Report on Lincoln High fatal crash due soon

LINCOLN — The police hope to release some type of report by the end of the week on their investigation of the Oct. 3 crash in which a teaching assistant at Lincoln High School was killed when he drove his car into the school building.

Police Chief Brian W. Sullivan said his department still had two more people to interview its investigation. He said the department was also waiting for a report from the state fire marshal’s office. No one is expected to be charged in the case, Sullivan said.

The driver has been identified as Jay D. Paul, 34, of Cumberland, who worked at the school. Sullivan said the police are convinced some kind of flammable accelerant was in his car before the crash, causing the fire that extensively damaged the entryway he crashed into. Sullivan said the department hopes the fire marshal’s report will be able to determine what type of accelerant was used.

He said the department also wants to consult with the town solicitor about what type of information can be released about Paul.

The crash happened on a Friday afternoon after classes had ended for the day. Students said Paul had been called to the office near the end of the school day and others said they saw him being reprimanded by the school principal.

Paul left the building after school, went somewhere and then returned at about 2:45 p.m., when he rammed his Ford station wagon into an entryway that connected the high school and the old middle school section.

Sullivan said the police have searched Paul’s apartment and didn’t find a suicide note.

— John Hill

State high court upholds zoning ruling

SOUTH KINGSTOWN — The state Supreme Court yesterday agreed that a Brookwood Road plot of land could not be built upon because, excluding wetlands, it did not have enough land to meet requirements of the town subdivision regulations.

Edward and Teresa Timpson, of Narragansett, bought a 5.22-acre plot bordering Ministerial Road. As they prepared to build upon it, neighbors complained that the lot was less than the 80,000 square feet required by town zoning requirements. The lot had been divided at a time when zoning rules were more lax and a property owner could parcel land as long as the lots bordered a road. The Zoning Board of Review ruled otherwise and the case was appealed to the Washington County Superior Court. The court overturned the board’s ruling in 2006, and the Timpsons appealed to the high court, and presented arguments in September.

“After hearing the arguments of counsel and examining the record and the memoranda filed by the parties, we are of the opinion that cause has not been shown,” wrote Justice William P. Robinson 3rd for the court. “Because we hold that the Timpsons’ Ministerial road property has at all times since the date of its creation been an illegal nonconforming lot, we affirm the judgment of the Superior Court.”

— Talia Buford

School board member escorted from council

RICHMOND — Bill Felkner, a member of the Chariho School Committee who was elected to the Hopkinton Town Council, was escorted from the school board meeting last night after a vote that he be removed.

A lawyer for the School Committee, Jon M. Anderson, said Felkner stopped being a committee member when he took the oath of office for the Hopkinton Town Council on Monday night. He said a courtroom, not the Chariho School Committee’s first meeting, was the proper place to decide the dispute.

William Day, in his last few minutes as chairman before Holly Eaves, of Charlestown, was elected to succeed him, polled the other members of the board about whether Felkner should be removed. A majority voted yes.

Richmond police Officer Dan Kelley, who was standing by, was asked to escort Felkner out.

Felkner asked if he could sit in the audience, which included Town Council members from all three Chariho towns, but the officer told him he had to leave the building.

— Donita Naylor

N. Providence supermarket hearing delayed

NORTH PROVIDENCE — The Town Council’s hearing on a proposed zone change to allow developer Churchill & Banks to build a supermarket on 6 acres on Mineral Spring Avenue across from the town’s high school has been postponed to Dec. 15.

Robert S. Ciresi, a lawyer for the developer, requested the postponement at the onset of what was supposed to have been a council hearing on the proposed project Monday night, saying there were still some legal issues he needed to look into. The land was formerly used by an auto salvage business.

— Richard C. Dujardin

Gardner Museum security chief to speak at URI

SOUTH KINGSTOWN — Anthony Amore, security director at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, in Boston, will speak at the University of Rhode Island on Friday about art theft, and in particular about the unsolved heist of 13 priceless works from the Gardner nearly two decades ago.

The two-hour lecture, open to the public as part of the university’s Forensic Science Seminar series, will be presented at 3:30 in Room 124 of Pastore Hall, 51 Lower College Rd.

Amore will discuss his continuing investigation with the federal agents to recover the stolen art works, which include three Rembrandts, sketches by Edgar Degas and a Vermeer. According to the museum’s Web site, during the early hours of March 18, 1990, while Boston city officials wrapped up St. Patrick’s Day festivities, people dressed as police officers walked into the museum and took the art works.

Last spring, the museum reissued its offer of a $5-million reward.

In his lecture, Amore will touch on how widespread art theft is, and will also compare many infamous thefts with the Gardner case.

— Lisa Vernon-Sparks