Sometimes it's hard to tell the bad guys from the good guys

NP chief allegedly stole from stripper

Court filing reveals new details in police scandal

Updated: Friday, 02 Sep 2011, 1:41 PM EDT
Published : Friday, 02 Sep 2011, 1:25 PM EDT

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) - North Providence's police chief allegedly stole more than $700 in cash from a stripper employed by the Satin Doll who also works as a prostitute, according to a Rhode Island State Police affidavit.

Chief John Whiting was arrested Thursday by the state police for allegedly stealing $714 from a purse following a police chase. Investigators also charged him with attempting to cover up the alleged crime.

Justina Cardoso, 21, of Pawtucket, said she works as a stripper and was a passenger in a car that Whiting chased last Sunday. She said she had earned $600 from a man she spent the night with at the Comfort Inn in Pawtucket and another $200 from the strip club. According to the affidavit made public on Friday, Cardoso said she did not recognize Whiting on the day of the chase.

The affidavit reveals that following the chase, Pawtucket police officer John Brown responded to the scene. After investigating the scene, Brown told state police he noticed that Whiting's arm was shaking and later Whiting told the officer "he had been having personal problems as well as problems with his wife."

According to the affidavit, Whiting then handed a wad of cash over to Officer Brown, admitting he lifted it from the chase vehicle, and stated: "I've never stole anything in my life and I know you like to go to Las Vegas, take this money and have fun, don't say anything about it."

State police tracked Cardoso down the following day. She said the car fled from Whiting because the driver of the vehicle had an outstanding warrant for his arrest. She said she left behind her purse containing the cash after the SUV they were driving crashed during the chase through Pawtucket.

"Justina stated that she had never seen the individual who chased them nor did she recognize him as a patron of a strip club where she worked," the affidavit states.

Cardoso told the state police she fled the scene because she also has an outstanding warrant against her. Court records show Cardoso has a pending blackmail and extortion case out of Central Falls from April 2010. A call to the Rhode Island attorney general's office regarding that case was not immediately returned.

Court documents say that on Tuesday, Chief Whiting phoned Officer Brown and told him not to say anything to the state police if they questioned him. State police were listening in on the call at the time, according to the affidavit.

Whiting "further encourage[d] Officer Brown to lie to his Chief and how to go about doing so in order that it is handled by [Pawtucket Police] Chief [Paul] King and not the State Police," the affidavit states.

Whiting was released on $10,000 bail and is scheduled to be arraigned next Friday in District Court.

Whiting was the head of the North Providence Police Department for three years following 29 years as an officer in Pawtucket. North Providence Mayor Charles Lombardi immediately suspended Whiting without pay after his arrest Thursday.














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Cranstonres · 1 day ago


he was in an unmarked police car, just like every other Chief drives. he didn't know there were warrants until after. he tried to stop them for a traffic violation. And he couldn't call it in because the radios were down due to the storm.


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WaltDisney · 2 days ago


He sounds like he was a "John"


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1 reply · active 1 day ago









knowsbest60 · 1 day ago


I agree and he want to hear a hormone!


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nepup · 2 days ago


One encouraging thing, he is suspended without pay. Usually when public employees get in trouble they are suspended with pay, basically a paid vacation,


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steeltoad · 3 days ago


Was this a 'police chase' or was the chief off duty and not in a police car ?
- If the chief was on duty, then one would think he would have called it in, and known better not to take the money with other officers involved.
- If he was in a police car, then it's odd that the woman would say that she didnt recognize him, the reason for the chase would have been obvious, because he was a police officer.
- If the chief was not in a police car then how could he have known that the person in the vehicle had warants.

There are a lot of unasked / unanswered questions as to what initiated the 'police chase' if in fact it was a police chase.


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3 replies · active 1 day ago









soundguyRI · 1 day ago


I apologize. the bit about something being thrown at the car was in an earlier article. I havent read the affadavit either. It wont load.


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soundguyRI · 1 day ago


Did you READ he article? All the answers to your questions are in it.

The chief "was in his unmarked police vehicle". Generally a police officer becomes on duty if they witness a crime. Someone threw something at his vehicle. That gave him a legal right to stop the other car. IT was a police stop.

The radio is the car was not working, as is the case a lot lately with the new radio system. Clearly stated un the article.
Why would she recognize him in an unmarked car? You either know someone or you dont. IF you dont know someone how is a car going to change that?

The article doesnt say the chief knew anyone in the vehcle had warrants. The reason he stopped the vehicle was because someone in the other car threw something at his. The Pawtucket and State police in the coure of thier investigation discovered there were warrants fof the occupants of the car. Again clearly stated in the article.


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steeltoad · 1 day ago


Yes I did read the article, and none of that information is in the article. At the time of my posting the link for the PDF of the affidavit wasn't functional.

I didn't say that the chief knew, or didn't know if there were any warrants. I was trying to point out that the issue was raised without enough information being provided. If you're going to have a news article, it should answer questions rather than raise ones that require further research


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debate12 · 2 days ago


The Chief and the stripper..... Must be more to this story then the chief ,and stripper are saying.... Who knows, maybe we can see Jerry Springer wedding in the works.


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knowsbest60 · 2 days ago


He is the chief pimp not the chief of police.


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