially thought they were being robbed by customers, who turned out to be undercover police.

"I thought it was a setup and they were going to take our money," Dove Jennings said. She estimated the shop earned $7,000 to $10,000 in each of the two days it operated.

She identified Staci Shepherd as the officer who pushed her against the wall. The 64-year-old tribal elder insisted under questioning she was not aware that a state police raid was under way just outside the smoke shop. She said she did not realize she was closing the door on a state trooper's arm, despite the uniform.

"It was sort of a blur. We didn't know what was going on," she said.

Partington challenged Jennings' testimony, noting that she told the review panel that a man had shoved her against the wall.

"I didn't have enough time to tell them everything that day," Jennings said, adding that she hadn't known Shepherd's name.

She identified James Demers as the other trooper to shove her. When asked to produce a warrant, Demers responded "he didn't have to show her a damn thing," she said.

The plaintiffs claim the state police did not present badges or a warrant in executing the raid. Partington played surveillance video taken by the tribe inside the shop that shows the Narragansetts' lawyer, John Killoy, looking at papers provided by state police. It was not clear when that video was recorded.

Troopers raided the smoke shop on Governor Carcieri's orders to stop what the state claimed was the illegal sale of tax-free cigarettes.

Huertas and the Jenningses claim the state police violated their rights to equal protection and freedom from illegal searches and seizures. The suit names Pare, Jones, Bell, and Shepherd as defendants as well as Kenneth Buoniauto, Michelle Kershaw, Wilfred Hill and an unidentified officer.

Michael Bradley, lawyer for the plaintiffs, expects to close his case tomorrow in Chief U.S. District Judge Ernest C. Torres' courtroom.

Digital Extra: Recap the smoke-shop raid, in stories and photos, and see what happened in its aftermath, at:

http://projo.com/extra/2003/smokeshop/