By Eric Tucker
Associated Press
PROVIDENCE, R.I. — A Rhode Island police officer has been charged with assaulting a woman after she was taken out of a slot parlor for being disorderly, authorities said Friday.
Officer Edward Krawetz has been suspended without pay and faces administrative charges as well, Lincoln police Capt. Raymond Bousquet said.
A person with knowledge of the May 31 incident tells The Associated Press a videotape shows Krawetz kicking the handcuffed woman in the head as the two waited outside for a patrol car to arrive. The person is not authorized to publicly discuss the case and spoke on condition of anonymity.
A telephone listing for Krawetz could not immediately be found and it was not immediately known if he has an attorney. Krawetz has been with the department for 12 1/2 years, Bousquet said.
The state attorney general’s office is handling the criminal case and did not return calls seeking comment Friday.
A spokeswoman for Twin River in Lincoln, just north of Providence, also did not immediately comment.
Krawetz, who was in uniform and working at the slots parlor, is charged with felony assault. He will be arraigned Jan. 6, said Capt. David Neill, a state police spokesman.
He is the second Rhode Island officer to be charged in an alleged beating in the past two weeks. A Woonsocket officer was indicted last week on federal civil rights charges accusing him of beating a 16-year-old boy and urging fellow officers to lie about it to the FBI.
The FBI is also investigating a separate beating of a suspect by Providence police officers.