NAP- Neighborhood Alliance of Pawtucket

Mom needs a big KUDO!

Aug 06, 2004

Mom helps cops make bust


Kevin P. O'Connor 08/06/2004


PAWTUCKET -- The Darlington crew had an adventure going on this summer that gave them a place to hang out and a way to make their mothers happy.

But it wasn?’t long before an unhappy mom blew the whistle on her son and hisgang of alleged law-breaking pranksters.


The suspects will learn about the legal ramifications of their adventure later this month in Family Court.

Detectives sent out summonses Thursday to five juveniles, ordering them to report to Family Court to answer charges that they broke into Teknor Apex, 505 Central Ave., and to a warehouse for Paramount Restaurant Supply, 413 Central Ave., on July 26 and again on Monday.

Business owners in the area had been complaining for the past week about petty vandalism in the area -- graffiti on the walls and rocks thrown through windows.

It escalated in late July, with the vandalism carried into the buildings where fire extinguishers were discharged, walls were marked with street graffiti and, eventually, someone used a warehouse floor as a toilet.

Uniform officers on the evening and midnight shift began watching everyone they saw hanging out in the area and taking notes on when they spotted them on the streets.

The break came on Tuesday, when a woman called the police and told officer David Medeiros that she found a commercial-grade fire extinguisher in her son?’s bedroom. Medeiros reports remembering that a fire extinguisher had been stolen in one of the breaks, so he called in detectives.

"The mother of this young man was very cooperative," said Detective Kevin Santurri. "In fact, all of the parents involved cooperated with this investigation.

"Once we got that call, we started work."

Santurri, Detective Donti Rosciti and Detective Sgt. Robert Tomlinson began to question the juveniles in the police station. Detective Michael DeMoranville went to the homes of the teen-agers and seized their sneakers.

He matched the shoes to footprints he found left in the powder discharged from a fire extinguisher at the Teknor Apex warehouse, police allege.

DeMoranville also came up with fingerprints linking the teen-agers to the breaks, police say.

"We feel we had enough to arrest these young men with the evidence we collected, but the cooperation from the parents made this a lot easier," Santurri said.

The families also helped the police recover the commercial grade blenders and microwaves stolen from Paramount Restaurant Supply.

"They had given the items to their parents with a story about where they got it," Santurri said. "Some of the parents had the equipment set up on their counters.

"We believe we recovered all of the items stolen."

All five young men, ages 15 to 17, will face a variety of charges from vandalism to breaking and entering. All of them will be tried in Family Court.

Even if convicted, their juvenile record will not be carried over to their permanent adult record. Part of the sentence could carry over to adulthood.

"We will ask the court to order restitution for all of the damage caused and for the loss to the businesses," Santurri said.



?©The Pawtucket Times 2004