PROVIDENCE -- The three Narragansett Indian tribal members found guilty of assaulting and scuffling with state police during the 2003 raid on a tribal smoke shop will not have to spend time in jail.

The outcome is almost anti-climatic, coming as it does after almost five years since the controversial raid pitted the tribe against the state, several court actions costing hundreds of thousands of dollars that spun off from the original case and and a six-week trial on the misdemeanor charges, featuring photos and videos of the raid.

At midday, Superior Court Judge Susan E. McGuirl filed the case of Chief Sachem Matthew Thomas and one tribal member, ordering them to provide community service by talking to schoolchildren about tribe history. She issued a suspended sentence for the third defendant.

Thomas's case was filed for one year, and he will have to provide 150 hours of community service. Thomas had been found guilty of assaulting a trooper.

Journal photo / Steve Szydlowski

From left, Randy Noka, Chief Sachem Matthew Thomas and Hiawatha Brown appear outside court after their sentencing.

McGuirl said she opted for a filing because because a conviction could have an impact on Thomas's ability, as the tribe's leader, to act as the signatory when dealing with federal agencies.

"I do not see merit in punishing [Thomas] as chief sachem," McGuirl said.

First Councilman Randy Noka's case was also filed for one year. He was ordered to do 25 hours of community service. Noka had been found guilty of disorderly conduct for grabbing at an officer as police came onto tribal land.

According to Michael J. Healey, spokesman for the attorney general, a filing is not a conviction. Thomas and Noka must remain on good behavior for a year and then can seek to have the count expunged from their record, he said.

Tribal councilman Hiawatha Brown, who had been convicted of assaulting a trooper by slamming her arm in a door, was given a one-year suspended sentence with one year of probation on his assault conviction. He was also given a six-month suspended sentence with six months of probation on a disorderly conduct conviction.

On the courthouse steps after the sentencing, Thomas was asked to respond.

"It is what it is," he told reporters. "We felt the law was on our side."

The tribal members indicated they would look at whether to appeal the case. After the sentencing, Noka told reporters it is "certainly not over in my mind."

Asked about appealing, Thomas raised again the defense's accusation that one juror banged a water bottle like a tom-tom and that another juror, allegedly saying of a chief sachem "he's nothing," questioned why tribal members rose from their seats when Thomas took the stand.

Devereaux raised those contentions on Tuesday in court -- the prosecutor dismissed the accusations as speculation and interpretation about the others’ actions -- and ultimately McGuirl did not order a new trial.

"In my mind," Noka said, "there's still unanswered questions," including "what was done to our tribe members."

Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch, whose office prosecuted the case, said late this afternoon, “I don’t think we could have gone to greater lengths to ensure that the defendants were treated the same way as anybody else who was being prosecuted on the same charges."

"Second, I don’t think that today’s sentencing negates the fact that a jury convicted these three defendants of crimes committed against state troopers who had the legal authority to execute a search warrant of an illegal business.

Lynch said that "as much as I question the appropriateness of the community-service component" of Chief Sachem Thomas’s sentence, "this case is over and its finality is good our state.”

Earlier today, the defense lawyer for the three asked for leniency at a sentencing hearing, referencing the tribe's historically troubled relationship with the state.

"Isn't it time for us, the state of Rhode Island, to step for forward and extend a hand to them," said defense lawyer William Devereaux before the sentencing.

But Pamela Chin, the prosecutor, asked that the three be held responsible for their actions that day and she said that they had been spoiling for a fight.

"These are the tribal leaders, these are the people leading people, and they led them into a fight with state police," said Chin.

For Thomas, the state asked for probation and community service. The state asked that Brown get one-year suspended sentence with probation for the assault charge, and six months suspended with probation for the disorderly conduct. For Randy Noka, the state asked for a six-month probation with 25 hours of community service.

Each tribal member spoke on his own behalf.

The sentencing comes two days after McGuirl denied two bids for a new trial for the three. She rejected defense lawyers’ arguments that the jury was tainted by racial bias.

She also denied another motion for a new trial that asserted that the prosecutors had not produced enough evidence to convict.

The three had been among six Narragansetts on trial on charges stemming from the raid. Three others -- Bella Noka, Adam Jennings and Thawn Harris -- were acquitted by the jury last April.

At Governor Carcieri’s order under Lynch’s advice, state police executed a search and seizure warrant around lunchtime July 14, 2003, to stop the tribe from selling tax-free cigarettes on tribal land in Charlestown. The raid turned violent as TV cameras rolled. Seven adult Narragansetts were arrested.

The criminal cases were on hold for more than three years until federal courts ruled the state can enforce its laws on tribal land under a 1978 agreement that gave the Narragansetts their 1,800 acres.

Extraordinary attempts were made to resolve the cases short of trial. In addition to Judge McGuirl’s efforts to reach a plea deal, the state Supreme Court took the unprecedented step of trying to mediate the matter.

The state’s high court also made a critical ruling that spared Carcieri from taking the stand, overruling a decision by McGuirl. Defense lawyers had wanted to question the governor about his orders that day.

In a related case, a federal judge last month ordered a new trial for a state trooper, erasing a jury’s verdict that the officer used excessive force when he twisted Jennings' ankle until it broke during the raid.

In granting the state’s motion for a new trial, Judge Ernest C. Torres wrote that the state police testimony proved more believable than that of defense witnesses and Jennings.

Two weeks after the raid, an internal state police investigation found that state police had "acted well within their legal authority when executing the search warrant."

-- with reports from Journal staff writer Katie Mulvaney and Journal archival reports