City man accused of threatening mayor to have ‘red flag’ hearing
Proceeding would bar Michael Roy from firearm possession for one year
WOONSOCKET — A “red flag” hearing on the man accused of threatening Mayor Lisa Baldelli-Hunt last month has been postponed until Feb. 18, police say, but don’t expect to find out much when it finally does happen.
The 2018 statute that allows the Superior Court to strip gun owners of their weapons makes such hearings entirely confidential, says Craig Berke, a spokesman for the judiciary.
“We have given out aggregate data to media and researchers around the country, as RI was among the first to pass this legislation, but no case-specific data,” Berke said via email.
Michael Roy, 33, who lives a few hundred yards away from Baldelli-Hunt and her family in the North End, was arrested after a standoff with police on Dec. 23. Police say they surrounded his home and took him into custody after some two hours of negotiations and later seized two assault rifles and a handgun from the residence.
Police say Roy made a smorgasbord of rambling threats against Baldelli-Hunt and other elected officials, some of which appeared on social media the same day he was arrested. Among other things, Roy emphasized how close he lived to the mayor and asserted he would remove her from her home at gunpoint if she did not make reparations for various losses, including some that purportedly resulted from the pandemic.
After a 10-day, in-patient psychiatric evaluation at an undisclosed hospital, Roy was arraigned in Sixth District Court on Jan. 5 on one count of making threats to public officials. He is presently free on personal recognizance, pending further action in court.
Additionally, police launched a non-criminal, civil proceeding against Roy under the state’s so-called red flag law, which allows the Superior Court to issue what’s known as an ERPO – for extreme risk protection order – barring Roy from possessing firearms for at least a year. A preliminary hearing had been scheduled for Wednesday.
Police Chief Thomas F. Oates said this was the second time the Woonsocket Police Department had initiated such a petition since the law was adopted by the General Assembly, but the other petition was not tied to a criminal case.
Citing the confidentiality requirements of the statute, Oates said generally speaking, such petitions are reserved for cases in which the mental capacity of an individual is in question.
“In general, it’s people that are mentally incompetent, make threatening statements and who have an ability to carry those threats out,” Oates said.
Section 8-8.3 of the Rhode Island General Laws, entitled “Extreme Risk Protection Orders,” spells out the sweeping privacy afforded to individuals who are subject to its provisions.
“All filings, petitions, orders, warrants, affidavits, evidence, and any other document filed pursuant to this chapter shall be deemed confidential documents and shall not be available for public inspection or disclosure absent a court order,” it says.
Under the statute, the court has the power to issue an ERPO prohibiting the respondent – in this case, Roy – from possessing firearms for up to one year. At that point the respondent may petition the court to lift the order, setting the stage for another hearing on the respondent’s fitness for gun ownership.
In order to lift an ERPO, the statute says, the respondent must prove “by clear and convincing evidence that the respondent does not pose a significant danger of causing imminent personal injury to self or others by having a firearm in his or her custody or control, or by purchasing, possessing, or receiving a firearm.”