Sheriff's department conducts
internal hearing
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) - An
internal hearing by the Rhode Island Sheriff’s Department has begun to
investigate an alleged assault by a deputy inside The Garrahy Judicial Complex
in Providence.
Nicholas Alahverdian claims he
was ‘struck twice, had his arms twisted and was shoved against the wall’ by an
unnamed deputy.
“I did not provoke him in any
way,” Alahverdian said.
Alahverdian, who filed a civil lawsuit on his own behalf, said there were
two separate confrontations with the deputy in 2011, one in February and one in
March.
He said the first one happened
after he tried to enter a courtroom to talk with a clerk.
According to the lawsuit,
Alahverdian was ‘screamed at by the deputy in the hallway, who was also
swearing and acting in a volatile manner’.
Alahverdian recorded a brief
segment of that first incident on his cell phone, prompting the officer to
demand that he give him the device.
“You can’t confiscate my phone,”
Alahverdian is heard saying on the short clip. “Yes I can,” the officer
replies. “No you can’t,” Alahverdian argues during an apparent struggle.
“Watch,” the officer yells right before the recording ends.
“He then threatened to assault me
in the elevator if I didn’t give him the phone,” Alahverdian said.
‘A few weeks later’, Alahverdian
returned to court and was confronted again by the deputy who again demanded to
see his phone. That is when he claims he was assaulted.
“Plaintiff was struck twice,” Alahverdian
wrote in his lawsuit. “Plaintiff had his arms twisted. Plaintiff was violently
shoved against the wall.”
Alahverdian said the incident was
witnessed by several people including Paul Labonte who told Target 12 he
testified during the Sheriff’s Department internal hearing.
“I saw the officer’s elbow and
forearm pull back and then quickly thrust forward causing him (Alahverdian) to
cry out,” Labonte told Target 12.
Alahverdian said he has not been
contacted by the Sheriff’s Department but is relieved an internal hearing is
underway.
“He did not act professionally,”
Alahverdian said. “To further the goal of the Sheriff's department, to keep
people safe.”
A Sheriff’s Department official
said the internal hearing will continue but he did not know when.