City man charged with threats to mayor
Woonsocket Police arrest man they say posed ‘credible threat’ to city officials
WOONSOCK(T A city man who allegedly threatened to remove 0ayor Lisa Baldelli-Hunt from her home at gunpoint was arraigned in court on a felony charge Tuesday after spending nearly two weeks in a hospital for a psychiatric evaluation.
0ichael Roy, 33, faces one count of threatening a public official, a charge that had been brewing since Dec. 23, when he was taken into custody after a standoff with the police. They later sei ed several firearms from his home, including two rifles and a handgun, according to 3olice Chief Thomas F. Oates.
Roy made “a variety of threats” against multiple city and state officials, including ov. ina Raimondo, but the most specific was against Baldelli-Hunt, Oates said. Some emerged in a phone call he placed to Woonsocket police headquarters, shortly before his arrest, and others were discovered later, in an incoherent, manifesto-like “declaration” that appeared on his Facebook page, where he demands reparations for an assortment of grievances, including financial losses due to COVID-19.
“He was certainly a credible threat,” Oates said. “He said a lot of different things and he had the ability to carry out what he threatened. He certainly had weapons and ammunition and he certainly could have carried out or attempted to carry out the threats he made.”
In addition to the criminal charges, police filed a civil petition in Superior Court under the state’s comparatively new “red flag” law. On the books since 2018, the law allows the court to issue an “extreme risk protection order” prohibiting Roy from owning firearms for a fixed period of time. Roy has the right to contest such an order during a preliminary hearing, scheduled for Jan. 13.
Roy is free on 10,000 personal recogni ance following his arraignment in Sixth District Court in 3rovidence on Tuesday. As conditions of his release, he must keep away from the mayor, stay off her private property, and seek continued monitoring of his mental health, according to the Mudiciary’s web site.
There’s scant evidence of prior criminal misconduct in Roy’s past. His only other contact with law enforcement, the judiciary’s web site says, was in 2007, when he was arrested for driving on a suspended license.
After Roy called headquarters on Dec. 23, he remained on the phone with officers for some two and a half hours while other police were dispatched to his home. Roy had barricaded himself in the house and refused to come out, Oates said.
The officer Roy spoke to on the phone for much of that time was Sgt. Justin Glode, a trained hostage negotiator. Oates credited Glode with defusing the situation and ultimately convincing Roy to surrender peacefully.
In a purely fortuitous development, Oates said a social worker from Community Care Alliance also happened to be at working at the police station, part of an ongoing partnership between the agency and the WPD, when Roy called. Her first-hand assessment of Roy’s mental state, based on the conversation she heard taking place between Glode and Roy, gave police the probable cause they needed to have him temporarily committed for psychiatric evaluation after he was taken into custody.
Neither Roy’s address nor the hospital where he had been admitted were identified by the police. But in conversation with police, Roy claimed to live a block away from Baldelli-Hunt.
The mayor referred all comments about the case to police officials.
“He made a variety of threats,” the police chief said. “He posted a posted a declaration on Facebook with a number of different issues and problems he had with government in general...In the few hours we negotiated with him he made a direct threat he knew where the
mayor lived and he could go to her house and take her out at gunpoint.”
During the phone call, Roy “made mention he was going to City Hall and throw out” unnamed elected officials and vowed to “shoot anyone who prevented him from doing that,” according to Oates.
He also threatened to “blow City Hall up,’ the chief said.
Roy added the alarming post to his Facebook page at 1 48 p.m. on Dec. 23. The roughly 1,500-word composition reads like a political screed and warns of “an orchestrated civil attack” on Baldelli-Hunt and Raimondo if his demands aren’t met. Among them was a payment of $83,000 in losses he blamed on the state and federal government.
“Now, to protect this Declaration and my party I have made preparations such as moving my wife and kids to a safe place and fortifying and or booby-trapping my private property to secure my party’s safety,” he wrote. “This is not a joke and the countdown to the deadline and has now begun. Remember I have warned you that anyone attempting to breach my property lines before the deadline will be FIRED ON.”
In addition to using “Mike Roy” to identify himself on Facebook, he also refers to himself as “President-Elect Mike Roy.” Based on prior interviews with The Call and other media, it’s known that he used to run a small fruit and vegetable shop in the city, East Side Produce on Cass Avenue – a business that’s no longer in operation. His wife at the time ran the store with him but his Facebook page now describes him as single.
Despite the references to a possible political “party” on Roy’s social media, Oates said police concluded quickly that he was acting alone.
Because he made threats against the governor, Oates said Rhode Island State Po
lice Supt. James Manni was informed of Roy’s arrest. The police also consulted with the Office of Attorney General Peter Neronha to make a joint determination about what to charge him with. But Oates said the WPD is the only agency that will press charges against Roy as a result of his actions on Dec. 23.
Roy had been hospitalized since shortly after his arrest
until midday Monday, when he was returned to the custody of the WPD. He was held overnight at police headquarters before being brought to court the following morning.
Threatening a public official is a felony punishable by up to five years in prison and a fine of $5,000.
Roy is due back in court for another hearing in the case on April 12.
Oates said it’s premature to predict how his medical evaluation might impact the matter. But he said, “This could have ended a lot differently depending on what his mindset was. We just hope going forward he gets the help and the mental health treatment that he needs.”