Providence police sergeant accused of beating handcuffed man pleads guilty

PROVIDENCE – The lengthy legal battle of a Providence police sergeant accused of kicking and punching a handcuffed man ended Friday when the sergeant pleaded no contest to a charge of simple assault in Providence Superior Court.

Superior Court Judge Melissa Darigan received Sgt. Joseph Henley’s request and ordered him to serve a year of probation. She also imposed a no-contact order.

Before pleading guilty, Henley faced a third trial after two mistrial in appeal proceedings in the Supreme Court earlier this year and a guilty plea in District Court in 2021.

“At some point, practicality has to take its rightful place in the equation to achieve some level of finality,” said Sgt.’s attorney, Michael J. ringlets

Prosecutors asked Darigan to commit Henley to the Cranston Adult Correctional Facility for 90 days and suspend the remainder of the term, which would have been one year, said Timothy Rondeau, a spokesman for Attorney General Peter F. Neroncha

In addition to that term, they also asked Darigan to give Henley one year of probation, a no-contact order and 100 hours of community service, Rondo said.

Colucci later said Henley’s sentence “is in line with what should be given to a first offender.”

A long legal process since the first days of the pandemic

After a trial in District Court in 2021, Judge Brian Goldman found that Henley kicked and punched 28-year-old Richod Gore as he lay handcuffed on a Federal Hill sidewalk in April 2020.

This first trial follows protests, riots and unrest in 2020 across the country following the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

At the time, prosecutors dismissed charges of disorderly conduct and resisting arrest that Gore faced during his arrest.

On the witness standGore donned a Black Lives Matter mask.

Colucci argued that the sergeant’s actions were within the standards of use of force and justified opposing Gore’s “active resistance.”

At Goldman’s sentencing in the case, he said Henley kicked Gore in the side, punched him, put a knee on Gore’s head and jumped up and down, kicked him in the head and walked on his legs.

He said he found each of Gore’s five beatings on April 19 to be “unwarranted, unnecessary and illegal” under the law and sentenced the sergeant to one year of probation.

Henley’s second Supreme Court jury trial ended differently. Darigan found the jury deadlocked. She reported an error.

An administrative case awaits the sergeant

Hanley has been suspended since 2020 and has not been paid since the end of 2020, but he remains a Providence police officer.

The closure of Hanley’s lawsuit puts on hold the city’s pending action to fire him through an administrative proceeding governed by the Law Enforcement Officers’ Bill of Rights.

Henley worked as a martial arts instructor, as he had for most of his career, Colucci said Friday.

This article originally appeared in The Providence Journal: Security officer accused of assaulting handcuffed man pleads guilty