Video: Prosecutor Tells Newport Rhode Island Police They'll 'Regret' Arresting Her

By Peter Yankowski

Source Connecticut Post, Bridgeport

A Rhode Island prosecutor and former Connecticut court clerk told police they would "regret" arresting her and demanded they turn off their body cameras during an incident outside a Newport bistro, video shows.

Devon Hogan Flanagan, 34, a special assistant attorney general, was charged by Newport police with willful trespass, a misdemeanor, according to police reports obtained by CT Insider. A second woman, Veronica Hannan, 34, of Westport, was charged with willful trespass, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. Messages seeking comment Tuesday from both women were not immediately returned.

A LinkedIn page under Flanagan's name, since taken down, said she's worked as a special assistant attorney general since 2018. Previously she worked as an assistant district attorney for the Suffolk County District Attorney's office in Massachusetts, and before that as a law clerk for the Connecticut Judicial Branch.

She attended Danbury High School in the late 2000s.

Newport police said officers were called to Clarke Cooke House on Bannister's Wharf at about 9:50 p.m. Thursday for "patrons refusing to leave."

Body camera footage from the incident captures police arriving at the wharf-side restaurant where a man directed the officer to the two women.

Flanagan immediately told the officer: "I want you to turn your body cam off," according to the footage.

"Protocol is that you turn it off if a citizen requests," she told the officer.

"She's a lawyer," Hannan interjected.

The officer told the two women they had been asked to leave.

After a back-and-forth with Hannan, Flanagan and a man who identified himself as Hannan's husband, the officer approached a host stationed behind a booth outside the restaurant and asked if he wanted them cited for trespassing.

"Anything we can do, trespassed, yeah," he told the officer, according to the video. "Cuff 'em, please."

The officer walked back to Flanagan and Hannan, and informed them they've trespassed and needed to leave.

"We're not trespassing, you haven't notified us that we're trespassing," Flanagan responded.

"What did I just say to you?" the officer said.

Flanagan began to speak, but the officer cut her off.

"I don't want to arrest you guys," he told them.

"You're not going to arrest us. ... Your protocol is, the citizen protocol is that if we ask you to turn the body cam off," Flanagan began to tell him.

"I don't want to deal with this, let's go," the officer interjected, waving his hand at another officer.

Both Flanagan and Hannan remained where they were standing. Flanagan stated again that the officer needed to turn off his body camera if they request it.

"She's a (expletive) lawyer, so she knows," Hannan told the officer, according to the footage.

"Well that's (expletive) lawyer stuff so that's not true, so we gotta go," the officer responded.

"No, it is, that's the law," Hannan responded.

"I'm an AG, I'm an AG," Flanagan told the officer.

"Good for you, I don't give a (expletive), let's go," the officer responded and began pushing the two women away from the restaurant.

"Please don't put your hands on me," Hannan told him.

"Can you get your children out of here," the officer said, apparently directed at Hannan's husband, who objected, saying they're both adult women.

The officer filming pulled out his handcuffs and grabbed Flanagan by the arms, pushing her toward a police cruiser.

"I'm an AG," she told him repeatedly. "What do you have probable cause to detain me for?"

Another man told the officer Flanagan's badge was in the car.

"You want me to go get her badge," he asked the officer.

The officer opened the door to the cruiser and put Flanagan in the back seat.

"You're gonna regret this," she told him, according to the video. "You're gonna regret it. I'm an ...," but her last words are muffled as the officer closed the door.

Flanagan, whose name appears as "Devon Hogan" in a police report and a news release issued by the department, was issued a District Court summons. Both women were brought to court for arraignment, the news release said.

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