In 2004, state Supreme Court Chief Justice Frank Williams waits outside the Senate Chambers with Deputy Sheriff Pamela DosReis, who provided security, before delivering the State of the Judiciary address. Williams is named in court papers in her divorce.

Providence Journal / Bob Thayer

PROVIDENCE — Frank J. Williams, the former chief justice of the Rhode Island Supreme Court, is named in court papers filed in connection with a divorce petition by the deputy state sheriff who was a driver for him.

Deputy Sheriff Pamela J. DosReis is seeking a divorce from her husband, Frank J DosReis, a state corrections officer.

She was granted a restraining order in September preventing her husband from entering the couple’s Johnston house as well as custody of the couple’s 6-year-old daughter. Her husband is contesting the order and custody in a hearing that began Monday in Family Court.

In court papers filed in connection with his wife’s divorce petition, Frank DosReis said that Williams is the godfather of the couple’s daughter. Williams paid $6,500 in tuition last year for the girl to attend St. Mary Academy-Bay View in East Providence, and he has deposited about $6,000 in a trust account for the child, according to the court filing.

Williams — who retired in December after serving for eight years as chief justice, but is still sitting on the court — also had a key to the DosReis house and his own bedroom, according to testimony Monday. Williams regularly had dinner at the house and stopped by several times a week, according to testimony.

In court papers, Frank DosReis said that his wife gave Williams the room in the house over his objections. He said Williams would come to the house “without invitation” and spend the night.

Frank DosReis, through his lawyer Keven A. McKenna, has filed a motion with the court seeking joint custody of the daughter. The court filing also asks the court to prohibit Williams from having future contact with the girl.

“The DosReis family is not his ‘family,’ the motion reads. “That [Williams] has assumed this role, is potentially harmful to the well-being of the child; his inordinate and often times bizarre interference with this family is, in large part, the basis for the parties’ divorce.”

Mike Doyle, of the RDW Group, speaking for Williams Monday, said that the allegations made in the court papers involving Williams are part of a McKenna vendetta.

McKenna has been a critic of the way Williams ran the court system as chief justice and the system’s top administrator. McKenna has argued that the governor and the legislature should separate the functions of chief justice and top court administrator because having the same person fill both roles poses a conflict of interest. “Keven’s attacks are unseemly and hard to understand,” Doyle said. “This is part and parcel of a pattern. The chief justice and his wife took a personal interest in a young woman. They are profoundly saddened by the entry of Keven McKenna and his vitriolic comments. There was nothing unseemly or untoward about anything they did.”

Pamela DosReis, in her request for the restraining order, alleged in court papers that her husband “has a violent temper and has verbally abused me in front of our minor child.”

At Monday’s hearing, she testified that her husband bit her a few months ago.

Pamela DosReis testified Monday that she married Frank DosReis in September 2001, about nine months after Williams was sworn in as chief justice. In addition to driving Williams, she worked a security detail outside Williams office on the 7th floor of the Licht Judicial Complex.

DosReis, who testified that she was one of Williams’ drivers for “three or four years,” said that she picked up Williams at his home in Richmond and took him back and forth to work in Providence each day. She said that she and her husband soon became good friends with the chief justice. He often stopped by the DosReis house and they would all have dinner together, she testified.

The relationship became so close that Williams accompanied the DosReis family to Disney World in Florida. He also accompanied Frank DosReis and the daughter, then in kindergarten, to a father-daughter dance in West Warwick.

John D. Lynch, Pamela DosReis’ lawyer, asked her whether she had a “romantic relationship” with Williams.

“No,” she said emphatically from the witness stand.

She testified that Williams bought the family a $1,000 television and he paid for a set of tires for her husband’s truck. She also said that her husband knew that Williams paid for the daughter’s Bay View tuition and that he had opened the trust account for her.

In cross-examination, McKenna pressed Pamela DosReis about the relationship. He also asked her whether Williams, who is 68, was her daughter’s “friend.”

“I would consider him her friend,” she said.

Frank DosReis was the day’s final witness. He testified that during the period from Christmas 2005 through August 2009, Williams visited their home at least five times a week. He said that Williams played with the daughter and watched her while she bathed in the tub. DosReis said that he never tried to end the family’s relationship with Williams.

“One thing led to another, and he was there almost every night,” said DosReis, adding that Williams’ wife, Virginia, was rarely with him.

McKenna asked him whether he thought Williams’ constant presence was appropriate.

“I thought it was weird,” he said.

In his counterclaim to his wife’s divorce petition, DosReis accused his wife in court papers of mental cruelty and infidelity.

DosReis also testified Monday that Williams would drop off his garbage each Sunday night for pickup in Johnston. There is no public garbage pickup in Richmond where Williams lives.

The hearing continues on Tuesday at 11 a.m. with Frank DosReis expected to return to the witness stand.

bmalinow@projo.com