Chief Sachem Matthew Thomas testifies in Superior Court yesterday. He and six other Narragansett Indians face misdemeanor charges related to the raid.

The Providence Journal / Mary Murphy

PROVIDENCE — The defense rested yesterday in the trial of seven Narragansett Indians arrested during a state police raid on a tribal smoke shop with testimony from the tribe’s leader, Chief Sachem Matthew Thomas.

Thomas was the final witness in the trial’s fifth week at Providence County Superior Court. Closing arguments are set for Monday.

Thomas, who has led the tribe of about 2,800 since 1997, continued a running theme, saying troopers forcefully pushed onto tribal lands without presenting a search warrant, despite numerous requests for papers. Narragansetts, including his codefendants, and some non-natives rose from their seats as Thomas took and left the stand. His testimony began by tracing his roots to former Narragansett sachems and detailing the federal government’s recognition of the tribe as a sovereign nation in 1983.

Thomas told jurors he wore a shirt and tie the morning of July 14, 2003, because he expected the state to take the tribe to court over the opening of the tax-free smoke shop on tribal land in Charlestown. A meeting with officials from the governor’s office at the Crowne Plaza hotel in Warwick had ended without resolution the day before.

“The last words I said to the governor’s staff was ‘See you in court,’ ” Thomas said. The tribe believed, he said, they had the regulatory authority to open the shop as an economic development venture.

Around 12:30 p.m. he received a call from Tribal Councilman Hiawatha Brown. In response, Thomas said he told acting tribal police chief Lt. Rodney Champlin state police might be coming. Tribal officers were to put their hands up, but let troopers go if they were aggressive. He instructed him to accept a federal warrant.

When troopers arrived about 10 minutes later, Thomas said, he anticipated they would reach out to Champlin. Instead, they pushed onto tribal land, ignoring his demands they show him the search warrant.

“They looked like they meant business and they weren’t talking to nobody,” he said.

He ran up the shop landing after he saw two people apparently thrown down the stairs and Brown being confronted by a trooper, Thomas said. He tried to pull Sgt. Ernest C. Quarry away because he thought he was assaulting Brown, he said. “I didn’t think anyone had the right to go into the smoke shop who wasn’t authorized,” he said.

Working with the Seneca Indians, the Narragansett tribe opened a tax-free smoke shop to brisk business over Governor Carcieri’s objections on July 12, 2003. Two days later, dozens of troopers executed a state-court-issued search-and-seizure warrant to stop the tribe from selling tobacco without charging Rhode Island taxes. Seven Narragansetts face misdemeanor charges related to the raid that carry penalties of up to a year in prison and a $1,000 fine or both.

Thomas is charged with resisting arrest, disorderly conduct and assaulting Quarry, who testified two weeks ago.

Video footage taken by news crews and photos show Thomas with his arms around Quarry apparently trying to remove him from the landing as Brown grabs Quarry’s neck.

Thomas became incensed, he said, when he saw troopers tackle a tribal teenager face first into the dirt and the police taking First Councilman Randy Noka’s family to cruisers in handcuffs. He yelled repeatedly for state police to “show him the … papers.”

He described a conversation with Maj. Steven G. O’Donnell, one of the ranking officers: “I asked, ‘Where’s the paperwork? This is ridiculous.’ He said ‘We’re gonna show it to you.’ ”

Defense lawyer William P. Devereaux produced a video clip showing Thomas decrying the raid as a scene from Mississippi in the 1960s and challenging the governor to fight him in court if he wanted to fight.

Thomas said he then approached Tribal Councilman John Brown, understudy to the medicine man, after Brown called out to him. Thomas said he asked troopers why Brown was getting arrested, receiving a response that they didn’t know.

Lt. Robert Mackisey began pushing him. “Next thing I know, a lot of hands are on me,” he said.

He was shoved into Mackisey by Detective Kenneth Barry, a trooper wearing fatigues who kept a dog on an eight-foot leash and antagonized him throughout the raid, Thomas said. Thomas was brought to the ground by several troopers and handcuffed.

He was first shown the warrant by the tribe’s lawyer after he was taken to the Hope Valley state police barracks. No tribal members were ever charged with selling untaxed cigarettes, he said.

On cross examination by Special Assistant Attorney General Maria Deaton, Thomas agreed that the 1978 settlement that gave the tribe its land specified that state laws applied on the 1,800 acres.

He said he never saw a state trooper hit, kick, spit or use pepper spray during the raid. He said he did not see tribal councilman Thawn Harris strike a trooper. He saw Hiawatha Brown try to close the shop door, but did not see a trooper’s arm in it. Harris is charged with resisting arrest; Brown is accused of assaulting a trooper whose arm was in the door.

Bella Noka, one of those on trial, took the stand before Thomas. She described pushing a trooper’s hand off her husband, Randy, after he had been taken to the ground. She said she was thrown down twice and that Mackisey jammed his knee into her leg and groin as she lay on the ground. She tried to get into a fetal position for protection, she said.

Another trooper spoke in her ear, she said, “he told me to get up like a good little girl and smile for the camera.”

Under questioning by Special Assistant Attorney General Pamela Chin, Noka admitted being upset: “I was angry about the whole ordeal, yes I was. And I was very hurt.” She said she didn’t kick or spit at police.

Noka is charged with assaulting Mackisey, disorderly conduct and obstruction.

kmulvane@projo.com