Devon Flanagan, an assistant attorney general from Rhode Island, was arrested earlier this month during an embarrassing incident that was captured on police body camera. On August 14, the police were called to the Clarke Cooke House restaurant in Newport, Rhode Island. Flanagan was at the restaurant with a friend who was intoxicated and refused to leave.
During the interaction, Flanagan continuously tried to pressure the police to turn off their body cameras and used her position as an assistant attorney general to try to get her way.
“Protocol is that you turn it off if a citizen requests to turn it off,” she told them. “I’m an AG! I’m an AG!”
After Flanagan repeatedly refused to comply with police orders, they prepared to detain her for willful trespass. As the police loaded her into the back of a patrol car, she was still shouting warnings her way.
“You’re going to regret this. You’re going to regret it. I’m an A—,” she said right as she was cut off by the patrol car door slamming.
Flanagan, who pleaded no contest to the charges against her, has now learned that she will receive six months of unpaid leave for the incident.
Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha spoke out about the embarrassment that Flanagan caused not only herself but her colleagues.
“On Aug. 14, Special Assistant Attorney General Devon Flanagan mistreated the Newport Police Department and embarrassed herself, the Office, and frankly, me. We hold our attorneys to the highest personal and professional standards, and Ms. Flanagan plainly did not meet those standards here,” he said.
He also acknowledged that this incident will be hard for Flanagan to recover from professionally.
“Regardless of what happens vis-a-vis her employment with us, she’s going to have a long time coming back from this. It’s just really unfortunate,” he said.
