The City of Woonsocket has agreed to pay $550,000 to settle a lawsuit by the Rhode Island Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union for wrongfully arresting and incarcerating a homeless man for a 2022 break-in.
The federal civil rights lawsuit alleged that Mack Blackie’s civil rights were violated when he was twice arrested and detained by Woonsocket police for a crime he didn’t commit.
Blackie spent more than a month locked up at the Adult Correctional Institutions on the felony breaking-and-entering charge because he couldn’t afford to pay the bail. (The felony charge has been dismissed and the case expunged from Blackie’s record.)
“This case serves as a stark reminder that our government continues to fall short of living up to the promises guaranteed by our Constitution,’’ Joshua D. Xavier, a Warwick lawyer representing Blackie on behalf of the Rhode Island ACLU, said in a statement released by the ACLU Thursday.
Woonsocket City Solicitor Michael J. Lepizzera, Jr. said in an email that “the city is pleased that the matter is behind Mr. Blackie, the officer involved and the Woonsocket Police Department (WPD).” Lepizzera credited the officer involved for “acknowledging his mistake” and agreeing to a demotion from detective to patrol officer.
“For so many years we have heard public outcry across the state with respect to long drawn out disciplinary disputes involving police officers invoking the Law Enforcement Officers’ Bill of Rights (LEOBOR),’’ Lepizzera said. “To his credit, this officer did not invoke his legal rights under LEOBOR and stayed the course by not only accepting responsibility with words but likewise with actions.’’
(Legislation to strengthen police oversight under LEBOR has repeatedly been thwarted in Rhode Island.)
The lawsuit, filed last October in federal court in Providence, alleged that the city and Woonsocket Police Officer Timothy M. Hammond “violated (Blackie’s) constitutional right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures, and constituted false arrest and imprisonment and malicious prosecution,’’ the statement said.
(Blackie’s struggle to regain his health and sobriety were chronicled in The Public’s Radio’s 2022 series, Chasing The Fix. Blackie, 37, has now been sober for nearly three years but still has no permanent home.)
Blackie was homeless and struggling with alcohol addiction when he was wrongfully arrested and detained twice in 2022 and charged with breaking into the apartment of a Woonsocket couple.
According to the suit, Officer Hammond, who was then a detective, made “false statements” in his recording of a witness statement, as well as in affidavits in support of Blackie’s arrest in August of 2022 and again the following October. And though Hammond told the witness that he would arrange a photo line-up so the couple could ID the suspect, Hammond never did. (Woonsocket police suspended Hammond without pay for 10 days and demoted him to patrol officer.)
It wasn’t until a court hearing in February 2023 that the crime’s only witnesses finally got a look at the man police had charged with breaking into their apartment. And the couple said they knew instantly: the police had arrested the wrong man.
Xavier, the lawyer representing Blackie, said that his client has experienced “significant emotional distress and suffering” as a result of his arrest and incarceration. The suit sought unspecified monetary damages, including compensation for pain and suffering, as well as legal expenses.
Almost $84,600 of the $550,000 settlement will pay for attorney fees, Steven Brown, executive director of the ACLU of Rhode Island, said in an email. The roughly $465,400 pre-tax remaining will go to Blackie, who has been earning about $300 a week bussing tables at an Olive Garden restaurant.
“It’ll help me a lot to get my own place,’’ said Blackie, who has been sleeping on a friend’s couch because he can’t afford to rent an apartment.
Blackie said he also plans to buy a car so he won’t have to spend 1 ½ hours each day on two buses to get to work. And he’s hoping to start a college fund for his daughter, who is now in 10th grade.
