'Tested' Cranston officer performed well

Anselmo E. Morales-Torres had no interest in the headquarters building of the Rhode Island National Guard when he captured the attention of the officials tasked to protect it. Instead, nine days prior to Sept. 11, Morales-Torres set out to push the police as far as he could to provoke a reaction that would put him in handcuffs and into the public eye.

What he calls a “First Amendment test” was no test at all. It was nothing more than a trap and Cranston Police Officer Andrea Comella’s sworn duty left her no choice but to step squarely into it.

 Dispatched to investigate a suspicious person photographing the headquarters of the Rhode Island National Guard, Officer Comella came face to face with one of those police encounters that never ends the way it should. The suspect of her investigation arrived with a plan and he was determined to carry it out. Although Officer Comella probably knew before she arrested Morales-Torres that Morales-Torres was going to force her to put him in handcuffs, she demonstrated great restraint and conducted herself the way the public expects its police officers to act.

Despite having been confronted by a respectful police officer, Morales-Torres took every opportunity to be disrespectful and to incite further confrontation until he accomplished what he went to Cranston to accomplish — to get arrested.

 The law permits police to detain a person suspected of criminal activity for the purpose of investigating. That was what Officer Comella did when she arrived on scene and confronted Morales-Torres. Before she arrived, Officer Comella knew that headquarters security personnel reported that a male subject was engaged in reconnaissance-like behavior outside of the military facility. That sort of conduct is as suspicious as it is criminal.

As soon as she arrived, she located and politely engaged Morales-Torres. Comella’s sworn duty left her no choice but to investigate. Driving away and avoiding the clear trap in front of her was not an option available to Comella.

 Those are the things Officer Comella knew when she first spotted Morales-Torres. What she did not know was just how far Morales-Torres would resist her efforts to do her job. Was he dangerous, combative, armed, wanted or alone?

Before Comella could begin her investigation, she absolutely needed to answer those questions. That is Officer Safety 101 and if she failed to follow that protocol, she could have been putting herself, other officers, and the public in harm’s way.

 General Law 12-7-1 permitted Officer Comella to detain Morales-Torres for up to two hours because Morales-Torres refused to identify himself and refused to explain his actions to Comella’s satisfaction. In that circumstance, the law required Morales-Torres to stop what he was doing, identify himself to police, explain his actions and peacefully stand by while Officer Comella determined whether a crime had been committed and, if it had, whether Morales-Torres was the person responsible for committing it.

 Morales-Torres got what he wanted from Officer Comella. His detention and his arrest was his fault. He wasn’t “testing” the First Amendment. He was testing Officer Comella and in the eyes of the law, Officer Comella passed the test.

 John R. Grasso is a Providence criminal defense lawyer, adjunct professor at Roger Williams University School of Law and retired Cranston police officer.