PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Frank J. Williams, former chief judge of the Rhode Island Supreme Court, acknowledged yesterday that he hired the grandmother of his 6-year-old godchild as a cleaning lady at the courthouse two years ago.

The woman, Patricia Calise, 68, of Johnston, is the mother of Pamela DosReis, a deputy sheriff and former driver for Williams. She is in the midst of a messy divorce from her estranged husband, Frank J. DosReis, a veteran corrections officer. He has testified in court that Williams became a constant presence in his family’s life.

Williams also bought the family gifts — truck tires and a $1,000 television set — and he paid his goddaughter’s $6,500 tuition at St. Mary-Bay View Academy in East Providence. Frank DosReis testified last week that Williams, who he said stopped by the house at least five times a week and had his own bedroom there, is largely responsible for the dissolution of his marriage.

On Tuesday, Chief Family Court Judge Jeremiah S. Jeremiah Jr. issued an order that prohibits Williams from having any contact with his goddaughter for at least two weeks. Williams, through a spokesman, has said that when the hearing resumes he hopes the court will modify the order to allow him to visit the child.

Calise was placed on the Supreme Court payroll on Aug. 19, 2007, as an “administrative aide,” but she actually works as a cleaning lady. Her salary, if she were to work fulltime, would be $32,938, according to the state Department of Administration. But, because she works part-time — 20 to 25 hours a week — her pay is less.

Calise earned $20,104 in 2008, and so far this year, she has made $16,904, according to Craig Berke, court spokesman. He said that Calise usually begins her day around 7 a.m. and works four to five hours. She also receives full benefits, including health insurance, just like any other state employee.

She is one of 12 janitors on the courts’ payroll, but she is the only one classified an administrative aide. The others are classified as janitorial, or senior janitorial employees. The courts also use an outside contracting firm for cleaning services.

Williams, in a phone conversation yesterday, said that the high court lost two part-time janitors sometime in 2007. At the time, he said he knew that Calise, who had retired from A.T. Cross, the pen manufacturer in Lincoln, was cleaning several homes in the Johnston area. He said that Calise had time in her schedule for additional work.

Williams said that he approached J. Joseph Baxter, state court administrator, and asked him about hiring Calise. “Can you find something for her?” Williams said he asked Baxter.

Baxter signed the papers that allowed Calise to become a state employee. Williams said that Calise does an “outstanding” job cleaning the judges’ chambers and offices on the seventh floor of the Licht Judicial Complex on South Main Street.

She also cleaned Williams’ chambers where his goddaughter was a regular visitor and the child sometimes played soccer with the chief judge, whom she affectionately called, “Chiefy.”

In recent years, Williams said, Calise began cleaning other areas of the nine-story brick building on the city’s East Side.

“I’ve seen her polishing the brass on the stairwells between floors,” said Craig Berke, court spokesman. “She cleans throughout the building.”

Multiple attempts to reach Calise in the courthouse and at her home were unsuccessful yesterday. Berke said he reached her late in the day and she did not want to comment.

Berke said that Calise’s job title as an administrative assistant was based on her pay classification — not a job description. He said that many state employees have job titles that don’t correspond with the work they actually perform.

Williams will be out of the country for the next week for a reunion with soldiers from his Army unit that was stationed in Germany in the early 1960s. He retired in December, but he has continued to sit on the high court and write opinions.

Supreme Court Chief Justice Paul A. Suttell said Thursday he has not made a decision on whether he will ask Williams to step aside or whether he will take any action against him.

“I don’t know,” he said. “It’s been an interesting week.”

—With reports from Katie Mulvaney

bmalinow@projo.com

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