In a disturbing case of serious police misconduct, ACLU of Rhode Island cooperating attorneys have filed a lawsuit today on behalf of a Woonsocket resident, Mack Blackie, who was twice unlawfully and falsely arrested and detained by Woonsocket police, and criminally charged and incarcerated for crimes he did not commit.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court against Woonsocket police officer Timothy Hammond and the City of Woonsocket, argues that the series of actions taken against Blackie violated his constitutional right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures, and constituted false arrest and imprisonment and malicious prosecution. The suit was filed by ACLU of RI cooperating attorneys Joshua Xavier and Chloe Davis.
In August 2022, an apartment was broken into in Woonsocket. One of the residents, William Grover, told an investigating police officer that the individual who had entered the home was known to him as “Black.” Later, officer Hammond met with Grover and asked multiple times if Mack Blackie was the perpetrator. Mr. Grover — who knew both “Black” and Blackie — explicitly stated it was not Blackie, a Liberian, and even described the differences in physical characteristics between the two men.
Officer Hammond then failed to schedule a promised photo line-up so Grover would be able to identify “Black.” Instead, Hammond falsely wrote in his witness statement, and later reiterated in his application for an arrest warrant, that “Grover positively identified the suspect male as being Mack Blackie.” Blackie was arrested soon after. Due to a medical condition, Blackie collapsed in the courtroom the next morning after being held overnight and was taken to an intensive care unit. A few months later, he was rearrested and charged with felony breaking and entering and with assault based on the August 2022 incident.
Because he was on probation at the time, Blackie was incarcerated for 17 days without bail as a probation violator. When bail was finally set, he could not afford the $100 cash required for release, resulting in his continued incarceration for an extra 13 days, until an employee of a non-profit organization where he volunteered posted the money for his bail.
In February 2023, at a pre-trial conference in the case, Grover saw Blackie in the courthouse hallway. Immediately, he realized the Woonsocket Police had arrested the wrong man, and he informed the prosecutor. The charges against Blackie were then dropped. While Hammond was later suspended for 10 days and demoted for “fail[ing] to follow standard investigative procedures,” he remains on the force.
The ACLU-sponsored lawsuit seeks compensatory and punitive damages for Blackie as well as a formal judgment that his constitutional rights were violated.
ACLU attorney Xavier said today: “This is a tragic case in which Mr. Blackie was unlawfully arrested and detained twice, criminally charged, incarcerated for over 30 days, and prosecuted over the course of several months for crimes that he did not commit. Portions of Mr. Blackie’s life were taken from him that he will never get back because of the unlawful actions taken against him, and he has suffered significant emotional distress, pain, and suffering as a result. This case demonstrates that the harm caused by injustice is exacerbated significantly when the victims of the injustice are indigent. Mr. Blackie was forced to remain incarcerated for an extended period of time simply because he could not afford to make bail.”
