Judge Reviews E-Mails In Smoke Shop Case

PROVIDENCE -- Rhode Island State Police gave a judge hundreds of pages of e-mails relating to the 2003 raid on a Narragansett tribal smoke shop on Monday, weeks after prosecutors said they had shared with defense attorneys all relevant evidence in the case.

Superior Court Judge Susan McGuirl said she will review the e-mails to see which, if any, should be turned over to lawyers for seven Narragansett Indian tribe members arrested for allegedly scuffling with police during the raid. The shop was not collecting state taxes, and a federal appeals court later ruled it was operating illegally.

Forensic experts are still examining state police computer systems to determine if deleted e-mails can be retrieved.

The defendants, including Chief Sachem Matthew Thomas, are charged with misdemeanor crimes ranging from disorderly conduct to assault. Each charge carries a maximum one-year prison sentence, although both sides said it's unlikely any of the seven will be sent to prison.

Lawyers for the tribe members had asked police last year for all relevant evidence in the case. Earlier this month, defense lawyers said they learned not all the documents had been turned over.

They subpoenaed police and received, a few days before the trial was supposed to start, several more documents that they believe could be helpful to the tribe members. They asked McGuirl to dismiss the case because police violated court rules by failing to give them everything.

Prosecutors have said they did not know the documents existed until recently.

McGuirl on Friday ordered police to scour their e-mails for anything relevant. She has not yet ruled on the request to dismiss the case.

State police officials testified for hours last week about why they failed to turn over so much evidence until getting a subpoena from defense attorneys. A detective overseeing evidence handling for prosecutors previously testified that he failed to ask several police units whether they had documents related to the raid on the tribal smoke shop.

A police internal affairs unit has since found tape-recorded statements from one defendant in a file, while a binder containing previously undisclosed police reports was sitting forgotten on a bookshelf.