Narragansetts working inside the tribe's tax-free smoke shop say they believed they were being robbed when plainclothes state troopers confronted them in the July 2003 raid.

01:00 AM EST on Tuesday, March 22, 2005

BY KATIE MULVANEY
Journal Staff Writer

PROVIDENCE -- A moment of chaos unfolded inside the Narragansett Indians' smoke shop on July 14, 2003 -- on that, everyone agrees. But exactly what happened in those seconds was the subject of arguments yesterday in U.S. District Court.

The jury trial began yesterday in a civil lawsuit that accuses seven state troopers and state police Supt. Steven M. Pare of using excessive force and violating three shop workers' rights when they raided the smoke shop that day. The suit was brought by Narragansett elder Paulla Dove Jennings; her son, Adam, and shop manager Keith Huertas, a Pueblo.

By the Indians' accounts, shop workers thought they were being robbed when the raid began. They were thrown to the floor and against the wall by customers later revealed to be undercover police. Those officers never showed badges or a search warrant, said lawyer Michael Bradley.

"The evidence will show . . . there is very little resistance going on," Bradley said. Some of the troopers' actions, he said, were motivated by race.

The state police contend they were under orders to execute the search-and-seizure warrant on the shop. The troopers used a level of force appropriate to the resistance they faced, said Assistant Attorney General Rebecca Partington.

These are "well-trained, well-seasoned troopers. Nobody overreacted," Partington said.

The case, she said, "comes down to credibility." "You're going to have to decide what really happened," Partington told the 10-member jury.

In particular, the jury was asked to consider how Adam Jennings' ankle was broken.

Jurors viewed a one-minute clip of state police video taken inside the smoke shop. The segment showed four troopers placing a struggling Jennings under arrest as his mother wailed "Keep your hands off my son."

Jennings can be heard saying "I'm not getting arrested," and later, "ow, my leg" is heard on the clip. Jennings had previously undergone surgery on the ankle.

Bradley called Trooper Kenneth Jones to the stand. Jones, who joined the state police in 1997, said he used the "ankle-foot-turn-control technique" on Jennings' leg after he became combative. Jones said he was unsure whether Jennings was armed when he refused to be handcuffed.

"Show your hands. Stop resisting," Jones said that he and others told Jennings repeatedly.

But Bradley challenged Jones' credibility, pointing out inconsistencies between an October deposition and yesterday's testimony. In the deposition, Jones said he had learned the day after the raid that Jennings' ankle had been broken.

He testified yesterday that he didn't know the ankle was broken and later said, "I feel that I didn't break his ankle. I didn't hurt Adam Jennings' ankle in any way."

When pressed about the apparent inconsistency, Jones responded, "The day of the deposition, I didn't have the opportunity to prepare myself."

Bradley also called Cpl. Wilfred Hill and Huertas as witnesses. Hill, 13-year veteran of the force, said Jennings swore at the troopers and told them they didn't belong on tribal land. Hill backed up Jones' statements that Jennings resisted arrest by twisting side to side on the floor of the smoke shop, near the door.

Huertas, who is married to a Narragansett, said he rushed to Paulla Jennings' defense when he saw her being pushed against the wall near the door.

"I was under the impression we were going to be robbed," he said. He found himself scuffling on the floor with Detective Ken Bell, who he said he believed was a customer. There was "no warrant, no badge," he said.

The struggle irritated a back injury, he said. Huertas' testimony will resume today in Chief U.S. District Judge Ernest C. Torres' courtroom.

In the suit, Huertas, Adam Jennings and Paulla Dove Jennings claim the state police violated their rights to equal protection under the law and freedom from illegal search and seizure. They are seeking unspecified damages. Hill and Jones are among the seven troopers named as defendants. Also being sued are Pare, Bell, James Demers, Kenneth Buoniauto, Staci Shepherd and Michelle Kershaw.

The state police raided the smoke shop two days after it opened on tribal lands in Charlestown. In a separate court case filed after the raid, the state argues that the tribe was breaking the law by selling tax-free cigarettes. The tribe claims that, as a sovereign nation, it is outside state taxing authority. The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is expected to rule in that case shortly.

Adam Jennings and seven other tribal members were arrested in the raid. The state agreed to delay criminal prosecution in that case until the sovereignty issue is decided.