Defendant Michael Ciresi in court.

The Providence Journal / Andrew Dickerman

PROVIDENCE — Mark Pine, a key witness in the trial of suspended North Providence police Sgt. Michael Ciresi, took the stand yesterday, testifying the policeman assisted him at least five times in stealing tires and rims from a dealership by letting him know if the police were coming.

Pine, now serving a 15-year sentence at the Adult Correctional Institutions for burglarizing the home of a suspected drug dealer two days before Christmas 2004, has told the police that the firearm that officers retrieved from the scene was one given to him by Ciresi, along with black gloves and a mask.

Ciresi is being tried on 10 charges, including two counts of burglary, two counts of conspiracy to commit burglary and using a firearm when committing a crime of violence.

Assistant Attorney General Matthew Dawson said the counts also include receiving stolen property, attempted larceny of money from a stolen ATM machine, harboring of a criminal and obstruction of a police officer.

A charge of receiving a stolen gold and diamond bracelet was dismissed yesterday by Superior Court Judge Robert Krause after the defense noted a discrepancy in the date of the alleged crime. The prosecution acknowledged that the date in a grand jury indictment was more than a month off.

The trial opened with testimony by Heather Croce, who described the scene in the apartment at 459 East Ave., Pawtucket, that she shared with her boyfriend, Alexander Quintana. She said she always thought her boyfriend, who dealt drugs, was paranoid that they were being watched, and that when he woke her around 12:30 a.m. on Dec. 23, 2004, to say he thought someone was breaking in, she told him to go back to sleep.

But then, she said, she heard voices near the rear entrance and called the police. Just as she made contact with a dispatcher, a masked man carrying a gun and dressed in black burst into the apartment, shouting “freeze.” She thought it was a police raid, but then saw the man move room to room, smashing dishes and vases and demanding to know the location of “the money.”

Jurors heard a recording of Croce’s frantic 6-minute 911 call. The police arrived a few minutes later and took the burglar — later identified as Pine — into custody while Croce jumped from a window into the arms of a police officer.

The police found a handgun behind a wastebasket in the pantry, which they later traced to Ciresi.

Dawson said the state will attempt to show during the trial that Ciresi and Pine planned the burglary and Ciresi put Pine up to it by supplying him with the mask, the gloves and the gun.

In his testimony yesterday, Pine said he met Ciresi in 2000 after North Providence police arrested him for driving on a suspended license and planned to add more charges, thinking he was his brother, Troy.

After the police realized he was not Troy, he said, they still took an active interest in him, thinking he might be able to supply information about drug dealing. Although he denies being a police informant, Pine said he took up Ciresi’s invitation to call him whenever he wanted. He said the two of them struck up a relationship, talking by phone and in person nearly every week.

He said he eventually came to see Ciresi as a “friend” and someone he could trust, and that he eventually told him about his own criminal activity, including stealing tires and rims from dealerships. It got to the point, he said, where Ciresi would help him out — using his lights to signal to him that the police were coming — when Pine was taking tires from the Rizzo Ford dealership in North Providence. Generally, he said, he would reward the policeman by offering him $150 to $200 from the $500 he made selling the stolen rims.

Pine also described an alleged incident in which after stealing a car from a Nissan dealership in Attleboro, he got stopped by Pawtucket police but managed to speed off and ditch the car. He said he took refuge in an alley next to a pizza shop and phoned Ciresi, who he says picked him up and took him home.

rdujardi@projo.com