Criminal Defense Lawyers

Rhode Island Federal Criminal Defense Lawyers

Rhode Island Federal Criminal Defense Lawyers

Welcome to Spodek Law Group. Our mission is to give you the unfiltered truth about what your facing if you’ve been charged with a federal crime in Rhode Island. Not the version designed to make you feel better. Not the generic advice you’ll find on every other criminal defense website. The reality of what it means to face federal prosecution in America’s smallest state.

Here’s the thing nobody tells you about federal criminal defense in Rhode Island: your not just fighting your case. Your fighting 30 years of institutional memory built on taking down Buddy Cianci and dismantling the Patriarca crime family. The FBI agent who ran Operation Plunder Dome – who literally called Rhode Island “the Louisiana of the North” – became the model for how federal investigators operate in this state. Those corruption prosecutions and organized crime RICO cases created a district identity that prosecutors still carry today, even though the mob threat basicly disappeared and the FBI disbanded its organized crime squad in 2024. The targets changed. The intensity didnt.

Rhode Island’s legendary corruption-fighting history isnt your advantage. Its your burden. Because federal prosecutors in the smallest state are still trying to live up to the reputation built prosecuting mayors and mobsters, which means they bring organized-crime intensity to healthcare fraud, tax evasion, and drug cases. In a courthouse with three federal judges where everyone knows everyone, there is no anonymity, no statistical disappearing into the federal system. Your name will be known. Your case will be remembered. And the conviction rate speaks for itself.

The Smallest Courtroom in America

Rhode Island has one federal courthouse. Three federal judges. Thats it.

The United States District Court for the District of Rhode Island sits at One Exchange Terrace in Providence. The building was constructed in 1908. Every federal criminal case in the entire state goes through that courthouse. Every federal sentencing happens in front of one of three judges who all know each other, who all know the prosecutors, and who all share the institutional memory of what this district has prosecuted over the past three decades.

Most people hear “small courthouse” and think advantage. Local connections. Informal relationships. Maybe even small-town courtesy were everyone knows your name and gives you the benefit of the doubt. That sounds good untill you understand what small actualy means in the federal system.

It means your case isnt one of 5,000 annually like in the Southern District of New York. Its one of maybe 100-150. It means your not a statistic that disappears into the volume. Your visible. The AUSA prosecuting you knows your defense attorney personally – theyve worked together on previous cases, theyll work together on future cases. The judge sentencing you has probably sentenced people you know. In a state with a population of 1.1 million and a legal community that fits in a single conference room, everyone is watching.

Heres the paradox: Rhode Island has the smallest federal court in America – one courthouse, three judges – which sounds manageable until you realize it means there’s nowhere to hide, no statistical anonymity, and every decision is visible to everyone in the legal community. In Manhattan, a lenient sentence disappears into hundreds of monthly dispositions. In Providence, a lenient sentence becomes “Did you hear Judge X went easy on that fraud case?” within 48 hours.

The three federal judges on this court serve lifetime appointments. There nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate. Appeals from the District of Rhode Island go to the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. The United States Attorney for the District of Rhode Island as of 2021 is Zachary A. Cunha. The office isnt huge – its a small prosecutorial team compared to major districts. Which means the AUSAs who handle your case probly know the history intimately. There not distant bureaucrats. There believers in the mission.

And the mission, for 30 years, has been defined by two things: Operation Plunder Dome and the Patriarca crime family prosecutions.

The Ghost of Buddy Cianci Lives in Every Prosecution

Vincent “Buddy” Cianci Jr. served as mayor of Providence for over 21 years. He was charismatic, effective at revitalizing the city, and completly corrupt. In 1974, he campaigned as “the anti-corruption candidate” after building his reputation as a prosecutor in the Rhode Island Attorney General’s office were he successfully prosecuted members of organized crime – including New England mob boss Raymond L.S. Patriarca. At 34, he became the first Italian-American mayor in Providence history.

Then he became what he’d prosecuted.

His first administration ended in 1984 when he pleaded no contest to charges involving kidnapping and torturing a man he believed was involved with his ex-wife. He didnt serve prison time – 5-year suspended sentence. But that wasnt the end. He ran again. He won again. And his second administration, from 1991 to 2002, became a federal prosecution target.

Operation Plunder Dome ran from 1999 to 2002. It was an undercover FBI investigation into political corruption within Providence city government. Dennis Aiken, a celebrated FBI agent and public corruption expert, asked to be sent to what he called “the Louisiana of the North.” He enlisted an undercover businessman to expose the corrupt secrets inside City Hall. On April 28, 1999, the FBI executed a search warrant on Providence City Hall. The investigation became public. And the resulting prosecutions defined this district for the next generation.

Nine people were convicted in the scandal, including:

• Buddy Cianci (mayor)
• Frank Corrente (aide)
• Joseph Pannone (Tax Board Chairman)
• Rosemary Glancy (Deputy Tax Assessor)

Cianci was acquitted on 26 out of 27 charges – including bribery, extortion, and mail fraud. But he was found guilty of one count: racketeering conspiracy, running a corrupt criminal enterprise. In September 2002, Judge Torres sentenced him to five years in federal prison, opting for a sentence higher than the minimum required by the Federal Sentencing Guidelines. Cianci was forced by law to resign immediatly.

Heres what matters about that history: Operation Plunder Dome wasnt some distant historical event. It was 1999-2002. Thats 22-23 years ago. The prosecutors who worked those cases are now judges. The FBI agents who ran the investigation trained current agents. The “corruption fighter” identity that Dennis Aiken embodied – asking to be sent to Rhode Island specifically becuase it was a career opportunity to take down corrupt officials – became the template for federal law enforcement in this district.

You might think ancient history dosent affect your healthcare fraud case or your tax evasion charge. Your wrong. That legacy is the lens through which your case gets evaluated. Your not just a defendant. Your the latest test of whether this district still has the toughness that made its reputation.

When the Mob Disappeared But the Mob Prosecutors Stayed

While Buddy Cianci was running City Hall, the Patriarca crime family was running everything else. The Patriarca family – also known as the New England Mafia, the Boston Mafia, or the Providence Mafia – was an Italian-American organized crime family operating throughout New England with factions in both Providence and Boston. Raymond Patriarca Sr. was the boss. His influence extended into politics, labor unions, gambling, loansharking, and virtually every illegal enterprise in the region.

On March 26, 1990, Raymond Patriarca Jr., underboss Bianco, and 20 other family members and associates were indicted on racketeering, extortion, narcotics, gambling, and murder charges. The arrests were described as “the most sweeping attack ever launched on a single organized crime family.” The prosecutions that followed used the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act – RICO – which allowed the goverment to charge entire criminal enterprises, not just individual crimes.

The results were devastating for the mob:

• Bianco: sentenced to 11 years (1991)
• Eight other family members: convicted on RICO charges
• Patriarca Jr.: sentenced to 8 years (June 1992)
• Over following decades: eight bosses or underbosses imprisoned

By 2024, the Patriarca crime family was, in the words of former federal prosecutor Fred Wyshak, reduced to “not much of anything left.” Former Rhode Island State Police Superintendent Steven O’Donnell stated the family consists of around 30 “made” members and is “just not at the threat level that they were years ago.” Former Massachusetts State Police detective Steve Johnson described the family as “a shell of itself” with “mostly figurehead people and wannabes.”

In late 2024, the FBI’s Boston field office – which oversees Rhode Island – disbanded its dedicated organized crime squad. Agents were reassigned to counterterrorism, cyber threats, and transnational criminal networks. The decision reflected what everyone already knew: the Patriarca crime family as a meaningful organized crime threat no longer exists.

Heres the irony: The FBI disbanded its organized crime squad in Rhode Island in 2024 because there’s “not much of anything left” of the Patriarca mob, yet federal prosecutors still bring organized-crime intensity to healthcare fraud and tax cases.

The mob is gone. The prosecution intensity isnt. Because that intensity wasnt about responding to the actual threat level. It was – and is – about institutional identity. The prosecutors who built careers prosecuting RICO cases, who learned from the Buddy Cianci and Patriarca trials, who absorbed the “Louisiana of the North” mentality that made Rhode Island federal law enforcement legendary – there still there. Some became judges. The federal judge sentencing you for wire fraud might have been the AUSA who prosecuted Buddy Cianci’s City Hall in Operation Plunder Dome. They didnt switch worldviews when they switched sides of the courtroom.

You think everyone knowing everyone in Rhode Island is an advantage – local connections, informal relationships, small-town courtesy. Actually its a trap. Judges remember you. Prosecutors know your lawyer. And every lenient decision becomes gossip in a legal community of maybe 200 active federal practitioners. The pressure to maintain the district’s reputation as tough, incorruptible, willing to take on anyone – that pressure dosent come from Washington. It comes from within. From the history. From the cases that made careers. From the institutional memory that three federal judges share when they talk to each other.

97.7% Means They Don’t Bring Cases They Might Lose

You might be thinking: every federal district has history. Rhode Island prosecutors still follow the same federal guidelines as prosecutors in Manhattan or LA. How different can it realy be?

Heres how different.

Rhode Island’s federal conviction rate is 97.7%. That represents 130 convictions and 3 acquittals. Three acquittals. Out of 133 cases that went to verdict. The national federal conviction rate is overwhelming at around 99.6% when you count plea deals. But Rhode Island exceeds even that in the percentage of cases ending in guilty verdicts.

Three people walked out of federal court in Rhode Island aquitted. Everyone else either pleaded guilty or was convicted at trial. Think about what that means. Federal prosecutors in Rhode Island do not bring cases they might lose. They dont bring marginal cases. They dont take risks. Because in a district this small, everyone would know if they lost. In Manhattan, a loss disappears into monthly statistics. In Providence, a loss is a conversation topic.

The Federal Sentencing Guidelines were created in 1984 through the Sentencing Reform Act. Congress established the United States Sentencing Commission to develop uniform guidelines so that similar offenders convicted of similar crimes would recieve similar sentences. The guidelines were designed to be fair and honest. Parole was abolished. You serve your time. You can earn good-time credits – up to 54 days per year – which means you’ll serve between 80% and 90% of your sentence depending on the length.

In Rhode Island, sentencing is normaly set for 13 weeks after conviction. During that time, the Probation Office prepares a presentence investigation report. They interview you. They review your criminal history, your financial situation, your family circumstances. They calculate your offense level under the sentencing guidelines – a complex formula based on:

• The specific crime committed
• Aggravating factors
• Mitigating factors
• Your role in the offense
• Your criminal history category

The sentencing table is divided into zones. Zone A (offense levels 1-8) allows probation. Zone D (offense levels 14 and higher) requires prison time. The judge can depart from the guideline range – impose a sentence higher or lower – but departures require justification. In a district were reputation matters and institutional memory runs deep, upward departures are more common than downward ones.

The guidelines are the same everywhere. But the conviction rate is not. And in a courthouse with three federal judges who all know each other, who all know the prosecutors, and who all remember Operation Plunder Dome and the Patriarca RICO trials – there’s nowhere to hide from the culture those numbers represent.

Yes, prosecutors follow DOJ policy. But they also follow district culture. And the culture built on taking down mayors and dismantling organized crime families dosent just dissapear because the targets changed. The FBI disbanded the organized crime squad. The prosecutors who worked corruption cases became judges. The agents who learned from Dennis Aiken trained the next generation. The intensity didnt change – just who its applied to.

Your healthcare fraud case gets the same scrutiny that a mob racketeering case would have gotten in 1992. Your tax evasion charge gets investigated with the same resources that went into Operation Plunder Dome. Because the threat level isnt what drives prosecution intensity anymore. The institutional identity is.

You’re Going to Connecticut (And Everyone Will Know)

If your convicted in federal court in Rhode Island, the Bureau of Prisons will designate your facility. For most defendants from Rhode Island, that means FCI Danbury in Connecticut. Its a low-security federal correctional institution about 90 miles from Providence. Close enough for family visits. Close enough that your still in New England. Close enough that when you get out, everyone back home knows exactly were you were and exactly how long you served.

Theres no federal parole. That program ended in 1987. You serve your time. Minimum 85% with good-time credits maxed out. If your sentenced to 10 years, your doing at least 8.5 years. No early release for overcrowding. No parole board considering your rehabilitation. Federal time is real time.

In larger states, people convicted of federal crimes can move away after release. They can relocate to the other side of the state, start over in a city were nobody knows there name or there history. In Rhode Island, that option dosent exist. The state is 48 miles wide at its widest point. There is no “other part” of Rhode Island. There is no urban anonymity. There is no disappearing into a new community.

When your federally indicted in Rhode Island, it makes the Providence Journal. It makes local news. In a state with a population of 1.1 million and a culture were everyone seems to know everyone within two or three degrees of separation, your case becomes known. Your neighbors know. Your kids’ teachers know. Your employer knows. Your professional community knows.

After you serve your sentence and return, that knowledge dosent fade. It follows you. Because the interconnectedness that seemed like an advantage – the local relationships, the small-town familiarity – becomes a trap. You cant outrun your reputation in a state this small. You cant move to were “nobody knows.” Geographic proximity prevents reinvention.

Heres the consequence cascade: Federal indictment in Rhode Island → Providence Journal coverage → everyone you know sees it → professional reputation destroyed before trial → cant move to “the other part” of a state thats 48 miles wide → conviction → FCI Danbury → everyone knows were you were → return to Rhode Island → permanent visibility → cant escape the history because the state is to small and the community is to interconnected.

In Manhattan, you might become a statistic. In Los Angeles, you might blend into millions. In Rhode Island, your case has a name, a face, and a story that people remember. The same small scale that creates prosecution intensity also creates permanent reputational consequences. The visibility trap extends forever.

What Actually Works in a Courthouse Built on Corruption Cases

After everything Ive described – the 30-year corruption-fighting legacy, the 97.7% conviction rate, the three-judge courthouse were everyone knows everyone, the prosecution intensity that outlasted the actual mob threat, the permanent visibility in the smallest state – you might be wondering what actualy works. What can a federal criminal defense attorney do against this system?

Early Intervention

If your being investigated but havent been charged yet, an experienced federal attorney can sometimes prevent charges from being filed at all. We can communicate with prosecutors before indictment, present mitigating information, offer cooperation if its appropriate, and shape the narrative before the goverment commits to prosecution. Once your indicted, the leverage shifts dramatically against you. The 97.7% conviction rate tells you what happens after indictment. The goal is stopping it before that point.

Understanding District Culture

What works in the Southern District of New York might not work in Rhode Island. An attorney who has appeared before the three federal judges, who knows how the AUSAs in this district operate, who understands the Plunder Dome legacy and what it means for prosecution strategy – that institutional knowledge is invaluable. Generic federal defense is inadequate in a district this unique.

Cooperation Strategy

In a district were prosecutors bring organized-crime intensity to ordinary cases, cooperation can matter enormously. But cooperation is complex. You proffer – tell prosecutors everything you know – in exchange for a letter saying they wont use your exact words against you at trial. But that letter dosent protect you from everything:

• They CAN use what you tell them to find other evidence
• They CAN use your statements to impeach you if you testify differently
• If you proffer but cant deliver, youve made everything worse

Cooperation done right can reduce a 20-year exposure to 5 years. Cooperation done wrong can add charges and eliminate defenses. You need an attorney who understands when cooperation makes sense and when it dosent.

Sentencing Mitigation

Even if your convicted, the Federal Sentencing Guidelines calculation is were experienced defense attorneys make a difference. Offense levels, criminal history categories, specific offense characteristics, acceptance of responsibility adjustments, departures – these are technical determinations that can mean the difference between Zone A (probation possible) and Zone D (mandatory prison). The difference between guidelines ranges can be years or decades of your life. In a district were judges carry the institutional memory of Buddy Cianci and Patriarca prosecutions, presenting mitigation that acknowledges the seriousness of the offense while distinguishing your case from organized crime is critical.

Todd Spodek and the team at Spodek Law Group understand that federal defense in Rhode Island isnt about dramatic courtroom speeches. Its about understanding the institutional culture that defines this district. Its about knowing when to fight and when to negotiate. Its about recognizing that in a courthouse with three federal judges and a 30-year legacy of corruption prosecutions, every decision has consequences that extend beyond the immediate case.

If your facing federal charges in Rhode Island – or if youve been contacted by federal agents and charges seem imminent – dont wait. The federal goverment has been building there case for months or potentially years. Every day you delay is a day they get stronger and your options get narrower. Call 212-300-5196 for a consultation. We’ll give you an honest assessment of were you stand and what your options actualy are given the realities of this district.

This is serious. The smallest state has the longest memory. Treat it accordingly.