RIZ

PROVIDENCE — Marco Riz, a Guatemalan immigrant accused of kidnapping and raping a woman at knifepoint in Roger Williams Park, was indicted yesterday on sexual assault, robbery and kidnapping charges.

A statewide grand jury handed up the indictment naming Riz, of 183 Linwood Ave., on two counts of first-degree sexual assault and one count each of first-degree robbery, kidnapping, assault with a dangerous weapon and second-degree carjacking.

The 26-year-old — who is in the country illegally — is accused of kidnapping a 30-year-old woman on June 8 outside a Warwick supermarket and raping her in Roger Williams Park. A task force of Providence and Warwick police, immigration officers, state police and federal marshals captured Riz a few days later on Linwood Avenue in Providence’s West End.

The case touched off a firestorm of debate in the media between Governor Carcieri and Providence Mayor David N. Cicilline last month.

The governor blamed the Providence police for releasing Riz twice last year after he was arrested on drunken-driving and domestic-assault charges. At the time, there was a federal deportation order in effect that called for Riz to be sent back to Guatemala.

The Riz case was a topic of conversation during Carcieri’s nationally-televised conversation with Fox News host Bill O’Reilly last month.

Carcieri told O’Reilly he feels the Cicilline administration is “not really interested” in curbing the problem of illegal immigration.

“No, they’re not,” agreed O’Reilly. “It’s a sanctuary city. You’re a Republican. You recognize the chaos illegal immigration is causing, particularly in the criminal justice system. This guy Riz should have never been in the country, now he winds up allegedly raping a Rhode Island woman.”

In a subsequent opinion piece in The Providence Journal, Cicilline wrote that “the governor is bent on distorting the facts to serve his fixation.”

Cicilline wrote that when Providence police officers arrested Riz, “they followed the policy in place for 20 years and immediately notified” the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement. “ICE had the information but failed to act,” Cicilline wrote, challenging state leaders to focus on problems such as unemployment, rising energy prices and record foreclosure rates.

The governor has pushed for months for a crackdown on illegal immigration.

In the spring, Carcieri issued an executive order requiring law enforcement and correctional officers to work closely with immigration officials to identify illegal immigrants. He also ordered the state to begin using the E-Verify system, requiring state agencies and vendors to check the immigration status of new hires and contractors.

The General Assembly refused to pass a law in June that would have applied the system to private employers.

Meanwhile, Riz is being held without bail at the Adult Correctional Institutions. He will be arraigned in Kent County Superior Court on Aug. 29, according to a statement released yesterday by Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch’s office.