Claim: A police officer convicted of assault for kicking a handcuffed woman is engaged in hearings to retain his job.

OUTDATED

Example: [Collected via e-mail, July 2012]



Rhode Island police officer Edward Krawetz received no jail time for this brutal assault on this seated and handcuffed woman. Now he wants his job back, share if you don’t want this to happen. Rhode Island police officer Edward Krawetz received no jail time for this brutal assault on this seated and handcuffed woman. Now he wants his job back, share if you don’t want this to happen.

Origins: The image shown above stems from a May 2009 incident at the Twin River Casino in Lincoln, Rhode Island, during which Lincoln police officer Edward Krawetz was captured on video kicking Donna Levesque in the head as she sat handcuffed on the curb outside the casino after being removed from the premises for disorderly behavior.

Krawetz was suspended without pay and subsequently tried for assault with a dangerous weapon in connection with the incident; he was convicted in March 2012, after which he was sentenced to 10 years in prison (with all 10 years of the sentence being suspended) and ordered to attend mental health counseling:





A three-day administrative hearing began in June 2012 to determine whether Officer Krawetz should be allowed to keep his position with the Lincoln police force:





Convicted Lincoln Police Officer Edward Krawetz was a no-show on the first day of an administrative hearing to determine if he can continue to wear a badge. Convicted Lincoln Police Officer Edward Krawetz was a no-show on the first day of an administrative hearing to determine if he can continue to wear a badge. The 12-year veteran of the force is fighting to keep his job after he was convicted of felony assault in March. The case is best known for video from a security camera at Twin River in Lincoln showing Krawetz kicking a handcuffed woman to the head. Under the Law Enforcement Officers Bill of Rights, a three-member panel of police officers will decide his professional fate after what is expected to be three days of hearings. Attorney Vincent Ragosta represents the town of Lincoln for the hearing. He declined to go into details about what happened behind closed doors but said Krawetz faces six administrative counts. “The final charge is conviction of a felony involving conduct which amounts to moral turpitude or which shocks the conscience of a reasonable person,” Ragosta said. A Twin River surveillance camera recorded Krawetz kicking Donna Levesque, who was sitting on a curb near the officer at the time. Levesque was told to leave the slot parlor for unruly behavior right before the May 31, 2009 kick to the head. Ragosta said they have requested Levesque to testify at the Bill of Rights hearing but that have not gotten response yet from her. Krawetz was also convicted of misdemeanor assault in 2001 after an off-duty confrontation with a man who was jogging in Cumberland. He was suspended from the police force for 30 days following that conviction, and town officials recommended to the police chief at the time that Krawetz should be fired. Krawetz has been suspended without pay but still receives health benefits and “other benefits” according to Ragosta.





The hearing was scheduled to resume and consider testimony on 21 August 2012, but Officer Krawetz resigned from the force a week prior to that. In a 15 August 2012 news release issued by Town Administrator T. Joseph Almond’s office, the town announced it had “accepted an unconditional and irrevocable resignation from Officer Edward Krawetz.”

Last updated: 2 July 2015



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