J. BROWN

THE SMOKE SHOP SEVEN

Matthew Thomas, 46, charged with disorderly conduct, resisting arrest and simple assault, has served on the tribal council since 1990 and was elected the tribe’s youngest chief sachem since Colonial times. He is married with three children and lives with his wife, Beth, just down the road from the smoke shop site.

John Brown, 49, charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest, serves as the tribe’s medicine-man-in-training and works as its historic preservation officer, trying to safeguard the Narragansetts’ history. He lives in the Ashaway section of Hopkinton and has five daughters and a son. A former medical technician in the Air Force, he has served on the tribal council for 25 years.

Hiawatha Brown, 54, charged with simple assault, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest, works as a stonemason, having learned the craft from his father and grandfather. He has served on the tribal council for much of the past three decades and has acted as chairman of the tribe’s committee for 25 years. He has four daughters and seven grandchildren and lives in East Providence with Annette, his wife of 32 years.

Randy Noka, 50, charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest, is a federally trained law enforcement officer who works at Mohegan Sun. Wearing an otter-tail headdress, he married his wife, Bella, in a traditional ceremony on Indian church grounds. A Richmond native, he was first elected as the tribe’s first councilman a year before they wed.

Bella Noka, 41, Randy’s wife, charged with disorderly conduct, assault and obstructing a police officer, was seated on the tribal council at the time of the raid. The couple has a 5-year-old son, Randy Jr. She has two older children, Norman and Chali, from a previous relationship. Norman was arrested in the raid, but those charges were dismissed in Family Court.

Thawn Harris, 29, charged with simple assault and resisting arrest, works as a federally trained conservation officer for the tribe and has three children. He is studying education at the University of Rhode Island, coaches youth soccer and lives with his wife, Eleanor, and family at the edge of the tribe’s settlement lands.

Adam Jennings, 40, charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest, works as a dealer at Foxwoods Resort Casino. Honorably discharged from the Air Force, he has two sons and a daughter and lives in Richmond.

JUDGE

Judge Susan E. McGuirl, appointed to the Superior Court bench in 2001, earned a reputation as a savvy prosecutor at the start of her career, supervising the successful prosecution in the first trial of Claus Von Bulow, a Danish-born socialite who was later acquitted of trying to kill his wife by injecting her with insulin. She helped broker a plea deal when former Providence Mayor Vincent A. Cianci was indicted for assaulting a man he believed was having an affair with his estranged wife.

She entered private practice and served as West Warwick’s town solicitor when the Narragansett Indian tribe’s casino plans surfaced in West Warwick. All parties involved in the smoke shop trial have said that is not an issue. McGuirl, 55, adopted two Chinese daughters and lives near Providence College.

DEFENSE LAWYERS

William P. Devereaux, 55, is a former assistant attorney general who handled mob prosecutions and environmental cases. He has worked as a lobbyist for casino interests, including Harrah’s Entertainment, the most recent backer of the tribe’s gambling plans. As a defense lawyer, he has helped Roger Williams Medical Center fight corruption charges and represented Todd Barry, whose 2002 confession in the murder of Victoria Cushman led to the release of Jeffrey Scott Hornoff. Devereaux holds a degree from Suffolk University Law School, has a son, and lives in North Smithfield with his wife, Amy.

Kevin J. Bristow, 50, got his start in law at the Brooklyn district attorney’s office in New York, where he prosecuted homicide cases. He worked as a state prosecutor after returning to Rhode Island in 1989, winning the conviction of Joseph Mollicone Jr., Rhode Island’s most notorious embezzler. As a defense lawyer, he represented Rosemary Glancy in the Plunder Dome trial and most recently Kimberly A. Mawson, a mother sentenced to 60 years in prison for killing her 19-month-old daughter. He graduated from Boston College Law School, has three children and lives in South Kingstown with his wife, Laurel.

PROSECUTORS

Special Assistant Attorney General Pamela E. Chin, 36, lead prosecutor in the smoke shop trial, joined the attorney general’s office in 1998 after briefly working in private practice. She oversees all District Court prosecutions for the state and won conviction of Roger Graham for killing Portsmouth motel manager Sanjeev Patel on New Year’s Day 2002. She earned a law degree from New England School of Law and lives in Tiverton.

Special Assistant Attorney General Maria Ferro Deaton, 37, joined the attorney general’s office in 2006 after working as a prosecutor on Cape Cod and in private practice in Yuma, Ariz. She graduated from New England School of Law and lives in East Providence.