NEW: Ethics Commission Finds Probable Cause Flaherty Violated RI Ethics Code
Tuesday, April 25, 2017
The RI Ethics Commission voted 5-2 Tuesday finding probable cause that Supreme Court Justice Francis Flaherty violated state ethics code.
Flaherty had served as President of the St. Thomas More Society of Rhode Island, whose mission is to encourage Catholic lawyers to apply Christian principles to modern problems.
Ethics Complaint
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTA complaint had been brought against Flaherty in September by Helen Hyde, a former Rhode Island resident currently living in Connecticut, who had a sexual abuse case before the Rhode Island Supreme Court - under Flaherty - involving Roman Catholic priest Brendan Smyth.
Smyth had been convicted of hundreds of indecent assaults against children in native Ireland. Smyth died in prison in Ireland in 1997.
The Commission voted 5 to 2 on Tuesday, with Douglas Bennett, Ross Cheit, Timothy Murphy, Marisa Quinn, Robert Salk voting in the affirmative. Voting against were Mark Heffner and M. Therese Antone.
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