State Rep Candidates in Same Race Have Criminal Records

Friday, November 02, 2012

Stephen Beale, GoLocalProv News Contributor

 

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Two candidates for state rep in the same district have a slew of past criminal charges between them, including arrests on felony charges, assaults, and a series of alcohol-related offenses, according to court records obtained by GoLocalProv.

The GOP candidate in the race, Tina Baker Jackson, has an offense record that runs from the early 1990s to the early 2000s and includes a felony assault charge that was dropped in exchange for a no-contest plea on a lesser misdemeanor assault charge and a second felony charge for attempting to obtain painkillers through a false prescription that was dismissed after Jackson participated in an adult diversion program.

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Her record also includes charges for a DUI, at least four instances of driving with a suspended license, check fraud, and an assault on a police officer.

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Jackson, a recovering alcoholic and a former dancer at a strip club in Providence, said the charges reflect her past addiction, issues with a drug-dealing ex-boyfriend, and her financial struggles as a single mother. She also said her offense records should have been expunged. The documents, which were obtained from the Judicial Records Center in Pawtucket, do include requests for expungement but those apparently were not granted.

She said the charges are in her distant past and that voters don’t care about them. “Nobody gives a rat’s hootie about 20 years ago,” she said.

One of her opponents in the race, independent Kevin W. Prescott, also has a history of run-ins with the law. His offense record includes charges for assault and battery, carrying two weapons, breaking and entering, and at least two DUIs.

“Mostly it’s just youthful indiscretions,” said Prescott, now 42. “It’s not like I’m a criminal.”

Jackson and Prescott are running to unseat Donna Walsh, the incumbent Democrat for District 36, which encompasses Charlestown, New Shoreham, South Kingstown, and Westerly.

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 Candidates accuse each other of being the worse offender

Each of the two challengers to the incumbent accused the other of having the more serious offense record. Jackson said her offenses involved nonviolent actions. And she denied having ever actually assaulted a police officer, saying that the charge stemmed from a DUI arrest in Smithfield. She said the officer had tackled her when she rushed to her apartment to use the bathroom.

But Prescott claimed the same, saying he had never hurt anyone either. As for the 1998 assault charge on his record, he said that was self-defense against his girlfriend, whom he said had hit him first. The charge was dismissed after Prescott agreed to enter an alcohol counseling program. Prescott said they are still dating and now have been together for 16 years.

He said Jackson’s charges were worse than his. “I’ve never assaulted a police officer,” Prescott said. “I’ve never been arrested for drugs. That’s far worse than anything I’ve done.”

Jackson did not specifically say whether Prescott’s criminal charges should be a reason to vote against him. Instead, she said voters should focus on his performance as a candidate.

The two candidates traded other accusations as well. Jackson claimed Prescott was put into the race by Democrats to split the anti-incumbent vote, handing Walsh a re-election victory. Prescott denied the charge, saying the first time he had even met Walsh was at a recent candidate forum. Walsh could not be reached for comment.

Prescott, in return, claimed that Jackson had bullied him and threatened to make his offense record public. Jackson firmly denied that she had done either.

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 GOP recruited Jackson to run

State GOP Chairman Mark Zaccaria said voters should take into account Prescott’s past. “The voters need to consider character when selecting their leaders,” Zaccaria said. “The actions that are alleged in the case of Mr. Prescott call into question his values and character.”

When asked why voters should not raise the same question with Jackson, he replied: “You’re looking at basically a medical situation. So I would not be as harsh in my assessment of Tina Jackson’s character as I would with Mr. Prescott’s character.”

Zaccaria said Jackson’s arrests and charges flowed from her addiction to alcohol, which he said she has overcome, becoming a better person in the process.

He said the state GOP had recruited Jackson to run for office. He found her a compelling potential candidate, he said, because of her volunteer work as the president of the American Alliance of Fishermen and Communities, which has battled federal regulations that Zaccaria said are starving out the commercial fishing industry.

Jackson, now 45, has been president of the organization for four years and a lobster fisherwoman for six. She entered the fishing industry after working for about ten years in a Providence strip club.

Zaccaria said he had been aware of her offense record as well as her background as an exotic dancer—something he said she brought up when he met with her to discuss a run for office.

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“There’s plenty to counterbalance the warts on Tina’s resume,” Zaccaria said.

State Democratic Chairman Ed Pacheco did not respond to a request for comment.

Jackson: ‘I’ve overcome a lot of adversity’

In interviews, Jackson and Prescott both went into detail outlining circumstances that they said mitigated the charges they have on their respective records.

“I have lots of regrets but I’m not ashamed,” Jackson said. “Because it made me who I am.”

She said she is a recovering alcoholic who turned her life around in the mid-1990s. She said she started attended AA meetings and spent three years fighting her addiction. She also started going to church and volunteered in her community. She says she hasn’t had a drink since May 1996.

But not all of her charges are alcohol-related. In 1997, state prosecutors charged her with punching her boyfriend two times in the face and hitting him with her car at a home in Glocester—an account that was corroborated by a witness statement from the owner of the house. At the time, she admitted to police that she had driven over to the residence and punched her boyfriend, who is described in the report as her fiancé. But she denied using her car against him as a deadly weapon. Instead, she said he came over to her car and would not let her shut the door, according to a statement she filed with local police.

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“I tried to shut it several times but Steven [her boyfriend] would fling it open,” she said in her defendant statement. “I put the car in reverse and started to back up, trying to shut the door and it knocked him over. I didn’t run him over. He was pretty far from the car.”

In an interview this week, Jackson said she went over to the house because her boyfriend had stolen $1,000 from her—something that she neglected to mention in her defendant statement. She said she went over to recover the money and had intended to break up with him. She said several of his friends misrepresented what had happened to police, claiming she had assaulted him. Court record show Jackson pled no contest to a misdemeanor assault charge while the felony assault charge stemming from the same incident was dropped.

Her financial hardships have also caused legal problems for Jackson. In 2003, she was arraigned on three misdemeanor counts of writing fraudulent checks, each under $100, at Rippy’s Liquor Mart in Charlestown. Jackson said the checks accidentally had bounced due to an error she made in her checkbook. She pled no contest to at least two of the three charges, court records show.

In March 2005, Jackson was charged with driving on a suspended license. Within days she was charged with driving without a license. “Basically, I was a single mother,” Jackson said. “I had children to feed.”

Jackson declined to discuss each individual charge contained in the court records, including a felony charge in 2002 for attempting to buy 28 Percocet pills at a pharmacy in Warwick. According to a police report, Jackson “admitted that she had … purchased the prescription sheet for $8 in Providence.” The case was dismissed after she completed an adult diversion program, according to court records.

“I’ve come a long way,” Jackson said. “I’ve overcome a lot of adversity. I’ve made a lot of mistakes in my life, but I’ve also helped a lot of people.”

Prescott: ‘It’s not really bad’

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Prescott offered differing explanations of the circumstances surrounding his arrests, which he collectively attributed to youthful indiscretion. Now, he says he is wiser and smarter.

“I knew it was going to come out when I ran for office,” Prescott said. “I’m not worried about it because it’s not really bad.”

The breaking and enter charge occurred when Prescott went over to his cousin’s house to pick up some of his clothing in 1992, according to his account of the incident. Prescott said he, his brother, and the cousin had gone down to Florida for a Dolphins-Jets game, but his cousin abruptly left the state—with some of his belongings—and returned to Rhode Island after getting into an argument with Prescott’s brother.

In a victim statement, his cousin expressed concern that Prescott “has absolutely no remorse and has stated that he will get even for my having him arrested.” But the only thing Prescott was accused of taking was two rolls of quarters—something that he denies today.

Prescott eventually pled no contest and was sentenced to two years of probation and $420 in fines and other costs. He says he’s mended fences with his cousin and that the two have put the incident long behind them.

“To me, it’s no big deal,” Prescott said. “The whole story is nothing.”

Prescott said he had had issues with alcohol in the past but would not describe himself as an alcoholic. “I’ve done alcohol counseling and I’m good now. I don’t drink anymore,” he said.

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Many of the other charges on his record appear to be alcohol-related.

In 2008 Prescott twice appeared in court on separate weapons-related charges. Once he was found on the street in Westerly carrying a BB gun. The other incident involved a butcher knife. Prescott said he had had “a few drinks” before the incidents. He said he could not recall why he was carrying either the BB gun or the knife. “I don’t remember why I had them on me,” he said.

Ultimately, he said the weapons charge was dropped for the BB gun. Court records show he pled no contest on the knife-related charge.

Impact on race?

In a previous interview, local pollster and political scientist Victor Profughi said that an individual arrest charge on a state rep candidate’s record in of itself would not affect an election. What matters, he said at the time, is how news of a past arrest record plays into the larger context of a campaign.

But yesterday he suggested the District 36 race is unique.

“I don’t think that it should make a difference but you have two candidates who have a whole series of offenses against them,” Profughi said. “It could very well impact the vote but how I don’t know because it seems like they are evenly matched.”

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