2023 in review: Our most important investigative journalism
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In the past year, investigations by watchdog journalists at the Providence Journal have shed light on exorbitant government salaries; a nursing home that falsified records to cover up deficiencies that left vulnerable patients dealing with shortages of blankets, food and even medicines; whistleblower reports of abuse of power within Rhode Island's judicial system; and much more.
To reach our watchdog journalists, email: watchdogs@providencejournal.com.
In the meantime, enjoy this selection of some of our best investigative work from 2023.
Patients burned, left on the floor: What RI inspectors found in a nursing home
As The Providence Journal reported in 2022, health department officials documented a string of disturbing incidents at the Pawtucket Falls Healthcare Center, including an episode last year in which a resident who was supposed to have a "wander guard" was able to leave the facility undetected and was found at a nearby coffee shop.
Staff members told The Journal that the facility was constantly understaffed and faced shortages of everything from blankets to crucial medications. Residents were being served inadequate food, including a meal that consisted of only four chicken nuggets, they alleged.
Records show that inspectors from RIDOH and the federal Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services have found additional problems since then. Among them:
A resident with dementia fell on Christmas Day and fractured their clavicle. The bone fracture was not discovered until two days later. A staff member told an inspector that the resident was "on the floor for 10 to 15 minutes before any of the licensed nurses responded."
In February, an inspector observed that a resident who needed "extensive assistance for eating and drinking" was not receiving that assistance. A staff member said she was not aware the resident needed help.
In March, a resident was seriously burned and left with a painful open wound after a "hydrocollator pack," or hot pad, was placed on their shoulders without enough protection.
Inspectors also found that some residents had erroneously received extra doses of certain drugs and missed doses of others. In one case, a resident was not given their eyedrops and albuterol inhaler as ordered "because the medications were not available."
Read the full story: Patients left on the floor, burned, missing medication: What inspectors found at a Pawtucket nursing home
Dark cloud over district court: Whistleblower alleges coverups, dysfunction, retaliation
For more than two decades, Nicholas R. Cote worked for the state judiciary, acting as a “fixer” in District Court helping to smooth out staffing issues and resolve data entry backlogs.
That is, until he resigned Nov. 28 2022 for reasons that "will remain an internal personnel matter," a spokeswoman for the courts said.
Now, Cote tells of blurred lines between his work and personal life, undertaking construction projects for District Court Chief Judge Jeanne E. LaFazia at her Little Compton property, often for little or no pay or reimbursement for supplies.
More: 'Dark cloud' over District Court: Ex admin alleges coverups, dysfunction and retaliation
A murder defendant was allowed to have sex in a court building. Did it affect his sentence?
Priscilla Mello remains despondent that some of the men who killed her son walk free just years after they played a role in slaying the 36-year-old father of three before dismembering him and throwing his body parts into the ocean.
“I didn’t think any of them got enough time,” Priscilla said in a recent interview in her Warwick home, with her other son, Wesley, across the kitchen table, equally distraught.
New revelations about the case have added to the family’s horror and grief. A recently disclosed state Department of Corrections investigation concluded that one of the men who participated in killing Kerry Mello had sex with his girlfriend in the attorney general’s office. The family now wonders if the desire to keep that alleged encounter under wraps influenced the plea deals the state reached with the defendants
More: A murder defendant allegedly had sex in custody. Did it influence his sentence?
The governor’s office fought to keep this email a secret. Why we fought back, and what it says.
Under orders from the state's attorney general, Gov. Dan McKee in June made public an email from a state contractor detailing "a series of bizarre, offensive and unprofessional actions'' by top-tier state employees during a March 10 work trip to Philadelphia – including racist and sexist comments.
Attorney General Peter Neronha's office ordered the McKee administration to make the email public within five days.
"Disclosure of the email could be very damaging to the reputation of the employees who are the subject of the email," Assistant Attorney General Katherine Sadeck wrote in a response Wednesday to appeals filed by The Providence Journal and WPRI-TV of McKee's refusal to make the email public.
More: RI governor's office fought to keep this email secret. Why the Journal fought back, and what it says
Tiny fire district, big payday: How a Coventry fire chief scored a ‘stunning’ contract
The longtime chief of one of the smallest fire districts in Rhode Island is the second-highest paid in the state – the result of a contract the district gave him two decades ago, with salary and benefit guarantees that one veteran labor attorney calls “stunning.”
Hopkins Hill Fire District Chief Frank M. Brown Jr. had a base pay of $142,605 last year, which puts him ahead of every chief in the state except for Providence. He got a significant bump six years ago when he agreed to also handle the duties of chief for the neighboring Central Coventry Fire District.
That increase will put the taxpayers of Hopkins Hill – a 2-square-mile district with 6,000 people – on the hook for tens of thousands of dollars in added pension costs, as well as sick and vacation payouts when the chief, who turns 64 next month, eventually retires.
More: Tiny fire district, big payday: How Hopkins Hill's chief won a 'stunning' contract
Investigation into the Harborside Inn fire
If the Harborside Inn fire jumped to the other Victorian-era wood-frame buildings lining Water Street, it could easily destroy Block Island’s historic downtown. It was the very scenario Block Island Fire Chief Chris Hobe envisioned when he spent the previous winter working with mainland fire chiefs and stakeholders on the island to formulate the island’s first mutual aid plan. He had no idea how soon he’d need it.
Hobe was awake, 2½ miles away, down Corn Neck Road, when the box alarm came in at 11:23 p.m. Often, they turn out to be nuisance calls, but the dispatcher told him someone had seen smoke on Water Street.
This felt different.
John Breunig, superintendent of the Block Island Water Company, had the same instinct.
“I just knew I had to get there,” he said. “Something about that call, you just had a sense it was going to be the one.”
More: Block Island could have been 'the next Lahaina' during hotel fire. How downtown was saved.
More: Report: Grease buildup, faulty fire-suppression system led to Harborside Inn fire
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: RI Watchdog Journalism: Investigations that shocked the state in 2023
