![]() Simmons, Humphrey said, was secured in the back of the cruiser when he was just yards from his home. Humphrey wondered if a reasonable person would feel compelled to go with two armed police officers.ĭid the officers brandish their weapons? Goldberg asked. Flaherty asked whether a reasonable person would have thought he was under arrest when officers said he needed to return to the scene. They are not free to enter into any town.” “You need to call Tiverton,” Humphrey said. Humphrey argued for Simmons that local police can only take action over a town line if they are in hot pursuit. Indeglia observed that the officers could have called Tiverton police. The investigation began, Bergeron said, at the scene of the accident where Simmons refused medical treatment and was allowed to walk around. “What do we tell police officers in this situation? Let him go?” Justice Maureen McKenna Goldberg asked.īergeron responded that if the officers “had failed to act or come to the aid of the defendant then they would have been open to severe criticism.” The officers’ actions were in keeping with a “community caretaking role” as Simmons could have been fleeing a crime or in need of medical attention. Bergeron argued for the Town of Little Compton Wednesday that Simmons voluntarily returned with police to the scene and that it did not amount to an extra-jurisdictional arrest. He was charged with driving under the influence. A chemical breath test showed his blood alcohol content at. Simmons was handcuffed and read his rights after he failed sobriety tests, according to police. Tiverton rescue crews met them at the accident scene, but Simmons refused treatment, police said. ![]() They told him that they didn’t believe so but that he needed to go back to the scene. Simmons asked if he had hurt anyone, according to police. ![]() The officers patted him down “for safety” and noticed a strong odor of alcohol and that Simmons had blood shot eyes. They asked him he had crashed a car, and he responded that he had, according to police reports. They pulled alongside him and asked if he was out for a run. ![]() Harris and Farrar went to search for the running man and found him still running on Stone Church Road, about a third of a mile over the line in Tiverton. ![]() Five minutes later a report came through about a single car crash on Colebrook Road in which the driver had left the scene. 24 when they saw a man run by in shorts and a T-shirt. From the Little Compton police perspective the arrest took place at the accident scene in that town, but a lawyer for Simmons argued police unlawfully placed him under arrest over the town line.Īccording to court records, Little Compton Corporal John Harris and Patrolwoman Caitlin Farrar were assisting at a rescue call on Old Stone Church Road around 3:40 a.m. Hastings dismissed the charge after finding that Little Compton police made an unlawful stop and lacked jurisdiction when they encountered 23-year-old David Simmons running just over the Tiverton line early Christmas Eve 2011.Įxactly where and when Little Compton police took Simmons, of 18 Simmons Lane, into custody was at the crux of the arguments Wednesday. PROVIDENCE, R.I. – The Little Compton police asked the state Supreme Court Wednesday to reverse a lower court ruling that threw out a Tiverton man’s drunken driving charge.ĭistrict Court Judge Colleen M. ![]()
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