Nathan Hannon, former education coordinator at the state landfill.

Photo Courtesy of Rhode Island Resource Recovery Corporation

The Rhode Island State Police have opened an investigation into the former education coordinator at the state trash agency, following a Providence Journal story Sunday that he didn’t keep numerous work appointments over the summer.

Nathan Hannon was fired from his $45,000-a-year position at the Rhode Island Resource Recovery Corporation on Sept. 4, after his supervisors discovered that he didn’t conduct a school presentation in Westerly that he said he was leaving early for on the Friday afternoon before Labor Day weekend.

The Journal subsequently checked Hannon’s work schedule in June, July and August and could confirm that he was present at only 3 of the 27 appointments for which he filed mileage-reimbursement forms. Hannon told The Journal that his job required him to be in the field and that he did a lot of community outreach –– but he did not respond to whether he went to the schools, summer camps and YMCAs that he reported visiting on his mileage-reimbursement forms.

Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch said Tuesday that he called Col. Brendan Doherty, superintendent of the state police, after the story was published, and that Deputy Attorney General Gerald Coyne also called state police Lt. Col. Steven G. O’Donnell.

“I’m as outraged as anybody when I read that,” said Lynch. “We said to the state police, ‘Let’s beat this one down, and see if there’s anything there.’ ”

O’Donnell says that detectives from the state police Financial Crimes Unit plan to contact the leaders of Resource Recovery, as the victim of any potential crime, to see if they want to file a complaint.

“We want to get all the facts and figures,” said O’Donnell. “Based on what we read in the paper, it would appear, at least on its face, to be a case of obtaining money under false pretenses. But we have to look at it.”

Resource Recovery executive director Michael O’Connell, who fired Hannon, said that he would welcome an investigation.

Hannon did not respond to requests for comment.

The Journal also reported Sunday that Hannon’s firing provoked high-level government interest after his domestic partner, traffic-court judge and former Sen. R. David Cruise, complained about the handling of the firing to Senate Majority Leader Daniel Connors. ,

Tom Coderre, chief of staff to Senate President M. Teresa Paiva Weed, also raised it with Gary Sasse, Governor Carcieri’s director of administration.

According to O’Connell, Sasse voiced concern that he had “stirred up a hornet nest” in the Senate; later, he said, Sasse sought written confirmation that O’Connell would not challenge Hannon’s application for unemployment. O’Connell chose not to contest Hannon’s unemployment, not because of political pressure but because he says it would have been difficult to fight. And, he said, he didn’t know about the many other appointments that Hannon may have missed.

mstanton@projo.com