Former Supreme Court Chief Justice Frank Williams and Deputy Sheriff Pamela DosReis in 2004.

The Providence Journal / Bob Thayer

PROVIDENCE — Frank J. Williams, the former chief justice of the Rhode Island Supreme Court, was barred on Tuesday from visiting or having any other contact with his 6-year-old goddaughter who is part of a messy divorce case.

Chief Family Court Judge Jeremiah S. Jeremiah Jr. issued the order that stopped short of naming Williams, but there is no doubt that he was referring to the man who ran the state court system for eight years.

The order reads, in part, “that there shall be no unrelated adult third parties of the opposite sex present at any time when either party has visitation/interaction/or is in the presence of the minor child. Godmothers and Godfathers are specifically considered to be unrelated.”

During two days of testimony last week, Pamela DosReis, a deputy sheriff and former driver for Williams, testified that the former judge was the daughter’s godfather and that he had a room in their house in Johnston. She also testified that Williams paid the girl’s $6,500 tuition at St. Mary-Bay View Academy in East Providence, and that he had deposited about $6,000 in a money market account for her.

The girl’s godmother is Pamela DosReis’s sister, Joanne.

Frank DosReis, a veteran corrections officer at the Adult Correctional Institutions, testified that he felt “intimidated” by Williams and had never asked him to stop visiting or sleeping over at their home. He said that Williams, who had house keys, dropped in at least five times a week.

Williams, through spokesman Michael Doyle of the RDW Group, has said that he was only interested in the child’s well-being.

Doyle said Tuesday that Williams will not challenge the order. “I think he’s disappointed that it affects him and many other friends of the family, but he respects the court’s wishes,” he said.

He said that Williams is “optimistic” that the order will be lifted or modified on Oct. 27 and that he will be allowed to “preserve his relationship with the child.”

Williams is married, but he does not have any children.

The relationship between Williams and the DosReis family surfaced last week during two days of testimony in Jeremiah’s courtroom. Frank DosReis and his lawyer, Keven A. McKenna, filed motions seeking to have a restraining order lifted that would allow him to visit his daughter. They also sought to have Williams barred from having contact with the child.

“The DosReis family is not his family,” the motion reads. “That [Williams] has assumed this role, is potentially harmful to the well-being of the child; his inordinate and often times bizarre interference with this family is, in large part, the basis for the parties’ divorce.”

Doyle said he does not know when Williams, whom the girl calls “Chiefy,” last saw the child.

When asked in court by her lawyer, John D. Lynch, whether she ever had a romantic relationship with Williams, Pamela DosReis answered with an emphatic “no.”

Pamela DosReis testified that Williams bought the family a $1,000 television and he paid for a set of tires for her husband’s truck. Frank DosReis told the court that Williams would sit on the toilet and sip wine while his daughter bathed in the tub.

He also testified that he thought Williams’ constant presence in their home was “weird.”

Lynch pressed Frank DosReis and repeatedly asked him why he didn’t tell Williams to leave his family alone. He said that he was “intimidated,” and he referred to Williams as one “of the most powerful men in Rhode Island.”

“I just went along with the flow,” said Frank DosReis.

Williams, who retired from the court in December, has continued to hear cases in the Supreme Court. Doyle said that he has no intention of stepping down despite the recent controversy surrounding the DosReis divorce case.

bmalinow@projo.com