Rhode Island assistant AG on unpaid leave after arrest

Rhode Island Special Assistant Attorney General Devon Flanagan was placed on unpaid leave starting Monday after she was arrested outside a restaurant for trespassing.

Flanagan was arrested on Aug. 14 outside the Clarke Cooke House restaurant in Newport, R.I., telling police to turn off their body cameras, saying that they had to upon request, The Providence Journal reported.

"I'm an AG! I'm an AG!" Flanagan told police as they tried to detain her, Fox News reported. "You're going to regret this. You're going to regret it. I'm an A-" Flanagan said as she was escorted into the back of a police car and the door was shut.

"Good for you, I don't give a s---," one of the arresting officers said at one point.

The Newport Police Department said that officers responded to the restaurant around 10 p.m. that night for a report of an "unwanted party."

"They want you guys to leave. Let's just leave. Let's just make it easy," an officer said to Flanagan and another woman who was with her.

The officer then walked over to the restaurant's host station and asked, "You guys just want them out? Do you want them trespassed?"

"Anything we can do. Trespass, yeah. Cuff 'em. Please," a man at the host station said, before Flanagan objected to police detaining her.

Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha on Tuesday called Flanagan's actions "inexcusable behavior" that will likely result in "a strong, strong sanction."

"I've got 110 lawyers. She embarrassed all of them. I haven't had many issues like this while I've been attorney general. I've had a few, and I let one guy go for driving drunk — had to bring him back. Well, I didn't have to but did bring him back after I fired him about a year later because, again, I needed somebody to go into a courtroom and try ugly, hard murder cases," Neronha told WPRO Radio.

"It's just really hard to find and keep capable lawyers, and so I just have to think really carefully about this one. But no question there will be a strong, strong sanction here."

The attorney general added that while it didn't necessarily excuse the behavior, he believed the incident was alcohol-related. He said that Flanagan had an "unblemished" record working for him, is thought highly of by the state bar association, and is taking steps to make amends with the police department, including issuing an apology.

Regarding Flanagan's assertion that police officer had to turn off their body cameras, Neronha said, "I’m not sure what she was thinking. Clearly, she was not thinking straight."

"She’s humiliated herself," he added. "Regardless of what happens vis-a-vis her employment with us, she’s going to have a long time coming back from this. It’s just really unfortunate."

Flanagan was initially put on paid leave, but then Neronha changed it to unpaid leave. Her salary is $117,473.