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A Rhode Island city’s insurer will pay $550,000 to settle the case of a resident who was twice wrongfully arrested and jailed for a crime he did not commit.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) announced the city of Woonsocket has agreed to the settlement with Mack Blackie without admitting any liability for the actions of the police officer who was responsible for the false arrests.

The $550,000 will be paid by the city’s insurer, the Rhode Island Interlocal Risk Management Trust.

According the the ACLU, in August 2022, after a Woonsocket apartment was broken into, one of the residents told the investigating police officer that a person known to him as “Black” had entered the home. The witness told the officer multiple times that the person he saw was not Mack Blackie, whom he also knew, but was another person. Yet according to the complaint, the officer falsely reported that the man “positively identified the suspect male as being Mack Blackie.” He also failed to arrange a photo line-up and later falsely represented that the witness told another police officer that Blackie was the suspect, according to the complaint.

Blackie was arrested. Despite having a medical condition, he was held overnight in custody, taken to court where he collapsed, and only then medically treated, resulting in him being hospitalized for several days.

A few months later, he was rearrested and charged with felony breaking and entering and assault based on the August 2022 incident. Because he was on probation at the time, Blackie was incarcerated for 18 days without bail as a probation violator. When bail was finally set, because he could not afford the $100, he was kept in jail for another 13 days, until a nonprofit organization where he volunteered posted his bail.

In February 2023, at a pre-trial conference, the witness saw Blackie in the courthouse hallway. Immediately, he realized the police had arrested the wrong man, and he informed the prosecutor. The charges against Blackie were dropped.

The ACLU lawsuit, filed last October in U.S. District Court against the Woonsocket police officer and the city, argued that a series of actions taken against Blackie violated his constitutional right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures, and constituted false arrest and imprisonment and malicious prosecution.

According to the ACLU, the police officer was suspended for 10 days and demoted for “failing to follow standard investigative procedures” but remains on the force.

“Mr. Blackie spent 31 days in prison —31 days of his life that he will never get back,” said Joshua D. Xavier, the ACLU attorney who represented Blackie. Xavier said his client continues to suffer distress and psychological pain as a result of being twice criminally charged, incarcerated, and prosecuted for crimes he did not commit.

Topics Carriers Law Enforcement