WOONSOCKET – A Glocester man presently serving time at the state prison for domestic assault has been accused of raping a juvenile female on multiple occasions about two years ago, when she was 11 years old, police say.
Michael Anthony Dwinnell, 33, was charged in Sixth District Court on Friday, Dec. 1, with one count of first-degree child molestation after a multi-agency investigation that began several weeks earlier, when the victim and her father came to Woonsocket police headquarters to file a complaint. Reports about the probe say Dwinnell is expected to face additional counts in North Smithfield and other Massachusetts jurisdictions where he is also alleged to have violated the girl.
Dwinnell allegedly assaulted the girl at the Woonsocket Motor Inn sometime between November 2021 and February 2022.
According to Patrol Officer Jaydon Pearson’s report, the alleged victim and her father came to police headquarters on Thursday, Nov. 16 to file a complaint against Dwinnell.
According to Pearson’s report, the father told police the alleged assaults occurred during a period when the girl was, “bouncing around from house to house with her mother and Michael Dwinnell,” apparently because of issues with the availability of housing approved by the state Department for Children, Youth and Families.
The girl told police she had been, “raped multiple times at the Woonsocket Motor Inn and multiple places in North Smithfield and areas of Massachusetts,” during this time period. She told police she had told her mother about Dwinnell’s behavior but she did not believe her.
The child was later interviewed at the Aubin Child Protection Center at Hasbro Children’s Hospital, and the records of the case were reviewed by the Attorney General Peter Neronha’s office before the police moved forward with charges.
Detective Gabriel Koneczny said a state prosecutor who is handling the case green-lighted the police charges, calling the victim, “reliable, specific and consistent in her disclosures.” Koneczny also reported that the prosecutor, Asst. Atty. Gen. Meghan McDonough, was also recommending that the North Smithfield Police Department proceed with additional charges against Dwinnell, but so far there is no indication from the judiciary’s web site that the neighboring police department has done so.
While Dwinnell has been arraigned on the lone Woonsocket police charge in Sixth District Court, he could not be booked at headquarters because he is serving two years for multiple counts of domestic assault lodged against him by the city police after an incident at 76 Adams St. about three months ago.
Dwinnell, of 198 Lake Drive, in Chepachet, was arrested at the Adams Street residence on Monday, Sept. 4, when he went to there to drop off two children, according to police reports. When asked to leave, he allegedly threw a bicycle at a car owned by the mother of the children.
Earlier on the same day, Dwinnell allegedly eluded the Glocester Police Department, abandoning a motor vehicle before fleeing on foot. He has since pleaded to an eluding charge from that incident and received a year’s probation, according to the judiciary’s database.
By the time Woonsocket police wrapped up their part of the investigation, they charged Dwinnell with multiple counts of violating restraining orders to keep away from the woman, as well as two counts of felony domestic assault for incidents that had occurred months earlier. Dwinnell has been held at the Adult Correctional Institutions since – initially as a probation violator on a prior conviction for assault.
He is now serving two years on two counts of domestic assault, according to the Department of Corrections inmate database. He is held in medium security.
Dwinnell has been arrested dozens of times since 2013 for assault and other violent crimes and has served numerous terms of incarceration at the ACI following convictions for second-degree robbery, threats to public officials, breaking and entering, eluding police and other charges, according to the DOC and judiciary databases. At the time of the September arrest, a police report described him as “a dangerous individual who has threatened to kill and shoot police officers attempting to locate him in the past…”
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We have another contender. Fire up the brush chipper.
Do you know why he wasn’t in prison long before this. Police officers can not have an IQ over 90. A man was denied a job because his IQ was above 90. WTH . He took it to court and he lost (you’d think this was a joke). He’s too smart to be a cop lol.