A Rhode Island prosecutor told police “you’re going to regret this” during a confrontation that ended in her arrest which was caught on an officer’s body camera, officials said Tuesday.
Special Assistant Attorney General Devon Hogan Flanagan and a friend had been asked to leave Clarke Cooke House in Newport when officers arrived, police video showed.
“I want you to turn your bodycam off,” Hogan Flanagan immediately tells the officers. “Protocol is that you turn it off. It’s a citizen request that you turn it off.”
At numerous points of the video, police told the women this confrontation would be over if they just left the Bannister’s Wharf restaurant.
“Let’s go. I don’t want to arrest you guys” for alleged trespassing, an officer behind the camera said.
“You’re not going to arrest us,” Hogan Flanagan responded.
“So let’s leave. We got to go. We got to go,” the officer replied.
The women stood their ground outside the restaurant and would not leave.
It wasn’t clear in the video what sparked their conflict with the restaurant or why the women insisted on staying. An officer can be heard on camera asking a restaurant employee, “Do you just want them out? Do you want them trespassed?”
“Anything we can do. Trespass, yes,” the employee said.
Flanagan and her friend kept reminding officers throughout the encounter that she’s a lawyer. “I’m an A.G., I’m an A.G.,” Hogan Flanagan explained.
The two women were eventually handcuffed as Flanagan told police: “You’re going to regret this!”
She continued to say, “I’m an A.G.”
As a handcuffed Hogan Flanagan was loaded into the back of a police car, she said one more time, “I’m an A,” when the door slammed and cut her off before she could get out a final “G.”
The Rhode Island Attorney General’s Office identified Hogan Flanagan as a special assistant attorney general who has been on the job for seven years and is assigned to the Criminal Division’s Appellate Unit.
State prosecutors are still reviewing the incident.
“At this time, we are unable to comment further on this matter as it relates to personnel issues,” A.G. spokesperson Timothy Rondeau told NBC News in statement on Tuesday.
Hogan Flanagan was charged with willful trespass and given a summons to appear in court. A lawyer for her could not be immediately reached for comment on Tuesday.