Allegations Top RI State Police Investigator “Fabricating Facts or…” Could Impact Major Drug Case

Allegations Top RI State Police Investigator “Fabricating Facts or…” Could Impact Major Drug Case

In September of 2024, Kenneth LaFlamme was charged with 17 felonies tied to manufacturing and selling drugs and multiple other charges. LaFlamme has been out on bail — $150,000.

The State Police announced the bust, and GoLocal reported at the time:

The Rhode Island State Police initiated an investigation from an anonymous tip about an illegal marijuana grow operation. Multiple Court-authorized search warrants were obtained for multiple residences and grow operation locations in North Providence, North Scituate, Lincoln, Westerly, Providence and Woonsocket.

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The search warrants were executed on September 18, 2024, and four firearms, one large capacity feeding device, 279.4 pounds of usable marijuana, 922 mature marijuana plants, 859 immature marijuana plants, one pound of marijuana shatter, 468 grams of psilocybin mushrooms, 11.1 grams of cocaine, 65 Oxycodone pills, thirty amphetamine pills, one motor vehicle, two motorcycles, and $79,876 were seized.

 

Seven others were charged as well.

 

The Rhode Island Attorney General’s case is now being challenged.

For two years, LaFlamme’s attorney and the state have been battling over claims by the defense that the lead State Police investigator lied.

That investigator is Rhode Island State Police Detective Matthew Lynch. 

Lynch’s claims in this case are the subject of an aggressive challenge by defense attorney Kevin Bristow. Lynch was also the lead investigator on the Dino Guilmette indictment. Guilmette has been charged with seven felonies, and his case has been chronicled by GoLocal over the past four years due to Guilmette’s alleged associations.

Lynch’s credibility is critical in both high-profile cases.

Bristow, a former Rhode Island State prosecutor, filed a motion, accompanied by extensive exhibits totaling 102 pages, challenging Lynch’s claims.

 

“Det. Lynch is either fabricating facts or is demonstrating an absolute reckless disregard for the accuracy of the sworn information”

In the filing, Bristow writes, “In connection with 53 Henrietta St., Det. Lynch is either fabricating facts or is demonstrating an absolute reckless disregard for the accuracy of the sworn information that he is providing to the judges reviewing his requests for warrants. If it is the latter, then he is a wholly unreliable affiant.”

Bristow, in court filings, asserts that Lynch claimed he had identified LaFlamme at one site when, in fact, LaFlamme was in Florida. And in another argument, Bristow claims that another element of the state’s case centers on a location where Lynch asserted LaFlamme's activities, but that location is a vacant lot.

 

According to Bristow, the case began not as a drug investigation but as a human trafficking case.

 

“In April of 2024, the Intelligence Unit of the Rhode Island State Police (RISP) began an investigation based upon an anonymous tip that Mr. LaFlamme and others were involved in a "human trafficking operation" and an illegal "indoor marijuana grow operation" being run at 1164 Douglas Avenue in North Providence. The RISP quickly determined that there was no human trafficking taking place and focused on the marijuana allegations. Very little happened with this aspect of the investigation until an unknown confidential informant contacted the Rhode Island State Police in July and professed to have personal knowledge of the marijuana operation. This informant identified Kenneth LaFlamme and Co Defendant John DeLauro from a driver's license photo.

 

On August 5, 2024, Det. Lynch applied for and obtained a warrant allowing him to place a GPS tracking device on Mr. LaFlamme's vehicle. This is the first warrant of any kind applied for in this investigation. The GPS device was affixed to LaFlamme's vehicle during the overnight hours of August 5-6. Thereafter, Det. Lynch completed a RISP surveillance report stating, in pertinent part, that on August 6, 2024, "I observed Kenneth LaFlamme arrive at 442 Bradford Road, Westerly, R.I.. I observed Kenneth LaFlamme exit his white Cadillac Escalade and proceed toward the left side of this establishment…. Physical and electronic surveillance confirmed that LaFlamme remained at this location for approximately six hours before leaving the area."

 

 

On August 13th, Det. Lynch filed a second GPS warrant application to extend the GPS monitoring authority on LaFlamme's Escalade. In the affidavit supporting that warrant, Lynch wrote that during his August 6th surveillance of LaFlamme at 442 Bradford Road he "observed LaFlamme entering and exiting this building while on location and he remained at this building for upwards of six hours before leaving."

 

This same statement was repeated or directly referenced in subsequent affidavits submitted by Lynch for GPS renewal warrants on August 20th, August 27th, September 3rd, and September 10th. This exact language was sworn and attested to by Det. Lynch in affidavits he prepared in support of warrants he was granted for all of the thermal imaging; the warrant for LaFlamme's vehicle; and, the search warrants for the 13 businesses and residences the RISP entered on September 18, 2024. These search warrants include the one issued for Kenneth LaFlamme's home at 25 Monticello St. in North Providence.

 

As Bristow argues, Lynch’s affidavits cannot be true as LaFlamme was not in Rhode Island.

 

Defendant Kenneth LaFlamme left Rhode Island for Florida on July 29, 2024, and did not return until the evening of August 16, 2024. The purpose of this trip was to perform work on a property that Mr. LaFlamme owned in the Tampa area. Attached as Defendant’s Exhibit C are airline tickets, vehicle rental receipts, and credit card account statements demonstrating that Mr. LaFlamme was in Florida on August 6, 2024. The airline and vehicle rental records are in LaFlamme's name and the credit card statement, also in his name, shows purchases throughout his stay in Florida, including two purchases at Home Depot on August 6th

 

These documents were turned over to the State months ago. On August 21, 2025, the State supplemented discovery with an undated witness statement from Det. Lynch. This statement materially contradicts the sworn statements made in all of the GPS, thermal imaging, and search warrant affidavits offered by Lynch to judges of the District Court. Lynch's August 2025 statement, if true, changes the essential factual underpinnings of his August 6, 2024, surveillance.

 

In addition to the obvious misstatements regarding his August 6, 2024, observations of Mr. LaFlamme at 442 Bradford Road, there are numerous other sworn, material statements in Det. Lynch’s affidavits that demonstrate a reckless disregard for providing the court reviewing the warrant affidavits with accurate and truthful information. The first of these also involves Det. Lynch’s purported observations of Kenneth LaFlamme.

 

 

Vacant Lot

Bristow further asserts:

Raising further concern is the information that Det. Lynch swears and attests to regarding 53 Henrietta Street in Providence. 53 Henrietta St. is a vacant lot. There is no building or business located at that address. See Exhibit G. In the September 10, 2024 affidavit Det. Lynch offered in support of his applications for the continued installation of a GPS tracking device on Mr. LaFlamme’s vehicle, Lynch described the property as being the site of an “illegal indoor marijuana grow” (emphasis added). The affidavit that Det. Lynch submitted for all of the 8 thermal imaging warrants describes 53 Henrietta Street in Providence as a building that is connected to a neighboring building. Specifically, he writes that 53 Henrietta St. “can best be described as a single-story garage/warehouse like structure with two (2) entry doors on the rear, and this building is connected to 936 Branch Avenue, Providence, RI.”

Within all 13 affidavits submitted to a judge of the District Court to obtain the authority to search the various businesses and residences, Det. Lynch repeatedly refers to 53 Henrietta St. as an actual building. He again states that 53 Henrietta St. is a single-story garage/warehouse type of building. In each of these affidavits, Lynch swears and attests that he observed numerous individuals, whom he identifies, entering and exiting 53 Henrietta Street. In addition, he has some of these people carrying bags into and out of 53 Henrietta Street.

 

Ultimately, Bristow says the fundamentals of this case must be challenged.

These matters have been briefed twice before Superior Judge Luis Matos. He is, in fact, one of the five candidates for the vacancy on the Rhode Island Supreme Court and a former federal prosecutor.

Bristow asks the court to conduct a so-called Franks hearing where the defendant challenges the truthfulness of a police officer's affidavit used to obtain a search warrant.

At the time of publication, the Rhode Island Attorney General's office had not responded to questions.