SOUTH KINGSTOWN — Lawyers for the Narragansett Indians arrested in the state police raid on a tribal smoke shop in July 2003 are asking for their cases to be heard in Providence Superior Court.

Defense lawyers for the seven tribal members have petitioned Presiding Superior Justice Joseph F. Rodgers Jr. for a change of venue, saying Providence courts promise a more impartial and racially varied jury as well as greater convenience. State law empowers the presiding justice to pick the court in which a criminal matter is heard.

“We believe it would be fairer because we would have a better chance to get minority representation on the jury,” William P. Devereaux said after a brief appearance yesterday before Judge Stephen P. Nugent in Washington County Superior Court.

The state has filed objections that argue the defense had not shown that the citizens of Washington County would “be anything but fair and impartial” and that the U.S. Supreme Court has continuously held that racial prejudice in jury selection is unconstitutional. Additionally, the defendants had not proven that hearing the case in Providence would represent a more practical and efficient use of judicial resources.

Narragansett Chief Sachem Matthew Thomas and six other Narragansetts were arrested on July 14, 2003, for resisting state troopers trying to stop the tribe from illegally selling tax-free cigarettes from a smoke shop on tribal land in Charlestown. Governor Carcieri ordered the raid, which disintegrated into a violent and widely televised confrontation.

In addition to Thomas, those arrested were Tribal Councilmen Randy Noka and John and Hiawatha Brown; Bella Noka; Adam Jennings, and Thawn Harris, a tribal conservation officer. All pleaded not guilty to charges that included disorderly conduct, resisting arrest and simple assault in District Court in January. The cases have since been transferred to Superior Court.

Rodgers denied the tribal members’ request after a hearing Wednesday, but indicated that he would consider changing the venue if all seven cases were combined, according to Michael J. Healey, a spokesman for the attorney general’s office. The state and the defense filed motions for the cases to be joined yesterday after Judge Nugent declined to hear the matter until the venue issue had been decided. A pre-trial conference had been scheduled to take place yesterday in Nugent’s court.

Both sides are scheduled to appear before Rodgers on Monday. Devereaux said the judge is limiting arguments to practical matters such as courtroom size in light of the expected media attention and the number of defendant.

While arguments may focus of practical issues, the defense’s petition recounted the tribe’s troubled history in Washington County, namely the massacre of 1,000 Narragansetts and Wampanoags at the Great Swamp during King Philip’s War of the Colonial era. It details legal struggles between the tribe, the state and Charlestown over the Narragansetts’ 1,800 acres.

“What is abundantly clear from this history is that there have been long, consistent and very public disputes between the Town of Charlestown and the Narragansett Indian Tribe over the past 30 years,” the tribal members’ lawyers wrote. “Virtually every legal dispute, including the smoke shop raid, has centered on the issue of Narragansett Indian sovereignty and the use of Narragansett reservation lands in Washington County.”

The state’s objections stated that Assistant Attorney General Maria Deaton did not believe the Narragansetts had made the case that switching the trial location would prove more fair or efficient.

The criminal cases had been on hold for more than three years as the federal courts decided what authority the state police had on tribal land. They were resurrected last fall, when the U.S. Supreme Court declined to take up the issue and in doing so let stand a lower court’s ruling that the state could enforce its laws on tribal land.

kmulvane@projo.com