No Criminal Charges Filed In Wyatt Protest Incident

CENTRAL FALLS, RI — No charges will be filed in connection with a violent incident at Wyatt Detention Center in August, Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha announced on Wednesday. The Providence County Grand Jury reported that following the investigation, no criminal charges are warranted.

"The grand jury worked hard to carefully sort through all the testimony and evidence that was presented to them," Neronha said in a statement. "From my own experience, I am sure that they had to deal with complicated legal and factual issues, including determining the intent of those whose conduct was within the scope of their investigation and whether that intent rose to the level of criminal misconduct. Often, these are not easy issues for grand jurors or trial jurors to grapple with. I am grateful to them for their public service."

On August 14, a captain at the facility was placed on administrative leave after a black pickup truck was driven into a crowd of around 100 protesters. The crowd, members of the group "Never Again Action," were protesting an agreement with the prison and Immigration and Customs Enforcement to house detainees in the prison. The captain, Thomas Woodworth, resigned just one day later.

The investigation into the incident is complete. The findings were presented to the grand jury, which determined that no criminal charges are warranted.

"A peaceful protest – a right enshrined in our Constitution – devolved into an extremely unfortunate incident that could have been avoided had better systems been in place to ensure public safety," Neronha continued. "There is much to learn from this incident. It is my hope that we will do so."

Patch editor Scott Souza contributed to this report.