WOONSOCKET – A convicted sex offender residing at a North Smithfield motel was arrested for using a phony city address – but he got in even more hot water after getting mouthy with a judge in Sixth District Court on Thursday, according to police.
Anthony George Perkins, 63, was sentenced to 90 days at the Adult Correctional Institutions on a judicial contempt charge after a terse exchange between himself and a judge presiding over his initial appearance on one count of failure to notify authorities of an sexual offender address change, police say.
Court records indicate Judge Stephen Isherwood was presiding. Some conversation between Perkins and the judge became argumentative and, one point, Perkins allegedly swore at him. The judge cited him for contempt and ordered him to serve 60 days at the state prison.
“Make it 90,” Perkins snapped, and the judge did so, according to Woonsocket police sources with knowledge of the case.
Perkins reportedly landed in court after a woman came to Woonsocket police headquarters on Monday, Oct. 27 and told them he was falsely using her address near Holy Family Church as his legal residence. Her address was actually that of a shelter for women displaced by domestic violence, according to police reports.
The woman told police Perkins’ real address was the Travelers Lodge Motor Inn, located at 1210 Eddie Dowling in North Smithfield. Accompanied by members of the North Smithfield Police Department, city officers arrested Perkins there the following day on a charge of failing to notify authorities of an address change.
At the city police station, Perkins became “highly uncooperative” during the booking process, refusing to allow officers to fingerprint him, according to police reports. After what Sgt. Sean Carpenter called “an exhaustive conversation” with Perkins, he continued refusing to participate in the booking process.
Carpenter informed the Perkins that he could be sentenced to a year for obstructing if he failed to cooperate. But Perkins wouldn’t budge, telling police he’d rather “take a year” that give the police what they were looking for.
According to the judiciary’s web site, Perkins has been arrested dozens of times on a wide range of charges originating from multiple police jurisdictions in Rhode Island dating back to 1988. He’s been convicted of robbery, larceny, felony domestic assault and other violent offenses.
He became a convicted sex offender in 2003, when he pled to multiple counts of second-degree child molestation originating out of Cranston. The Rhode Island Sex Offender Registry classifies him as a Level 3 sex offender, deemed to be those most at risk of committing a repeat offense.
He was previously convicted in 2015 of failure to notify authorities of an address change – the same charge the Woonsocket Police Department has newly lodged against him.
In addition to the new offenses, state prosecutors charged him with being a violator of probation on a conviction for assault and battery in June, the judiciary’s web site says.
Be careful with that please! I had a friend who wanted the same thing because he didn’t like the food he was served at the place he is currently resided at so he decided to come to my place to eat and hang out on the days he was uninvited. He decided to go to my bathroom to do things not to pleasant. I was tired of it. He was doing it since the day I met him. We took a long break from each other with me thinking he would stop doing the thing he was doing so he is never going to change so it came to the certain point of my age of 57. I have had it, reporting him was all I could do. He is out of my life. I have to pray for him, pray that his soul makes it to Heaven. I have to got out of Woonsocket and to get to an assisted living facility in either Smithfield or North Smithfield so he can’t contact me. I love my siblings and all this kept bothering me for so many years now I finally had the courage to let the police know about it.
Good reporting — clear and to the point. Quick question: did the court or police say why he was allowed to list that shelter address in the first place, and are there new safeguards to prevent offenders from using sensitive shelter addresses again?
You would be surprised to learn that some are even allowed to live in assisted living facilities and nursing homes. Nurses like myself would see them brought in after hrs to our office to inject them with Haldol for example. To keep behavior in check. I was very surprised to see them allowed in such fragile places. But there are few places they can go for partnership of close medical monitoring and living arrangements.
He plays the system, again got what he wanted. Roof, food, health care, free…..some just find comfort in jail.