R.I. Supreme Court justice violated state ethics code, board finds

By Patrick Anderson
Providence Journal
February 26, 2019

https://www.providencejournal.com/news/20190226/ri-supreme-court-justice-violated-state-ethics-code-board-finds

Rhode Island Supreme Court Justice Francis X. Flaherty said it never crossed his mind to mention he was president of the St. Thomas More Society of Rhode Island on his annual state financial disclosure form, even while he was on the bench for an appeal of a priest sexual abuse case.

PROVIDENCE — Rhode Island Supreme Court Justice Francis X. Flaherty said it never crossed his mind to mention he was president of the St. Thomas More Society of Rhode Island on his annual state financial disclosure form, even while he was on the bench for the appeal of a priest’s sexual-abuse case.

After all, the organization promoting Catholic legal principles has no paid employees, meets only a handful of times a year — primarily to sponsor the annual Red Mass for the state’s legal community — and has never paid him or other officers a cent.

But the state Ethics Commission on Tuesday concluded the size and informality of the Society were no excuses to leave it off the list of entities government officials are required to disclose their leadership roles in to avoid potential conflicts of interest.

The commission ruled that Flaherty, who has served on the state Supreme Court since 2003 and is paid $194,000 a year, had violated the state code of ethics and fined him $200.

It was a modest fine for a case that has been before the commission for more than two years and drawn significant attention.

“This is a garden-variety financial disclosure case,” Ethics Commission Chairman Ross Cheit said after the ruling, describing the fine as “more similar to a traffic ticket than anything else.”

And yet the issue appears far from settled.

Flaherty, 72, said after the decision he intends to appeal. The first step would be to Superior Court, but theoretically it could wind up at the state Supreme Court he sits on.

“I think the ruling is in error,” Flaherty told reporters after the decision. “It does not mean I knowingly left [St Thomas More Society] off.”

The initial complaint against Flaherty was filed in 2016 by Helen Hyde, who says she was sexually abused by the Rev. Brendan Smyth more than four decades ago. She sued the Roman Catholic bishop of Providence over the abuse, but the case was thrown out because the statute of limitations had elapsed. Flaherty wrote the unanimous decision denying Hyde’s state Supreme Court appeal.

Flaherty’s attorney Marc DeSisto argued that leaving St. Thomas More off his disclosure form was not a “knowing and willful” violation of the ethics law because his client, like several other members of the Society, had never considered that it met the criteria for disclosure.

Flaherty said he didn’t know the Society was a 501(C)(3) tax-exempt nonprofit, and said he gained nothing by omitting it.

Flaherty stepped down as St. Thomas More Society president in 2016. Two of his former fellow society members — former Superior Court Judge Frank Darigan and Family Court Magistrate Armando Monaco — testified that they, too, had not disclosed their roles.

Monaco, who is the treasurer of the Society, described it as so informal and “loosey-goosey” a group that he also didn’t think to list it.

But Ethics Commission prosecutor Katherine D’Arezzo noted the disclosure forms ask officials to list all organizations they are officers for, whether they are nonprofit or even unincorporated, and instructions provide examples including Little Leagues and local civic groups. She said not listing the society after reading those instructions was not a reasonable response.

Hyde, who was not at the hearing, wrote in email she was “pleased the ethics commission determined that Mr. Flaherty violated the state code of ethics in failing for five successive years to properly disclose his role as President of the St. Thomas More Society, a Catholic legal society. Apparently this was an undeniable fact that he was forced to admit during the hearing.”

John Marion, executive director of Common Cause Rhode Island, wrote in an email that “financial disclosure is an important constitutional function of the Ethics Commission and everyone subject to its jurisdiction should be compelled to fill it out in a complete fashion.”