The FBI-led investigation concludes that the level of force used during the arrest and custody of the man charged with killing a Providence police detective was "appropriate and necessary."

08:39 AM EDT on Wednesday, May 25, 2005

BY GREGORY SMITH
Journal Staff Writer

PROVIDENCE -- The Federal Bureau of Investigation yesterday absolved itself, city and state police of wrongdoing in their treatment of Esteban Carpio, who is charged with murdering a police detective.

Kenneth W. Kaiser, special agent in charge of the Boston office of the FBI, said an investigation shows that law enforcement officers did not use excessive force against Carpio during Carpio's arrest and custody, and that his civil rights had not been violated.

The force they used, including a punch to Carpio's face, was appropriate and necessary, he declared at a news conference at the Providence Public Safety Complex.

An FBI agent, a state trooper and at least two city police officers pounced on Carpio on a downtown street on April 17, shortly after he allegedly shot to death Detective Sgt. James L. Allen at police headquarters.

Kaiser described a fierce 10-minute struggle -- state Trooper Chris Zarrella suffered a broken wrist -- and said the arresting officers used "amazing restraint" in subduing the suspect even though deadly force would have been justified.

The FBI led an investigation into Carpio's treatment, with assistance from the city and state police, at the written request of the NAACP New England Conference. The NAACP did not allege police brutality against Carpio, but said an investigation was warranted.

The televised image of Carpio at his arraignment the day after the shooting, with his face bruised and swollen and half-covered by an unusual white plastic spit shield flecked with blood, attracted national attention.

Journal photo / Mary Murphy

Providence Police Chief Dean Esserman displays one of several photos released yesterday of Esteban Carpio after he was arrested as a suspect in the murder of a Providence police detective.

People from around the country contacted local civil-rights groups to complain that Carpio had been mistreated. Carpio's relatives charged that he had been brutalized by the police, based solely on his appearance at the arraignment.

Carpio is charged with Allen's murder as well as assault on three guards at the Adult Correctional Institutions, where he has been held without bail since the afternoon of the shooting.

The shooting allegedly occurred as Allen was interviewing Carpio in the detective bureau. Carpio wrested Allen's gun away, shot him twice, and then shot out an office window to escape, according to the authorities.

Cliff Montiero, president of the NAACP's Providence branch, said last night that the investigation answered questions and brought unknown details to light, such as the apparent length of time it took to subdue Carpio.

"I'm satisfied [with the conclusion], based on the information that was presented by the FBI," he said.

Carpio's family and friends, however, repeated their denunciation of his treatment.

"That beating he got was uncalled for," said Sandra Negron of Providence, who said she is Carpio's sister-in-law. Negron said her sister is Carpio's girlfriend Samein Phin.

Negron dismissed the FBI review, suggesting that federal agents are protecting the Providence police. Carpio's mother, Yvonne Carpio, of Roslindale, Mass., did not return a telephone call seeking comment.

With Mayor David N. Cicilline and Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch listening, Kaiser described the FBI's findings and answered reporters' questions. Afterward, he refused to release the investigative report, saying the FBI normally does not release such reports.

The officials did, however, fan out on a table a spread of photographs showing Carpio's badly bruised face and cut hands. One of the photos showed his arm tattoo, which consists of a red sun, a pyramid, some palm trees and the words, "Thug Paradise."

On the advice of the attorney general's office, Police Chief Dean M. Esserman told reporters, not all of the available photos would be made public.

Kaiser said the investigators, including two agents experienced in civil-rights cases, interviewed three dozen to four dozen witnesses, and that more than a dozen of those witnesses were not law enforcement officers.

Except for officers, he said, investigators could find no witness who saw the arrest. Nor did investigators find any videotape from surveillance cameras on buildings in the vicinity of the arrest that showed Carpio's capture, he added.

Kaiser summarized what occurred in the confused minutes after Allen's shooting, during the time of Carpio's arrest and until Carpio's arraignment the next day.

In discussing the rationale for the use of the spit shield, he disclosed that Carpio told ACI guards that he might have an infectious disease and that Carpio wrote in his own blood on the wall of his cell that he does have that disease. Kaiser refused to identify the disease.

One of the charges against Carpio is that he spat in a guard's face.

Police officers, an FBI man and Department of Corrections personnel have taken or are taking medicine to stave off the disease that Carpio spoke of, Kaiser acknowledged. He would not identify the medicine.

No formal complaint of police brutality or a civil-rights violation has been submitted by Carpio, his lawyers or his relatives, according to Kaiser. And although they were invited to point out specific incidences of misconduct by officers and offer proof of that misconduct, he said they did not.

Kaiser implied that the investigation had been hampered because Carpio was not made available for an FBI interview and Carpio's medical records were not released. He said only the suspect's obvious injuries are known.

Kaiser listed three locations where Carpio suffered or might have suffered injuries, including possible self-inflicted injuries. When Carpio escaped through the window, Kaiser noted, he left blood and skin on the jagged glass.

He climbed through the window, briefly hung from the window ledge, and dropped about 30 feet to the ground, according to unnamed passersby that Kaiser cited. Carpio gave ACI guards conflicting accounts of how he landed, saying more than once that he fell on his face, and saying other times that he landed on his feet, Kaiser said.

A woman who said that she called a taxi for Carpio after he fled the headquarters described a wounded man.

The woman said, according to Kaiser, that Carpio "had cuts on his face . . . his left hand was bleeding, he had a dent in his forehead, his left leg had a large bloodstain on it, and there was blood dripping on his shoes."

As officers approached Carpio on Empire Street, a few blocks from police headquarters, he ran to Washington Street, where he was tackled during a prolonged struggle in which Kaiser said the officers used only their hands and bodies.

"During this whole time, Mr. Carpio was punching, kicking and attempting to escape," Kaiser said. "He was tackled several times [as he kept getting up] and tried to run away from the arresting officers. At one point, when he attempted to get up, he was punched in the face to get him back down on the ground."

Kaiser would not identify the officer who punched Carpio in the face or say what agency he works for. Other officers, using their fists, also hit Carpio, he added.

"There is no civil rights violation when injuries are incident to arrest," Kaiser said. "Meaning, if he's fighting the police officers, the officers have the right to use whatever force necessary to subdue the subject."

"Once those cuffs were on, they did not touch him again . . .," Kaiser said.

After being treated at the hospital, Carpio was brought back to headquarters and placed in a holding cell with rubber walls. Carpio repeatedly hit his head hard against the walls, according to Kaiser.

With a report from staff writer Michael Corkery.

Digital Extra: View photos of suspect Esteban Carpio in the hours after his arrest, and look back at coverage of the killing of Detective Sgt. James Allen, at:

http://projo.com