Randy Noka, far right, and fellow defendants watch a video of the raid.

The Providence Journal / Bob Thayer

PROVIDENCE — In opening arguments of the Narragansett Indian smoke-shop case, a prosecutor told jurors yesterday that the seven defendants hindered the legal execution of a search warrant, while one defense lawyer defined the event as nothing short of an “assault” and the unprecedented attempt by the governor “to do the maximum economic harm to the Narragansett Indians.”

More than four years after the state police stormed onto Narragansett land in Charlestown to stop the tribe from selling cigarettes without collecting state taxes, one of the few unresolved elements of the confrontation commenced in state Superior Court.

Federal courts have already ruled the state police had the jurisdictional authority to cross onto the Narragansetts’ land to execute a search warrant and confiscate the cigarettes. Now a state jury will decide whether the seven tribal members arrested on July 14, 2003, are guilty of various misdemeanors, including disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.

The 16 jurors, including 4 alternates, entered the courtroom in single file yesterday morning to find it jammed with video screens and meandering electrical cords. The vast array of electronics was testament to the extraordinary amount of media videotape and photographs of the clash that the defense and prosecution teams plan to use as evidence.

The Narragansetts had invited the media to the tribe’s land that day to highlight the opening of their shop. The cameras were rolling when the state police arrived in force about the same time as a delivery of cigarettes, and several altercations broke out as tribal members challenged what right the police had to cross onto their land.

What potential weight the videotapes might have revealed itself in opening arguments when defense lawyer Kevin Bristow used television footage to contradict the state police’s version of the arrest of his client, Thawn Harris.

Bristow noted that state police Detective Joseph Philbin had said in two written reports that he saw Harris strike a trooper with his fist and his forearm and try to tackle her. Philbin also wrote that Harris was finally arrested after “several minutes” of resisting arrest.

But in the video clip Bristow showed, Harris — an armed tribal police officer — is seen only momentarily brushing against the trooper as a scrum forms before Philbin throws Harris to the ground. Philbin has him subdued within 20 seconds, said Bristow.

“There was no blow to the back of the head,” said Bristow. “He hasn’t touched anybody, he hasn’t punched anybody. …There was no thrashing or resisting arrest.”

Bristow and fellow lawyer William P. Devereaux, who is representing the other six defendants, also used the video clips to highlight how many times Chief Matthew Thomas and other tribal members are heard demanding to see search warrant papers as the state police advance on the shop.

As the jury would hear later from the only witness to testify yesterday, only one state police officer had the warrant — undercover Sgt. Donald Devine — who, as the clashes were erupting outside, was inside the shop with the warrant folded up in his trouser pocket.

Devine testified that he presented the warrant to the tribe’s lawyer about 10 minutes after the state police entered the property. By then the altercations had ended.

Bristow and Devereaux told the jury there was more at work than the police simply executing a search warrant that day.

They alleged that Governor Carcieri, upset that the Narragansetts were moving ahead with their plans to open the smoke shop, chose confrontation as a means of closing the shop rather than seeking a federal court injunction or simply blocking customers from buying cigarettes.

That is why, the lawyers said, the state police, who a day earlier had sent in an undercover detective to the shop to buy cigarettes, waited until the tribe was expecting a delivery of cigarettes to execute their warrant. Said Bristow: “The reason they were waiting was to do the maximum economic harm to the Narragansett Indians.”

“I submit to you,” said Devereaux, “this was a bleak episode of history in our state. There were so many other ways to handle this.”

For the state’s part, prosecutor Pamela Chin used a series of still photographs to argue her case that the state police were “just doing their job” that day.

“This case is about what happened to the state police troopers when they went to execute their jobs.”

Chin said the Narragansetts, after learning of the impending raid, set up a perimeter in front of the smoke shop and that Chief Thomas had ordered tribal police officers not to allow the troopers onto the property without a federal search warrant.

Chin said one of the defendants, Adam Jennings, who is charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest, became “combative” inside the shop and in resisting arrest incited two other individuals.

Jennings’ ankle was broken as troopers attempted to arrest him.

Chin alleged one of the first troopers to reach the shop had the door closed on her arm and had been struck in the head. Another defendant, Bella Noka, Chin said, jumped “on the head” of another trooper and “tried to gouge out his right eye” as he arrested Noka’s husband, Randy Noka.

Said Chin: “The Rhode Island state police were doing their job. …They used the force necessary…to make the arrests. And at the end of this trial the facts are going to show the defendants are guilty.”

The trial resumes Monday with Devine back on the stand.

tmooney@projo.com