Bevilacqua

PROVIDENCE — The brother of Mayor David N. Cicilline reported to a federal prison in Massachusetts yesterday to begin serving an 18-month sentence for participating in a shakedown scheme to grab $150,000 from a couple who were arrested on drug charges.

John M. Cicilline, a prominent defense lawyer, surrendered to the authorities before 2 p.m. at the federal prison at Fort Devens, which is in central Massachusetts about 20 miles north of Worcester.

At his sentencing last month in U.S. District Court, Boston, Cicilline, 51, who has three daughters, asked that he serve his sentence where his family could visit him on a regular basis. Fort Devens, which has 1,109 inmates in its medical center and 103 prisoners in its prison camp, is the closest federal prison to Rhode Island.

Other notable Rhode Islanders who have spent time in Fort Devens are Frank Corrente, director of administration for ex-Providence Mayor Vincent A. Cianci Jr., and Joseph Pannone, a tax official in Cianci’s corrupt City Hall. Mobster Anthony “The Saint” St. Laurent also has spent years in Fort Devens.

Joseph A. Bevilacqua, another well-known Rhode Island lawyer, who also pleaded guilty to criminal charges stemming from the scheme, reported yesterday to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, N.Y. He is serving a sentence of 21 months.

That prison, which houses 2,558 men and women, is near Gowanus Bay between 2nd and 3rd Avenues on 29th St.

Cicilline, 51, of Narragansett, and Bevilacqua, 59, of West Warwick, both pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy, obstruction of justice and making false statements.

As part of their plea agreements, both lawyers, who were once law partners, have surrendered their licenses to practice law.

The criminal case against Cicilline and Bevilacqua dates to 2002 when federal agents and local police seized more than $1.3 million and nearly five pounds of marijuana from John C. Mendonca and his wife, Jacqueline. The couple were arrested outside a motel in Warwick.

The Mendoncas retained Cicilline and Bevilacqua as their lawyers. Bevilacqua met John Mendonca in jail and told him, that for a payment of several hundred thousand dollars, “he … could keep [him] out of jail,” according to the indictment.

A month later, Bevilacqua and his legal assistant met with Mendonca and told him that in return for an “up front” payment of $100,000 they would give the authorities information that could lead to “a large drug bust.” That information, they said, would be attributed to the Mendoncas, with the aim of getting them a reduced sentence.

When Bevilacqua and his assistant failed to provide the information that the Mendoncas paid for, Cicilline told the couple that for an additional $50,000 he would make sure that his law partner and the assistant would honor their promise. They later lied to investigators about the arrangement.

Yesterday, marked the second time that Bevilacqua has been to prison. In 2005, he was convicted of perjury and sentenced to 18 months in the Operation Plunder Dome investigation into corruption in City Hall that sent Mayor Cianci to federal prison for more than four years.

Bevilacqua, the son of Joseph A. Bevilacqua, the late Rhode Island Supreme Court chief justice, spent most of his time in a federal prison in Loretto, Pa.

bmalinow@projo.com