Digital Extra: The Station Fire

Civil-rights groups offer suggestions to investigators about how best to proceed regarding the arrest of murder suspect Esteban Carpio.

01:00 AM EDT on Tuesday, May 10, 2005

BY GREGORY SMITH
Journal Staff Writer

PROVIDENCE -- Three civil-rights groups and two state officials want assurances that law-enforcement agencies are being thorough in an investigation of the possible use of excessive force during the arrest and custody of murder suspect Esteban Carpio.

Carpio is being held at the Adult Correctional Institutions on a murder charge in the killing of Providence police Detective Sgt. James L. Allen three weeks ago.

The civil-rights groups, public defender John Hardiman, and Michael Evora, executive director of the Rhode Island Commission for Human Rights, a state agency, have written about their concerns to Providence police Chief Dean M. Esserman and other law-enforcement agencies involved in the excessive-force investigation.

The letter writers said they have received many telephone calls from the public asking about Carpio's handling. The televised image of Carpio at his court arraignment April 18, his black face bruised and swollen and half-covered by an unusual plastic spit shield flecked with blood, attracted national attention.

Their letter urges that investigators interview non-police eyewitnesses who saw Carpio before and after he was arrested and obtain videotapes from any private surveillance cameras near the spot on a downtown street where Carpio was arrested "before memories fade or tapes are reused."

Witnesses at Rhode Island Hospital, where Carpio was treated, and the Public Safety Complex, and tapes from cameras at those locations also might prove insightful, as well as tapes and witness accounts from the ACI, they said.

"As you know, concerns about police brutality pervade the minority community in Providence. Here, there is an opportunity to definitively dispel those concerns with visual, testimonial and other evidence," the letter says.

One letter writer, Steven Brown, executive director of the Rhode Island Affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union, said the writers are concerned that the investigators might focus too narrowly by only interviewing law-enforcement personnel.

The FBI, Providence Police Department and the state police are jointly investigating what happened when Carpio was captured. Carpio's relatives have alleged that the suspect was brutalized during or after his arrest.

Besides Hardiman, Evora and Brown, the April 26 letter was signed by Dennis Langley, executive director of the Urban League of Rhode Island; James Vincent, president of Rhode Island Affirmative Action Professionals; and Joseph T. Fowlkes Jr., former president of the Providence chapter of the NAACP.

Copies of the letter were sent to the FBI, state police, Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch and the Rhode Island Department of Corrections.

Langley went further in an interview, calling for the creation of an independent committee to probe Carpio's handling. He said he made his proposal to Esserman through an intermediary.

He envisions a committee consisting of people from the law and medical professions, such as a retired judge, retired or otherwise uninvolved law-enforcement officers, and a couple of civilians.

"I think people were really gravely concerned that a senseless killing went down, but they thought that the abuse, if it took place, should not have" happened, Langley said. "I would suggest to the colonel [Esserman] that he remove himself and his officers from it, so that no one can accuse him of tainting or influencing the investigation."

When the results of an investigation come out, he added, "We don't want people to say, well, they had something to protect."

Esserman, who has not replied to the letter, declined comment yesterday on both its contents and Langley's proposal. He referred questions to the FBI because, he said, it is the lead agency in the joint investigation.

Jay White, spokesman for the Boston office of the FBI, had nothing to say about the letter or Langley's proposal.

"We're going to reserve all comment until the investigation is finalized," he said.

Allen was shot to death at the headquarters as he questioned Carpio in connection with a stabbing and attempted robbery. Carpio allegedly wrested Allen's gun away and shot him twice.

Carpio, who the Corrections Department has described as a troublesome prisoner, acted out again in his cell Saturday night, according to Joy Fox, department spokeswoman.

He tore up his blanket and, later, tore the sleeve off his jumpsuit, and attempted to separately flush them down the toilet in his cell. The second time, she said yesterday, he succeeded in flooding his small cell by plugging the toilet with the torn sleeve.

After handcuffing Carpio, corrections officers cleaned up the cell and removed the mattress and torn clothes. The mattress and clothing were returned later, she said.

Carpio remains in segregation, under the watch of officers and a video camera. He has had no visitors, aside from his lawyers, because of his alleged assaults on the officers and for destroying his blanket and clothes and flooding his cell this past weekend.

Two of the three officers Carpio allegedly injured are back at work. The third, whose jaw and vertebrae were broken, remains off duty, Fox said.

With a report from staff writer Amanda Milkovits.