Cranston, R.I., public schools dean charged with drunken driving – The Boston Globe

PROVIDENCE – A dean of students for public schools in Cranston, R.I., was arrested on the suspicion of drunken driving after police allegedly found him passed out behind the wheel of a Volvo SUV and stopped at an intersection early on Monday morning, according to authorities.

Vincent L. Turchetta, Jr., 61, was charged with driving under the influence and with refusal to submit a chemical test, Cranston police wrote in a report.

Court records show Turchetta was released on personal recognizance later on Monday. An arraignment is scheduled for April 8.

Turchetta did not immediately return a request for comment on Tuesday.

Jennifer Cowart, a spokesperson for Cranston Public Schools, confirmed in an email that Turchetta is a district employee.

“Cranston Public Schools administration is aware of the incident regarding Vincent Turchetta,” the district’s leadership team said in a statement. “This is a personnel matter and therefore, the district has no further comment.”

According to a police report, authorities responded to a 911 call around 12:44 a.m. reporting a man passed out behind the wheel of a vehicle at the intersection of Park and Reservoir avenues.

Responding officers found a gray, Volvo SUV stopped in the westbound left turn lane, as well as two other vehicles behind it attempting to turn left onto Reservoir Avenue while beeping their horns.

In body camera video footage obtained by the Globe, an officer can be seen knocking on the driver’s side window of the vehicle several times. When the man – who later identified himself on video as Turchetta – responds, the officer tells him to take his foot off the brake, put the vehicle in park, and turn off the engine.

“While I was briefly inside of the cabin of the vehicle, I could smell an odor of an alcoholic beverage,” Officer Nicholas Snowling wrote in the report.

Turchetta told police he was heading home after going to a house party in Warwick and that he had three beers, the video shows.

When asked why he was stopped at the intersection, Turchetta told police, “I don’t know, man. I was just trying to get home,” the video shows.

Snowling wrote that while he was speaking to Turchetta, he could “smell a strong odor of an alcoholic beverage emanating from his breath, along with mumbled speech and blood shot water[y] eyes.”

According to police, Turchetta declined to take field sobriety tests, at which point officers told him he was under arrest for suspicion of driving under the influence.

According to a 2021 report from The Cranston Herald, Turchetta previously served on the Cranston School Committee.

He resigned from the Ward 4 seat that year, telling the Herald it was “a good time to take a break” and citing scheduling issues, as he was teaching at the Community College of Rhode Island and at Coventry High School at the time.

Christopher Gavin can be reached at christopher.gavin@globe.com.