A Rhode Island state prosecutor arrested on a trespassing charge outside a Newport restaurant on Aug. 14 is being placed on unpaid leave, the Attorney General’s Office said Friday.
Special Assistant Attorney General Devon Flanagan was arrested after declining with a friend to leave the outside of the Clarke Cook House restaurant.
Police-worn body camera footage of the incident shows Flanagan repeatedly telling police “I’m an A.G.” and “Buddy, you’re going to regret this,” as she’s being handcuffed and the door slams as she is put into a police cruiser.
Flanagan also told police officers to turn off their body cameras, video of the incident shows.
“Protocol is that you turn it off if a citizen requests to turn it off,” she says in the video.
State policy does allow officers to turn off their body-worn camera when speaking to a witness or a victim of a crime. But Woonsocket Police Chief Thomas F. Oates III, who is president of the Rhode Island Police Chiefs Association, said in a statement that “policy does not allow for an officer to turn off their camera at the request of a suspect.”
In a statement, a spokesman for Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha says Flanagan will go on unpaid leave starting Monday. The spokesman declined further comment.
Flanagan is one of 120 Assistant or Special Assistant attorneys general in the state Office of Attorney General. A state database shows her annual salary is just under $113,000.
Flanagan has worked in the attorney general’s office for roughly seven years. She is assigned to the appellate unit of the criminal division.
The Public’s Radio’s Jeremy Bernfeld contributed to this story.
