PROVIDENCE— Stephen G. Tocco, whose dark past resurfaced last month, will no longer carry a badge and gun as chief of the Rhode Island Capitol Police but instead will report Monday to a civilian state job, Governor Carcieri’s office announced yesterday.

The move, said Carcieri’s spokesman, Jeff Neal, is permanent.

Neal declared on June 7 that Tocco had been “temporarily reassigned” while the governor’s office examined the police chief’s role as a facilitator of bribes in municipal corruption cases in the 1980s and 1990s. The issue arose after a reporter uncovered records in the archives of the U.S. District Court that had lain unnoticed for more than a decade.

Neal said that in his new position Tocco would take over a vacant position and be responsible for overseeing the “maintenance and long-term planning for a set of state buildings.” He said that Tocco, who was chief for nearly seven years and has a total of 28 years as a Capitol Police officer, is eligible to retire, but chose not to do so.

“I had the best job there was,” Tocco said yesterday. “I was both honored and privileged to serve as chief for almost seven years. I was blessed to work with such dedicated and professional men and women.”

Neal said the transfer decision was made by Beverly Najarian, director of the state Department of Administration. He said Tocco’s salary will remain unchanged.

Tocco said he wanted to thank former Gov. Lincoln C. Almond for appointing him as chief. Last month he asserted that Almond had been aware of his past and that there had been “nothing hidden” when Almond swore him in as chief on Nov. 26, 2001.

Almond, however, said last month that although he had been U.S. Attorney when Tocco testified under a grant of immunity during the trial of Gary Garafano, former Providence deputy director of public works, he had not been directly involved in prosecuting trials. He said that he had had no idea that the man standing before him with raised arm at the swearing-in ceremony had, years before, admitted arranging and carrying bribes in Providence and Pawtucket. Tocco at the time was an employee of a construction company that did business with the municipalities. Under a deal struck with the prosecution, Tocco testified in return for escaping criminal charges.

“I never connected the two,” Almond said. “For some reason, I never associated his position with the state with that case. I never thought the two people were the same.”

Oddly, it was a recent political squabble of essentially local interest in usually placid Smithfield that unearthed the bribery tale and led to the fall of Tocco, who is president of the Smithfield Town Council.

In May the town’s government department heads spoke up in public about what they declared to be a Democratic plot to cashier some of them — Tocco is a Democrat; his party controls a majority on the council.

The department heads said that Tocco had brought pressure to bear on Town Manager Stanley J. Usovicz Jr. to replace them with favored appointees. When Usovicz declined to do so, the Democrats began taking steps to get rid of Usovicz, they said. It was an allegation that the Democrats denied.

Usovicz however confirmed that Tocco had pressed him to dismiss some of the officials.

That led Democratic Councilman Bernard A. Hawkins to Google Usovicz’s name. The online search turned up Boston Globe and Salem Evening News stories from 2001 that said Usovicz had falsified his academic credentials in the 1990s when he applied for jobs in Massachusetts towns. When asked about the issue in May, Usovicz said he had fraudulently claimed a college degree — an admission he made to the Globe years before — said he was ashamed of his actions, had obtained both bachelors and masters degrees since then, and “clearly have moved on.”

The Democrats used that past indiscretion to challenge Usovicz’s credibility.

But their Republican opponents also knew how to use the Internet.

James W. Archer, chairman of the Republican Town Committee, dug around and found indications that Tocco had testified under a grant of immunity in a bribery trial in the 1990s.

That led a reporter to request material from the District Court archive.

Tocco, according to the transcript of the trial of Garafano, the former Providence public works director, testified under oath that he had negotiated bribes and carried thousands of dollars in bribes on a number of occasions both to Garafano and to Louis S. Simon, then public works director in Pawtucket during the administration of Mayor Brian J. Sarault. Simon and Sarault pleaded guilty and served jail terms. Garafano was convicted and sentenced to prison.

Tocco committed these acts while he was also an officer of the Capitol Police, he testified.

Despite the glaringly obvious question of how a sworn police officer could take the witness stand and admit to bribery — without penalty — no one seemed to take notice. Tocco eventually rose to be chief of the department, which is responsible for security at the State House and other state government properties. His State House office, which he occupied until he was “temporarily reassigned” last month was the very first suite at the main entrance to the capitol off Smith Street.

After The Journal published the bribery tale hard on the heels of the Usovicz revelations, Richard A. Poirier, a Republican and former president of the Smithfield Town Council, observed, “So Tocco pointed out that tiny, little skeleton in the manager’s closet — and all the time he had this great, big dinosaur skeleton in his closet.”

tmorgan@projo.com