Documents: Alcohol behind State House ‘break-in’

PROVIDENCE—An intrusion inside the State House office of a high-ranking Democratic lawmaker appears driven more by drunken antics than political intrigue, according to police documents released to The Associated Press.

Detectives briefly investigated what was believed to be a break-in last month inside the office of House Majority Leader Gordon Fox, a Providence Democrat. Authorities dropped the case after a Staet House employee, whose name has not been released, admitted entering Fox’s office. He was not charged.

The intrusion occurred on Sunday, March 22, while a crew was filming a television show pilot, according to documents released under the state’s open records law. A worker on the film crew noticed a man and a woman who looked “drunk all over” inside the State House.

The witness, whose name was redacted, worried that the pair might interrupt the film shoot. The employee asked the woman not to smoke inside the State House.

The employee said the pair later disappeared up a staircase, according to a transcript of an interview.

After returning from the weekend, staff from Fox’s office alerted police upon finding his office “ransacked.“ Police found a hair band on Fox’s couch and a New York Yankees jersey on Fox’s desk. Papers, books and binders were strewn on the floor.

Someone had left cigarette ashes inside the connecting office of Fox’s spokesman, Larry Berman.

The investigation ended when House Speaker William Murphy, also a defense attorney, summoned detectives to his office to meet the state employee who entered Fox’s office. The man, whose name was redacted, told investigators that he and a companion whom he would not name entered the State House to observe the film production.

He went inside Fox’s office after finding Berman’s room unlocked. After the interview, Fox told police that the man had permission to enter his office.

Berman said could not immediately comment on whether the employee has been disciplined.