Johnston Police: Local Man Broke No-Contact Order, Hit Officer

A Johnston man faces multiple charges after say he hit an officer who tried to take him into custody on a charge of violating a no-contact order.

Samuel Cardarelli, 43, of 4 Naples Ave., was already scheduled to appear in Third District Court, Warwick, on Friday on a previous count of violating a no-contact order.

In the recent incident, Ptlm. Remy Mendez wrote that he went to Cardarelli's home just after midnight on Saturday and spoke with Cardarelli's wife, who said that Cardarelli "became upset" with another person who was not identified in police reports.

The other person "pushed Mr. Cardarelli away and called the police," Mendez wrote in his report.

Mendez reported that he called Cardarelli by cell phone and told him "not to respond back to the residence or make any contact."

At about 1:30 am, Mendez wrote, he went back to the home after Cardarelli called the unidentified person and said "he was in the area."

About an hour later, Ptlm. Derrick Palazzo was stationed on Mill Street near Venice Street when he reported seeing Cardarelli's Ford pick-up truck approach on Mill Street.

"As the vehicle was approaching, I observed [the driver] turn off [the truck's] head lamps and quickly swerve into a vacant construction parking lot," Palazzo wrote.

Cardarelli at first refused to step out of the truck, then would not submit to handcuffing and at one point hit Palazzo in the chest with his elbow, according to Palazzo's report.

Palazzo wrote that he wrestled Cardarelli to the ground, "causing a small knot to his left side of his eye" when his face to strike the rear tire of his truck.

The two struggled again before Palazzo said he could handcuff Cardarelli and put him in the police cruiser.

In searching Cardarelli's truck, Palazzo wrote that he found a police-issued Monadnock baton.

At police headquarters, Cardarelli "appeared intoxicated," Palazzo wrote, "striking the left side of his face against the corner of the wall" as he walked toward the station's restraint bench.

Officers took Cardarelli to Rhode Island Hospital for treatment, and at about noon on Saturday, Det. Christopher DeCesare met with a representative of the state Attorney General's office, who told Cardarelli that he had violated bail.

Police then presented Cardarelli for arraignment at about 1 pm before Justice of the Peace Benjamin Mesiti on misdemeanor charges of violating a protective order, assaulting a police officer, weapons possession, resisting arrest, and disorderly conduct.

Mesiti set bail at $10,000 personal recognizance and ordered Cardarelli held until formal arraignment in Third District Court on Tuesday.

No information from the Aug. 14 hearing had been posted on the Rhode Island Judiciary website by presstime.