Sex, lies and Facebook
Social media tip leads police on wild goose chase at motel
WOONSOCKET – A city man was given a year’s probation and ordered to seek mental health counseling after admitting that he summoned police to a phony kidnapping at the Woonsocket Motor Inn earlier this year via the Woonsocket Police Department’s Facebook page.
Michael P. Rigney, 32, who lives at the motel, pleaded no contest in Sixth District Court to filing a false police report on Tuesday, a day after his arrest – which came as soon as police could get their hands on him. He had just been released from the state prison Sunday after getting arrested in North Smithfield for shoplifting at Walmart and violating his probation for failing to register as a sex offender, according to police reports and the judiciary’s database.
The state Division of Probation and Parole classifies Rigney as a Level III sex offender – deemed to be at the highest risk for recidivism – after he was arrested in Kansas on charges of attempted aggravated indecent assault of a 13-year-old female.
Local police also describe Rigney as a serial fabulist known to summon police to fake emergencies involving firearms.
“Rigney is known to this department for making multiple false calls for service
involving firearms and shootings,” a police report says.
It happened again on March 10, when the following message was posted to the Woonsocket Police Department’s Facebook page:
“Hello a guy in 66 or 67 at the Woonsocket Motor Inn has a girl tied up and keeps telling her to shut up or he’ll shoot her...please send officers…I have no phone I’m in 32...office is closed hurry, HURRY, hello hurry up please.”
The message was posted under the name Mike Kandzerski.
Officers were dispatched to the motel – across the street from the Clinton Street police station – and checked both of the rooms mentioned in the Facebook post. In one, they reportedly discovered two men dressed as women who told officers they met on a dating website for a “girl’s night out.” In the other they found two men who said they were waiting for a female who never showed up.
The officers concluded the kidnapping story was false and noted that Rigney was living in the motel. When detectives first attempted to question him about the Facebook post, several weeks later, they learned he had just been arrested for shoplifting and was in jail.
Around that time, detectives came into possession of a cell phone and other electronics that were left behind when he was arrested by the North Smithfield police. According to reports, another individual with password access to Rigney’s devices unlocked them and police subsequently discovered a Facebook account in the name of Mike Kandzerski.
On Monday – the day after Rigney was released from the ACI – he was called in to Woonsocket police headquarters for an interview with Lt. Detective Chris Brooks, the administrator of the WPD’s Facebook account.
“Rigney was interviewed after having read his rights,” Brooks said in a report. “Rigney was shown the Facebook message claiming that a crime was taking place. Rigney admitted that he did it, he admitted it was a false report.”
While officers assigned to this case indicate Rigney is known to have falsely claimed multiple public safety emergencies in the past, the judiciary’s web site lists just one prior arrest for the misdemeanor offense – in 2013, by the Tiverton Police Department. His criminal history in Rhode Island also includes infractions for making obscene phone calls, threatening public officials, breaking and entering, shoplifting and failing to comply with his sex-offender requirements of notifying police of a change of address.