Superior Court judge injured in confrontation outside courthouse; man charged with assault

Katie Mulvaney, The Providence Journal
·2 min read
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PROVIDENCE – A 33-year-old man is accused of assaulting a Superior Court judge during a confrontation Wednesday morning outside the Licht Judicial Complex.

The police charged Luis Marrero, of Providence, with felony assault after he allegedly injured Judge Stephen Nugent’s arm outside the courthouse.

Nugent told the police he bumped into an occupied car as he backed into a spot while parking at around 9:30 a.m.

The car’s occupants “aggressively” approached Nugent as he sat inside his vehicle. Marrero allegedly pulled the driver’s side door open while screaming obscenities, Providence police Maj. David Lapatin said.

Judge Stephen Nugent.
Judge Stephen Nugent.

Marrero moved to slam the door shut, catching and injuring the judge’s arm, Lapatin said.

Marrero and two women – Jaelynn Porter, 29, and Sakiesha James, 33 – continued to scream while surrounding Nugent’s car as he called Providence police and alerted court security, Lapatin said. James wrenched open the passenger door during the encounter.

The police charged Porter and James with disorderly conduct.

The parties were headed to the courthouse in support of Jaelynn's brother Leron Porter, who is being tried for a second time for murder in the 2011 shooting death of 17-year-old Tiphany Tallo, according to court security.

Porter, 41, is being re-tried before Superior Court Judge Robert D. Krause after the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in May overturned his second-degree murder conviction. The three-judge appeals panel found that the prosecutor had used race as a factor in excluding the only Black potential juror and gave state prosecutors 90 days to retry Porter or set him free.

Porter, who remains held at the Adult Correctional Institutions, had been sentenced to two consecutive life sentences plus 25 years in Tallo’s death.

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This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Man charged with assault after confrontation with Judge Stephen Nugent