PROVIDENCE — Governor Carcieri yesterday announced that Stephen G. Tocco, chief of the Rhode Island Capitol Police, has been “temporarily reassigned” while officials examine his role in a 1993 bribery trial in which he avoided prosecution by testifying against a Providence official under a grant of immunity.

Tocco was a Capitol Police officer at the time. He testified that he acted as a bagman who delivered bribes to officials in Pawtucket and Providence from the construction company for which he also worked. A U.S. District Court jury convicted Gary Garafano, deputy public works director for Providence.

Jeff Neal, the governor’s press secretary, who announced the decision to reassign Tocco, said he had been transferred to the high sheriff’s office. He guessed that it would take about two weeks for the governor’s office to decide Tocco’s fate.

Reached last evening, Tocco said, “I do not believe my duties as chief of the Capitol Police are changing. I will be working with the high sheriff. I have been assigned as the governor’s office says, and I will honor my assignment. You take it like a man.”

Tocco, who also is president of the Smithfield Town Council, said he intended no change in that position.

“Sure, I’ll remain on the council,” he said. “Why wouldn’t I?”

James W. Archer, chairman of the Smithfield Republican Town Committee, doesn’t see it that way. He said that Tocco should quit his council post.

“I find it distressing that someone who is president of the Smithfield Town Council spent two years of his life not only delivering bribes to public officials in two cities, but personally overbilled the City of Providence to get money to cover the bribes,” Archer declared.

The governor acted after The Providence Journal inquired whether the governor was aware of Tocco’s background.Neal said on Wednesday that Carcieri “was very surprised and hugely disappointed to learn of Steve Tocco’s role in this public corruption trial.” The story of how Tocco rose to chief and to the presidency of the council is filled with irony and coincidence.

For one, on Nov. 26, 2001, Tocco was sworn in as chief by then-Gov. Lincoln C. Almond.

When Tocco provided incriminating testimony in 1993, Almond was U.S. Attorney, in overall charge of prosecutors.Tocco last week insisted that there had been “nothing hidden” when he was promoted to chief, and said Almond had been aware of his federal court testimony. “There is nothing here, nothing that incriminates my abilities.”

Almond’s recollection was different.

He said Tuesday that he recalled the ceremony, but he was surprised to learn that he had been presiding over the swearing in of a witness who’d been granted immunity during the ex-governor’s tenure as U.S. Attorney.

Although his office prosecuted the Garafano case, Almond related, he had not realized that Tocco the police officer was the same man who had accepted immunity from bribery charges in return for his testimony.

“I never connected the two,” Almond said. “For some reason, I never associated his position with the state with that case. I never thought the two people were the same.”

Tocco had then been a veteran of 22 years on the force, which guards the State House, the courts and other state facilities. He had been acting chief for 15 months.

Tocco picked his late father’s birthday for the swearing-in ceremony.

“I knew my father could not be more proud that I am in this position,” Tocco said at the time, referring to the late William P. Tocco Jr., a state trooper who became chief of the Johnston Police Department. “I was so blessed to have such a role model as my dad.”

The tale of Tocco’s dark background is told in four thick volumes of courtroom transcripts on file in the archive of the U.S. District Court.

Tocco testified that in the late 1980s, he had passed “from a dozen to 20 payments” from the Forte Bros. Construction Co., of Cumberland, to Garafano. He also admitted that he also gave bribes to Louis S. Simon, public works director under disgraced Pawtucket Mayor Brian J. Sarault. Simon and Sarault drew prison sentences.

In an interview last week in his office at the State House, Tocco dismissed his role in the briberies as “something that happened in the ’90s.” He added, “I’ve got no record.” He said that he and Forte Bros. had been the victims in the case, that to have refused to pay the bribes would have meant being shut off from city contracts.

When Tocco sought election to the Smithfield Council in 2004, he apparently neglected to mention the skeleton in his closet to Larry Mancini, the chairman of the Democratic Town Committee. “It was never disclosed to me in any capacity,” Mancini said last week. “If it was disclosed to me and to those who participate in the candidate-selection process, I think we would have weighed that in the context of a viable candidate.”

Mancini added, however, “Knowing him as a person and having the ability to assess his qualities in my mind would have outweighed the negativity. It’s a chapter in his life long past.” Assistant U.S. Attorney Craig N. Moore asked Tocco on the witness stand what his role had been in the Pawtucket case.

“I delivered the moneys,” Tocco replied.

He also described the legal shield he had acquired in return for his testimony.

“…I was granted immunity in the City of Pawtucket case. And I’d be granted immunity in the City of Providence case. . . .”

Tocco said that on the first occasion, James Forte handed him $8,000 in a brown envelope to deliver to Garafano.

“Did you question Mr. Forte about whether you should be doing that?” Moore asked.

“In all honesty, no,” Tocco said.

“Did you personally consider going to law enforcement at any time?”

“I’m in law enforcement,” Tocco said, “so I did have thoughts of that, but I did not, no.”

Forte, vice president of Forte Bros., also testified for the prosecution. But, unlike Tocco, Forte, who was Tocco’s father-in-law, did not escape punishment. He testified under a plea bargain in return for a shorter sentence — six months of home confinement.

In one exchange, Garafano’s lawyer, C. Leonard O’Brien, zeroed in on the enormity of a police officer getting involved in bribery.

O’Brien: Did you take an oath when you became a policeman?

Tocco: Yes, I did.

O’Brien: What did that oath say?

Tocco: To uphold the law, sir.

O’Brien: Did you uphold the law in Pawtucket?

Tocco: I tried to uphold the law, sir.

Tocco says he will run for a third term on the Smithfield Town Council next year. “I have all the confidence that the people will judge me as they see fit,” he said.

He repeated that state officials had been aware of his background when he was named chief.

“Absolutely, they knew about it,” he said. “I was appointed by the director of administration, sworn in by Governor Almond, who was the federal prosecutor who was the U.S. Attorney during this investigation, who brought charges against the individuals involved, working in conjunction with the FBI. It was in the open. I was involved with the FBI for over two years, dealing with them pretty much on a daily basis. There is nothing hidden here — nothing that I feel that certainly incriminates my ability.”

tmorgan@projo.com