Crime & Safety

OMG PD: Would-Be Coach Forges FBI Papers

We compile the odd, unusual and 'oh my gosh' police items from throughout the region.

A would-be high school volleyball coach with a colorful criminal history did not keep the job for long, after school administrators discovered he had lied on his application and forged FBI documents. The Cranston man’s application immediately raised red flags, particularly the criminal background check. Instead of coming on official Rhode Island Attorney General’s Office letterhead, it arrived on a blank piece of paper purportedly from the FBI. He also submitted a fake e-mail pretending to be the FBI. The man, who was stepping in for a coach who is suddenly ill, attended a few practices and was about to lead the team in its next game, when the authorities caught up to him. His rap sheet includes grand theft auto and fraudulently collecting thousands of dollars in donations to a private school. Asked if the would-be coach had slipped through the cracks, Johnston Deputy Police Chief David DeCesare said, “Absolutely not. He might have snuck a toe in there, but the whole foot didn't make it through."

Thin blonde takes out two brothers
South Kingstown police officers were on the lookout for a thin blonde who apparently did a number on a couple of brothers near the Ocean Mist bar. They found one 23-year-old man wandering around dazed and his brother holding a busted-up, swollen eye. They said a thin man with sandy blond hair and a goatee, holding a skateboard and wearing a hooded sweatshirt, had hit both of them.

First they crash, then they fight
A Barrington man had a rough day when he got into a car accident, then got punched, then got taken to the hospital. After the accident in a residential area, a 26-year-old Woonsocket man who was a passenger in one car slugged the driver of the other car before police arrived. The victim got a ride to Rhode Island Hospital. The assailant got a ride to the police station.

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Gunning, running and swinging
A 34-year-old Tiverton man tried three times to escape arrest but failed on each occasion. First, he tried outrunning the cops, including driving through a red light, then he got out and tried to outrun the officer, and when that didn’t work, he took a swing at him. That didn’t work either. He was arrested on a host of charges that included DUI.

Driver hits house, hits hydrant, then hides
A 40-year-old Narragansett man allegedly drove his car into a house, then a fire hydrant, then tried hiding the evidence – his car. Officers found the car a short ways down the road underneath a blue tarp. The man’s mother first tried to help him by saying she had been in the car at the time, but witnesses said the driver was alone while careening through the neighborhood. The man eventually admitted that he was trying to cover up the accident because he was worried about going to the ACI – he lost his license in 2004 on a DWI charge. So officers took him to the ACI and he’s being held without bail.

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‘A few beers and some shots’
A 34-year-old Portsmouth man was arrested on his way back from a Newport bar after he drove into a curb, was pulled over and admitted to the officer that he’d had “a few beers and some shots.” He was charged with drunk driving.

Man in rage tears apart home
An Attleboro man in a drunken rage allegedly destroyed the inside of a home he’s renting when he smashed a television, a window, a washing machine and a lot more. A woman and her two children were inside the home at the time. When officers arrived, he made matters worse by screaming profanities at them and calling them "faggots." Before arresting him, they took him to the hospital for treatment.

Dog gets a safe ride home
After East Greenwich police officers pulled over a speeder and arrested the 51-year-old man who was driving on a bench warrant, they had one problem – the dog sitting in the man’s car. One officer drove the car and dog back home, and then they brought the man to the station and then to the ACI.

Driver runs from cops, and gets away
Johnston Police were looking for a 43-year-old North Kingstown man who has apparently outrun the cops not once, but twice. After speeding by a Johnston officer and gunning his Mercedes to 85 miles per hour, the man eventually got away when officers called off the pursuit. They tracked the car’s registration to North Kingstown. Turns out it’s the second time that driver fled from the cops; he also did it in May in his hometown.


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