PROVIDENCE — It’s been close to three years since the Cranston police charged Jesse A. Boyd and two of his friends with raping a 17-year-old girl after the group drank cognac and smoked marijuana on a hot July afternoon.

Boyd got his day in court in April, as his trial began before Judge Netti C. Vogel in Providence County Superior Court. But the trial was cut short just as the final witness was about to take the stand. Vogel declared a mistrial, at Boyd’s request, after a juror saw a sheriff lead him through a hallway in leg shackles and shared those observations with his fellow jurors, despite being directed not to talk about the trial.

“[The sheriffs] sabotaged my case and ignored me as though I had no say in the matter,” Vogel said in an e-mail to Executive High Sheriff Gary P. Dias.

Vogel said she learned later that another sheriff had made a disparaging comment about the case to the jury, which she said could have been just as likely to lead to a mistrial. She asserted that she was being prevented from doing her job by the sheriffs’ “incompetence,” “indifference” and apparent infighting in the courthouse.

The incidents added to a string of complaints from judges against sheriffs that include courtrooms left without a sheriff’s protection and prisoners routinely being brought in as much as an hour late, Superior Court Presiding Justice Joseph F. Rodgers Jr. said.

“It’s a horror show,” said Rodgers, who brought his concerns to Governor Carcieri’s office. The main complaint, he said, is proceedings being delayed as long as two hours because prisoners are being brought in late, wasting taxpayer dollars and the court and the jury’s time. Court typically starts at 9:30 a.m. The problems are most acute in Providence County Superior Court, but they tend to have a ripple effect in the counties, said Craig N. Berke, courts spokesman.

Rodgers wants the state Sheriffs Department and the Department of Administration to remedy the issues, no matter what the cause, he said.

Dias, a former East Providence police chief whom Carcieri appointed high sheriff six years ago, declined requests for comment. He referred questions to the governor’s spokeswoman, Amy Kempe, who said she was speaking on behalf of the Department of Administration.

Kempe characterized Boyd’s trial as an unfortunate instance that did not reflect “the quality of service and professionalism of the sheriffs.” The department was short-staffed that week, with a number of sheriffs on vacation or out sick, she said. The Providence County Superior Court has 18 courtrooms that need to be staffed, she said.

“They do a great job” and are working with the court administrator and the Department of Administration to address the issue and deliver inmates promptly, she said.

Formed in 1663, the sheriffs are the state’s oldest law enforcement agency. The 200 or so deputy sheriffs are primarily responsible for bringing prisoners into the state’s courthouses for legal proceedings and for maintaining order, and safety, in courtrooms. The Sheriffs Department has a budget of about $15.9 million for the current fiscal year.

Kempe noted that, on a typical day, deputy sheriffs transport more than 200 prisoners from the prison to courthouses. The department processes 65,000 to 70,000 prisoners each year, she said.

“It takes time, but they work as diligently as possible,” Kempe said. The state is in the process of hiring three sheriffs, she said. “Staffing levels are something that is consistently looked at based on need.”

It is not the first time the courts have reported trouble with the sheriffs. A state police report in 2003, at the request of then Supreme Court Chief Justice Frank J. Williams, found the department rife with mismanagement and low morale under the leadership of Dias’ predecessor, James P. DeCastro.

DeCastro had previously owned a lawn-mower repair shop with his father and had no law enforcement experience. Dias was named his replacement in June 2003.

Rodgers says the latest problems, such as delays in delivering prisoners, have been going on for about a year. He said he is often told it’s related to manpower.

“The issue may originate from: contract language, lack of manpower, or internal management problems,” related to the placement of deputy sheriffs in courtrooms, Rodgers wrote to the governor’s office. “Whatever the reason, taxpayer dollars were wasted on juror and staff time as a consequence of the department’s inability to perform its functions,” he said, referring to the Boyd case.

The Cranston police arrested Boyd in July 2006 on 10 counts of first-degree sexual assault, 4 counts of second-degree sexual assault, and conspiracy after he and two friends allegedly raped the 17-year-old girl, court records show.

The other two men, Jimmie L. McFarland and Mark Clements, pleaded no contest to sexual assault charges, but Boyd, 28, of Providence, took his case to trial April 13.

But Boyd’s trial was interrupted at its start, when Vogel was not assigned a sheriff. That meant, according to court policy, she couldn’t take the bench. She learned that sheriffs, by contract, bid on which courtroom they’d like to work in and are assigned based on seniority. The one “floater” who could have bid on in her courtroom chose to be a second sheriff for Judge Robert D. Krause. “I couldn’t fathom how I was left with no sheriff and someone else has two,” Vogel said.

It is court policy for one deputy sheriff to be assigned to protect the judge, another to work with the jury, and two to guard defendants who are incarcerated, as Boyd has been since his arrest.

Rodgers sent his personal sheriff to assist and the trial proceeded. Near the end of the trial, Vogel said, she called for a morning break before the final witness took the stand and instructed Chief Deputy Sheriff Joann Macari to keep Boyd in the courtroom to avoid delay. The judge told the jurors they were free to go to the courthouse coffee shop or stroll the halls.

But another sheriff took Boyd for a restroom break, leading him shackled through the hallway, Vogel said. Upon learning this, the now “ballistic” Vogel polled each of the jurors and found that one had seen Boyd shackled and reported it to the others. Boyd moved for a mistrial, which Vogel granted without objection from the state. The U.S. Supreme Court has found it violates a defendant’s due process rights to be seen in shackles by a jury.

Since that time, Vogel said, she has had to listen to the sheriffs “blame each other like school children.”

After granting the mistrial and hearing Boyd sob, Vogel said, she learned from speaking with jurors that Deputy Robert Jalette said to the jury two days earlier: “There are three types of people you will see in the courtroom: Lawyers, people with legitimate business, and [expletive].”

The jurors were unsure, she said, if he was speaking of the alleged victim, who was testifying at the time; the defendant; or both.

“We’re talking about a problem that is not just particular to me,” Vogel said of the lapses.

A spokesman for Council 94, American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the union representing the deputy sheriffs, refused to comment. Jalette, with five years on the force, said department policy prohibited him from commenting. Boyd’s lawyer, Glenn Sparr, refused to comment.

Vogel said administrators from the sheriffs’ office have reached out to her, which she sees as a positive step. Kempe said the Department of Administration expects to meet this week about Vogel’s concerns, but that the governor is satisfied with their performance.

Meanwhile, Boyd’s retrial will take place at an as-yet unspecified date this summer.

kmulvane@projo.com