EG Officer Twice Disciplined Faces New Restraining Order

by | Sep 13, 2019

A Kent Council District Court judge gave EG police officer Scott Cole, 30, who has been suspended with pay twice in the past 18 months, a temporary restraining order Tuesday after Cole’s former girlfriend told the court he had harassed her via text and social media.

Cole, a member of the EGPD since 2016, was arrested for driving while intoxicated in April 2018 in West Warwick. He was suspended with pay after that incident, which ended up in Veterans Treatment Court. Cole is a military veteran, and he returned to work in July but in August he was accused of sending inappropriate texts to a woman he had arrested for DUI. An internal personnel matter, Cole was again suspended with pay, returning this past April.

“I will tell you the town’s interests have been looked out for and protected,” said Town Solicitor Mike Ursillo in April.

Police Chief Steven Brown declined to comment about this most recent incident. New Town Manager Andrew Nota said this via email Friday:

“I am extremely concerned about this and other matters pertaining to officer conduct within the police department. The incident is presently categorized as an internal personnel matter, so I can provide no public comment regarding the details of this situation. I have been working closely with the police chief, solicitor’s office and others to better understand the root of each of these recent incidents and develop an appropriate course of action moving forward to reestablish the departments professional presence and trust within the community. I feel these incidents are isolated matters specific to the conduct of the individual officers involved and are not representative of the commitment and professionalism of the remaining men and women that makeup the department. The town is monitoring this most recent matter allegedly involving Officer Cole and will provide for additional information at the appropriate time.”

This follows School Resource Officer Humberto Montalban’s arrest in July for cyber harassment of a former girlfriend and the resignation of probationary officer Mark Edmonds in June after he was charged with three counts of felony assault.


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Barnie
Barnie
September 13, 2019 10:15 pm

You can’t make this up,,,an old saying fish rots at the head. For a small municipal police department to have this many serious issues shows the lack of command presence in the second floor office. Maybe the chief should spend 8 hours a day at the station that would be a good start,,,,,Im certain the council president Dr Doolittle thinks there doing a ” Great”
Job. Hmmm didn’t he say he didn’t like the town on the front page of the journal…..ha ha ha ….

Marie Hennedy
Marie Hennedy
September 13, 2019 10:18 pm

Where are today’s Tom Joyce’s and Bill Higgins’s?

Wendy
Wendy
September 16, 2019 7:21 am

Glad this is all finally coming out. This attitude amongst EG officers has been prevalent. We cannot rely on our officers to protect us when they are themselves criminals. I know there are good men and women there. It’s time for them to stand up against this behavior as well.

Disappointed Resident (still)
Disappointed Resident (still)
September 16, 2019 11:35 am

Well said Wendy. The motto “Pride, Integrity, Commitment” should be removed from the police cars as clearly none of it exists. It’s long past time for change. A new chief and deputy chief should be brought in from the outside to fix this mess. Why wait for the next headline?

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