Paul D. Grieder, right, was joined by his lawyer J. Ronald Fishbein, in Superior Court yesterday for his sentencing.

The Providence Journal / Bill Murphy

PROVIDENCE — With the click of handcuffs, a Barrington man was taken from the courtroom and sent to state prison yesterday because he failed to make court-ordered payments to a Warwick man whose skull he cracked in a 1988 brawl.

Paul D. Grieder, 42, who lives with his parents on Linden Road, must serve 30 days at the Adult Correctional Institutions for willful contempt of court because he did not make payments to Michael P. Trainor during a portion of 2002.

Superior Court Judge Daniel A. Procaccini told Grieder that people “who are far more disadvantaged than you” come to the courthouse every day to pay fines and other court-ordered payments.

“You simply refuse to do so,” Procaccini said. “You work. You are able bodied. The key to your jail cell is in your pocket. Apparently, it is going to remain in your pocket for the next 30 days.”

Since a 1992 civil judgment, Grieder has paid about $21,000 toward the $1.5 million he owes Trainor for the assault, which occurred outside a Providence nightclub and left Trainor with a loss of hearing. With interest, the debt now totals nearly $5 million.

Procaccini told Grieder, “You have had ample opportunity to comply with various orders of this court.”

He noted that in 2002, now-retired Judge Stephen J. Fortunato Jr. ordered Grieder to pay Trainor $400 per month, but he said Grieder did not comply and was found in contempt of court.

In 2004, Procaccini tried to double Grieder’s obligation to $800 per month, saying Grieder is “able bodied, educated and highly employable, far more than he is presently employed.” Lawyers have said Grieder paid Trainor a lump sum of $5,800 in 2004 and made monthly payments for a time before payments became sporadic and then stopped.

Earlier this year, the Supreme Court overturned Procaccini’s 2004 ruling, saying it sympathized with Trainor but that proper procedures had not been followed for revisiting the issue of how much Grieder could pay. The high court reinstated the $400-a-month requirement and sent the matter back to Procaccini to sanction Grieder for contempt of court.

On Oct. 4, Procaccini told Grieder that he would send him to the ACI for 30 days unless he paid $3,000 to Trainor and $1,000 to Trainor’s lawyer within 60 days. But Grieder, who has been working three times a week as a “floor host” at the Cadillac Lounge strip club, did not make any payments during that period.

On Wednesday, Grieder’s lawyer, J. Ronald Fishbein, asked Supreme Court Justice Francis X. Flaherty to halt the 30-day prison sentence pending an appeal, arguing that Grieder had not been served with required legal papers more than a decade ago. But Flaherty refused, saying Grieder had waived the requirement to be served with those legal papers because he continued to participate in court hearings.

“So sir,” Procaccini told Grieder yesterday, “I think you have received a full measure of justice from the court system.”

In seeking to halt the sentence, Fishbein had said that Grieder, a vegetarian, was concerned about whether “his dietary needs would be met at the ACI.” But Procaccini told Grieder, “I have confirmed they can accommodate your concerns with respect to your diet.”

Procaccini sentenced Grieder to 30 days behind bars, saying, “Good luck to you, sir.” With that, Grieder was handcuffed, and three sheriff’s deputies escorted him from the courtroom in the Licht Judicial Complex.

Afterward, Fishbein said he does not plan to appeal to the Supreme Court but is planning to return to Superior Court — either on the formal and special cause calendar or through a separate legal action. He intends to argue that court orders calling for Grieder to pay Trainor are invalid because Grieder was never served with a legal document called an execution, notifying him of the debt. Also, he intends to argue that Trainor signed a document falsely claiming Grieder had been served with the execution and it was returned unsatisfied.

Fishbein said Grieder does not have enough money to pay Trainor $400 per month. He said Grieder had to borrow money from friends to pay the $5,800 in 2004. After that point, Grieder paid $400 a month for a period but then was only able to pay $100 “here and there,” and “that was received in such a negative way, it was as if he was making no payments,” he said. “So he just stopped.”

Fishbein disagreed with the idea that his legal arguments amount to a “technicality,” saying, “The law is the law, and a litigant is entitled to rely upon the law without a consideration of abstract justice.”

Neither Trainor nor his lawyer, Robert M. Brady, attended yesterday’s court session. When reached afterward, Brady said, “I take no satisfaction in seeing him go off to prison, but it’s entirely his choice. He admits he owes the money to Trainor, but he won’t pay it.”

Brady noted that after Grieder was convicted of felony assault in 1990, he received a suspended prison sentence and three years’ probation. “He got away without jail for the crime, but now he’s going to jail because he won’t pay the civil judgment imposed as a result of his crime,” he said. “That’s a bizarre individual.”

efitzpat@projo.com