Crime & Safety

Police Log: Got Herself A Gun ... Temporarily

Information about the following incidents was supplied by the North Kingstown Police Department. An arrest does not indicate a conviction.

Friday, Aug. 2

8:46 a.m. – The business manager of Signature Pool and Spas on Pleasant Valley Road told police some cash and checks were unaccounted for from sales that took place on July 25. She discovered the money was missing July 29, when she took receipts for the past week to the bank, but did not report it until now because she thought the money from July 25 may have been misplaced. Police talked to employees, none of whom said anything suspicious had taken place during the week. The manager said there were no signs of forced entry. 

6:59 p.m. – Police arrested Melanie Leigh Brienza, 34, of Yorktown Road, for breaking and entering and stealing a gun from a residence on Pilgrim Drive. Both charges are felonies. The owners of the house told police they'd come home and found the seldom-used front door ajar. Police found the suspect – later identified as Brienza – got into the house through a first-floor bedroom window. The screen was cut so the person could unlock the closed window. Several items, including a semi-automatic pistol and ammunition, a laptop computer, two gold watches and assorted jewelry, were found to be missing. A pack of menthol Pall Mall cigarettes and an organizer were found in the kitchen – neither of which belonged to the occupants of the house. In the organizer, police found Brienza's state-issued I.D. card as well as the Social Security card for a man. Police learned both Brienza and the man lived on Yorktown Road. At that residence, police spoke with Brienza and the man separately, as well as the homeowner. The homeowner said Brienza came back from a store run carrying a suitcase. He thought the contents may have been stolen so he asked that the case remain outside. Police found the suitcase in the backyard. The contents matched those that were missing from Pilgrim Drive. Brienza was taken into custody. 

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2 p.m. – Police told a resident of Merrill Lane to turn down the music that was playing loudly in her apartment. After being confrontational at first, the woman agreed to lower the volume. This was the third time in 14 hours that police had been called to the residence because of loud music complaints.

8:15 p.m. – Police were called to Electric Boat at Quonset because of a fight between two workers over a piece of equipment. The alleged aggressor had demanded he be able to use a crane being used by two other men. When the men told the first man they were still using the crane, the alleged aggressor threw one of the men to the ground, then punched him two or three times with a closed fist after the man stood up again. The man who was hit said he did not want to pursue charges. He'd been treated at EB and declined further treatment.

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Saturday, Aug. 3

8:36 a.m. – Police assisted NKFD at the scene of a bike accident on Annaquatucket Road at Prospect Road. The bicyclist, of North Kingstown, told police he was jumped by a dog while riding on Annaquatucket Road, which caused him to go head first over the handle bars. The dog's owner told police the dog had broken free from his fenced-in yard and jumped the bicyclist before the owner could stop him.

7:16 p.m. – Police arrested James A. Casey, 41, of Ewing Road, for disorderly conduct after he accused his stepson of hitting him with a baseball bat. Casey was arguing with his wife and the stepson walked halfway down the stairs, holding the bat. The stepson, age 22, said he never hit Casey with it and on further questioning, Casey conceded the younger man could not have purposefully hit him. Casey was taken into custody, arraigned at the station and taken to the ACI because he could not make bail.

Sunday, Aug. 4

1:04 a.m. – Police arrested Gabriel Valentin Watelier, 24, of Saw Mill Drive, on a Sixth District Court bench warrant after people complained about the noise from his skateboarding on Saw Mill Drive. Routine checks turned up the bench warrant. He was processed at the station. Unable to make bail, Watelier was taken to the ACI.

3:40 a.m. – Police were called to Union Drive on a noise complaint. The caller said there was a car parking on the street that was revving its engine. Police found the car and inside a man was slumped over the center console with a glass pipe in his hand. Police could see several open, used syringes in the front of the car. The driver also had a folding knife on the seat with him. The man told police he didn't use drugs, but his sister came out of the house and said he was a drug user and she took custody of the man.

10:55 a.m. – Police arrested George Henry Begin, 61, of West Main Road in Middletown, on several counts of obtaining money under false pretenses, after he was found to be soliciting businesses on Post Road on behalf of a veterans foundation. According to the owner of Kingston Pizza, Begin asked him for a donation but left quickly when the owner asked to see documentation. The owner said the man's disheveled appearance made him suspicious. Police found Begin walking south on Post Road. He showed police documents from the Department of Business Regulations dating from 1995 to 2000, in which Begin is identified as the chief officer of New England Paralyzed Veterans. He did not have a peddling license and didn't think he needed one, he told police. Police issued a municipal court summons for peddling without a license. In the subsequent investigation, however, police learned Begin had been successfully soliciting at numerous NK businesses for years. Police spoke with the executive director of Paralyzed Veterans of New England who said she'd received several complaints about Begin and that he had never been employed by the organization. Based on those facts, a warrant was issued and Begin was taken into custody by Middletown police.

12:36 p.m. – Police reported to Roberts Way on a report of gunfire and found a man shooting an AR-15 rifle in the woods behind his house there. The resident told police he'd talked to NK police a few weeks earlier and was told he could shoot his gun on his own property as long as there was 600 feet between the target and occupied dwellings. Police confirmed that the resident was firing his rifle in a safe and responsible manner but advised him to find another place in the future.

7:54 p.m. – A Saunderstown woman told police her husband, from whom she is getting a divorce, put a GPS device on her car, tracking her to Town Beach. The husband told police he had not planted a GPS device and that he was at the beach with their children coincidentally. Police told both parties to avoid unnecessary contact and told the woman to contact them if a GPS device was found on the car.

8:20 p.m. – The National Guard told police someone had crossed the "red line" onto NG property, at which point members are authorized to use deadly force. The National Guard stopped the driver, who told police he was with the company filming a commercial on the runway at Quonset Airport and he was only driving back to his trailer and hadn't realized about the "red line." The man was cooperative and the Guard said they would not press charges.


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