According to Cranston Mayor Ken Hopkins, a lawsuit alleging he took a car without paying for it is baseless, while rival Republican Barbara Ann Fenton-Fung is calling for State Police and the attorney general’s office to review the matter.
The Superior Court lawsuit, filed by Davide Broccoli, emerged last week. It charges that Hopkins wrongfully took an MG sports car owned by Broccoli without authorization and without any agreement to pay for it.
After Fenton-Fung staged a news conference Tuesday to call for a probe of the claims, Hopkins responded with a statement. He said the assertions made by Broccoli have been rejected by three different courts.
“My opponent is attempting to exploit for her own political purposes a baseless lawsuit filed by a disgruntled property owner and taxpayer Davide Broccoli,” Hopkins said. “Because I would not play the games of my predecessor and give him favorable tax treatment on his excessively overdue large tax payments, he has instituted a meritless lawsuit as a prop for my opponent’s losing campaign.”
Fenton-Fung said many people have asked about the lawsuit.
“This lawsuit alleges the worst forms of public corruption, and we as elected officials cannot stand for this, no matter our political affiliations,” Fenton-Fung said in remarks at her news conference. “The questions raised by this damning lawsuit by Mr. Broccoli deserve full answers.”
Hopkins won election in 2020 with support from Fenton-Fung and her husband, former mayor Allan Fung. That was the same year when Fenton-Fung won election to the Rhode Island House of Representatives, and relations between Hopkins and the Fungs later soured.
A spokesman for Attorney General Peter Neronha declined comment on whether his office would review the matter.
But Cranston Democrats, who hope to regain the mayor’s office in November, issued their own statements.
Democrat Robert Ferri, who will face the winner of the GOP primary, said, “At the very least if these allegations in the lawsuit are found to have merit, then a more substantial investigation by the proper authorities is warranted. If the allegations of the lawsuit, as well as the unethical misuse of city employees in a personal, potentially-criminal matter proves true, then the mayor should strongly consider resigning.”
