Municipal Court of Providence dismisses three minor traffic and parking matters after defendants cite caregiving, medical transport and gunshot injury
Summary
Judges at the Municipal Court of Providence dismissed three citations after defendants described personal hardships: a driver transporting an ill patient, a grandmother caring for grandchildren taken by child-protective services, and a mother recently wounded by gunfire whose child needed oxygen. Each dismissal was announced from the bench.
At a session of the Municipal Court of Providence, the judge dismissed three low-level traffic and parking citations after hearing personal circumstances from the people charged.
The first case called involved a speeding citation. The judge identified the defendant listed as Sondre Fearing but addressed the person present (who identified herself as Cassandra). Cassandra told the court she "works as a medical interpreter with [the] International Institute" and had "gone out to pick somebody up" — an older man from Mali with Parkinson's and cancer — and was driving him and his wife to Miriam Hospital when she said she was distracted by caring for them. She told the court she was "not used to those cameras" in that stretch and that the recorded speed was about 31 mph. The judge explained the city's discretionary enforcement around 30 mph and, citing prior rulings and the defendant's circumstances, said "the matter will be dismissed."
