POLICE NEWS

Police Log 07-22-2021

Posted 7/22/21

SEX OFFENDER SENTENCED A 45-year-old Warwick man who befriended a 15-year-old Michigan girl online before transporting her to Rhode Island for sex has been sentenced to more than 11 years in federal prison, according to the U.S. Attorney's office.

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POLICE NEWS

Police Log 07-22-2021

Posted

SEX OFFENDER SENTENCED

A 45-year-old Warwick man who befriended a 15-year-old Michigan girl online before transporting her to Rhode Island for sex has been sentenced to more than 11 years in federal prison, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office.

Charles Morancey will serve 20 years of supervised release once his 135-month prison term ends, prosecutors say. He will also be assessed a $5,000 fine.

U.S. District Court Judge William E. Smith handed the sentence down Tuesday. Morancey pleaded guilty to charges of travel with intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct and receipt of child pornography in November 2019.

Prosecutors say Morancey made contact with the girl in July 2019. The girl, authorities say, “expressed to him that she was experiencing difficulties at home.”

“During online conversations that Morancey often turned sexually explicit and graphic, he helped the 15-year-old create a plan to run away from home with him and to prevent her parents from locating or contacting her or from accessing her social media accounts,” a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s office reads. “He advised her to remove and destroy her cell phone SIM card and to change passwords or delete her social media accounts. The girl chose not to follow all of Morancey’s instructions.”

The girl is said to have met Morancey near her home, without her parents’ knowledge, in early August 2019.

“Morancey drove the girl to his Warwick residence, stopping in an Indiana rest area during the two-day drive to engage in sexual contact,” prosecutors say. “Upon arriving in Rhode Island, Morancey engaged in sexual activity with the minor girl on multiple occasions.”

Days later, the Allegan County Sherriff’s Department in Michigan obtained a search warrant for the missing girl’s social media and was able to trace her to Rhode Island. Warwick Police then responded to Morancey’s home, where the girl was located. Morancey was later arrested while driving in Warwick.

DUI

Shortly before 9 p.m. on July 7, Officer Jake Reddy observed a vehicle stopped in the middle of the southbound lanes on Warwick Avenue in the area of Honeydew Donuts. The vehicle was impeding other southbound traffic, the officer reports.

The vehicle then continued traveling south, Reddy reports, “swerving left toward the doubled yellow line, and then swerving back to the right, moving over the marked dashed white line that separates the lanes of travel.”

Reddy then initiated a stop, during which the vehicle’s passenger-side tires struck the curb. The officer made contact with the operator and detected a “moderate odor” of alcohol coming from inside the vehicle

The operator – who spoke in a “slow, slurred and mumbled manner” and acknowledged consuming alcohol that night, the officer reports – is said to have agreed to undergo field sobriety testing, which he reportedly failed. The operator asked to be administered a portable breath test, according to Reddy, although a sufficient sample could not be obtained despite “several attempts.”

Marcus Andrew David, 31, 15 Follett St., East Providence, was arrested for suspicion of driving under the influence and transported to Warwick Police headquarters for processing. While at headquarters, he is said to have refused a chemical breath test.

David was later released into the custody of a sober adult with a summons to appear in Third Division District Court on a charge of driving under the influence. He was additionally cited to refusal to submit to a chemical test. ***

Shortly after 4:30 p.m. on July 9, Officer Ben Bratko responded to the area of Narragansett Parkway for a report of an impaired operator. The reporting party told dispatchers that a Ford Taurus was “all over the road.”

Bratko located the suspect vehicle in the area of East View Avenue and observed it “drift over the fog line and drive half in the breakdown lane and half in the lane of travel for approximately 30 seconds before suddenly turning back into the lane of travel.”

Bratko initiated a stop and made contact with the male operator, who “appeared inattentive and was slow to answer questions.”

“His eyes were drooping and I observed that he had pinpoint pupils,” Bratko reports. “All of these I know to be signs of narcotics intoxication.”

Bratko reports that the vehicle’s female passenger was “highly agitated” and showed other signs of substance abuse.

Bratko reports that he then received the operator’s consent for a search of the vehicle and contacted Officer Connor Bemis, a drug recognition expert, to conduct an impaired driving investigation.

The search is said to have recovered several drug-related items in the possession of the passenger, including pill bottles, empty syringes, glass pipes with burn marks and empty plastic bags. No other contraband was located, however.

In a supplemental report, Bemis writes that upon his arrival at the scene, he observed the operator to be “swaying side to side, to be sweating heavily, and to have constricted/pin point pupils.”

The operator spoke with “raspy and mumbled speech” and “was observed to be ‘on the nod’ as his head bobbed back and forth while struggling to stay awake, which is often consistent with the usage of narcotics.”

The operator is said to have agreed to undergo field sobriety testing, which he reportedly failed.

Matthew S. Linn, 44, Marlborough, Massachusetts, was arrested for suspicion of driving under the influence. He was initially transported to Rhode Island Hospital – where he is said to have refused a chemical breath test – before being taken to Warwick Police headquarters for processing. He was later returned to the hospital for detox.

Linn was issued a summons to appear in Third Division District Court on a charge of driving under the influence. He was additionally cited for refusal to submit to a chemical test and laned roadway violations.

WEAPONS CHARGE

At approximately 8:14 p.m. on July 7, Officer Timothy Lipka was on Post Road when he observed a Jeep Wrangler traveling at a high rate of speed in the area of the Radisson Hotel. Based on his visual observation, the officer estimated the vehicle was traveling 50 mph in a 35 mph.

“I also observed this vehicle swerve over the marked lanes heading to the Shell Gas station,” Lipka reports. “I then observed this vehicle leave the Shell Gas station and head back towards Post Road where I was able to get behind it and I observed the registration.”

Lipka followed the vehicle as it traveled onto the Airport Connector and attempted to initiate a stop, but the vehicle continued moving. He reports observing the male driver, through the side mirror and the open driver’s side window, “moving about inside of the vehicle,” which “started rocking side to side and swerving.” That activity and motion, he reports, “was consistent with … an operator moving about in the vehicle attempting to conceal weapons or illegal items.”

Lipka reports the Wrangler slowed but did not fully stop, and by this point it was “driving in the middle of both lanes swerving side to side.” Then, after a “slow roll” of approximately 200 feet, the vehicle came to a stop.

The officer reports he ordered the operator to put his hands out of the vehicle, and once another officer arrived to provide backup, the officer was ordered to exit the vehicle and taken into custody.

The operator had no weapons on his person, but Lipka reports that when the man asked police to retrieve his cell phone from the vehicle’s front seat, he observed a “black, rectangle shaped lockbox, consistent with one used for storing firearms.”

While that lockbox was empty, a further search of the vehicle – “based on [the operator’s] furtive movements within the vehicle, his failing to pull over immediately, and that he had a firearms safe in the front passenger seat floor board,” the officer writes – revealed a Glock 22 .40-caliber handgun in the glove box. The weapon was loaded with 14 rounds of ammunition, and its chamber was empty, the officer reports.

Daquan O. Hilton, 26, Lancaster, South Carolina, was arrested on a charge of license or permit required for carrying a pistol and driving with a suspended license, first offense, and transported to Warwick Police headquarters for processing. He was held pending a court appearance.

LARCENY

Just after 8:30 a.m. on July 7, officers Karen Haarr and Evan Johnson responded to the Cox Communications fleet services building on Walnut Street for a report of catalytic converters stolen from vehicles parking in the spare vehicle lot.

At the scene, an employee told the officers he noticed an exhaust pipe laying next to one of the vehicles when he arrived just before 8 o’clock that morning. He then realized it was “the remnants of a catalytic converter.” Further inspection of the vehicles in the lot found nine converters had been removed and seven more had been cut. The last employee to leave the area had departed at approximately 4:30 p.m. the day prior.

Security camera footage was not immediately available, but video from the area was requested. The matter was documented and forwarded to detectives.

police, crime

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