PROVIDENCE — “Out of an abundance of caution,” a Superior Court judge agreed to give two alleged members of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club more time to convince her that she should step down from the case due to her husband’s 24-year career with the Rhode Island State Police.
Superior Court Judge Kristin E. Rodgers gave Joseph M. Lancia, 28, the alleged president of the state chapter of the Hells Angels, and purported full-patch member Lance Imor, 55, until June 19 to supplement arguments that she should yield the case to another judge due to the appearance of bias or impropriety. State prosecutors will have until June 26 to object. Rodgers will then render a decision.
“The knowledge of one spouse is the knowledge of the other …,” Jason Dixon-Acosta argued for Imor. “It’s a plethora of information that is known to the court that isn’t known to the litigants or their counsel. The reality is the court is married to a member of the state police, a former member of the state police.”
Dixon-Acosta and Lancia’s lawyer, Joseph Voccola, argued that Rodgers should recuse herself or forward the matter to Superior Court Presiding Justice Alice B. Gibney for an evidentiary hearing.
“The appearance is there. How can my clients and the public disabuse themselves of those concerns?” he said.
They looked to Rodgers’ inclusion in her prior ruling details about her husband’s assignments in the state police and participation in a 2004 raid on the Hells Angels’ Messer Street clubhouse.
“The court has rendered a decision imputing knowledge that is not part of the record,” Dixon-Acosta said, adding that he did not think it was proper that Rodgers included details about the 2004 raid in her ruling.
“He was there. That has no bearing on this case,” Rodgers said during the remote arguments Wednesday.
Rodgers is married to now Little Compton Police Chief Scott N. Raynes, who retired as a lieutenant with the state police in February 2018. The couple met in 2004.
In striking down the challenge raised by Lancia and Imor, Rodgers emphasized that her husband worked as the director of the Rhode Island Municipal Training Academy from 2011 through December 2017. He returned to the uniform division until his retirement and was not involved in the raid or writing the search warrants.
Rodgers pressed Dixon-Acosta on whether he was implying that she was biased, noting that no state police attended their wedding or gave them gifts.
“The court is still human. We are implicitly biased in many ways,” he said.
Rodgers pushed back, noting that her husband retired a year before the 2019 raid and only participated in the 2004 raid as a beginning trooper, before they had even met.
Assistant Attorney General Joseph J. McBurney countered that Rodgers included background in the previous ruling to provide context for why she is refusing to step aside. He dismissed as demeaning arguments that Rodgers would be swayed to favor state police witnesses by her husband.
“Your honor can make your own determinations about the credibility of witnesses…The court’s ability to remain fair and impartial is certain,” said McBurney, who is prosecuting the case with Katelyn Revens.
Lancia, of 40 Fanning Lane, Greenville, was arrested in June as part of an investigation into reports of shots fired near the West Side clubhouse.
Authorities say Lancia fired a shot at a Richard Starnino as he drove his truck by the club, striking the car but not injuring anyone.
A grand jury later indicted Lancia on charges of assault with intent to murder, assault with a dangerous weapon, discharging a firearm while committing a crime of violence, and carrying a pistol without a permit, the state police said.
Also indicted was Imor, of West Warwick, on charges of possession of methamphetamine, compounding and concealing a felony, and misprision of a felony, meaning he is accused of failing to inform authorities that a felony has occurred.
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Source: Providence Journal