An assistant attorney general in Rhode Island berated police officers as she was arrested outside a restaurant for trespassing, body camera footage of the incident shows.

An assistant attorney general in Rhode Island berated police officers as she was arrested outside a restaurant for trespassing, body camera footage of the incident shows.

On Aug. 14, Special Assistant Attorney General Devon Hogan Flanagan was arrested outside a restaurant in Newport and charged with trespassing, according to a police report.

Video of the incident recorded on an officer's body camera shows Flanagan repeatedly saying, "I'm an A.G."

"Buddy, you're gonna regret this. You're gonna regret it," Flanagan says.

The Rhode Island attorney general's office said in a statement to The Providence Journal, part of the USA TODAY Network, that it is reviewing the incident.

Body camera footage of RI assistant attorney general arrest released

According to a police report, officers responded to the Clarke Cooke house restaurant in downtown Newport just before 10 p.m. local time on Aug. 14 for a report of "an unwanted party."

Bodycam footage shows several individuals standing outside the restaurant, including Flanagan and another woman, identified in a police report as Veronica Hannan.

As an officer approaches the women, Flanagan requests him to turn off his body camera.

"Protocol is that you turn it off if a citizen requests to turn it off," Flanagan says.

During the recorded interaction, Flanagan repeatedly asks officers to turn off their body cameras, insisting it was protocol. Newport Police Department protocol allows for the footage to be turned off if a witness or victim requests it and the scene is non-confrontational, among other situations.

"They want you guys to leave. Let's just leave. Let's just make it easy," an officer can be heard saying on the video before asking the women to walk away from the restaurant.

When they don't comply, Flanagan repeatedly says, "I'm an A.G." The officer then places her in handcuffs.

"Buddy, you're gonna regret this. You're gonna regret it," she says as she's placed in the back of a cruiser.

RI assistant attorney general charged with trespassing

Flanagan, 34, was charged with one count of willful trespassing, a misdemeanor, according to an arrest report.

Hannan, 34, the other woman seen in the video, was charged with three misdemeanors: disorderly conduct, willful trespassing and resisting arrest.

Both of the women's arrest reports indicated that alcohol was involved in the incident.

The Rhode Island attorney general's office said in a statement that Flanagan has been employed in the office for seven years and is currently assigned to the criminal division's appellate unit.

"The Office immediately began a review of the incident, which we anticipate will conclude within the next few days," the statement said.

The office said it was unable to comment further on the incident, as it relates to "personnel issues."

USA TODAY has reached out to Hannan's lawyer for comment and attempted to reach Flanagan.

RI Attorney General says Flanagan 'embarrassed herself'

In an Aug. 19 radio interview on WPRO, Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha said that Flanagan has not been placed on leave, but a "strong sanction" would be coming, including a "suspension without pay" if he decides to retain her with the office.

"Look, she's put me in a bad position. She's embarrassed herself, humiliated herself, treated the Newport Police Department horribly," Neronha said. "She is going to take some steps to try to address that in the next day or so."

While he did not say what the "steps" would entail, he did say an apology to the Newport Police Department was "clearly necessary, and she understands that."

Neronha said Flanagan would "take responsibility for her conduct, and then we'll go from there," adding that he hadn't yet made any decisions regarding discipline.

"It was inexcusable behavior," he said. "She knows better. ... I've got 110 lawyers. She embarrassed all of them, in a sense."

He said that he had Flanagan watch the body camera footage herself, take a few days and then come back to him with what she thought she needed to do to "make this right."

"I have the responsibility to protect the office, obviously, and the work, but these are decisions that impact human beings, too," Neronha said, adding that Flanagan has children, and "they're going to see these tapes."

Neronha also said Flanagan "misstated" body camera protocol.

"Look, it's my office that drove that body cam program in the first place. So I'm really glad that they're on every police officer in the state," Neronha said.

Melina Khan is a national trending reporter for USA TODAY. She can be reached at melina.khan@usatoday.com.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Rhode Island assistant attorney general to cops during arrest: 'You're gonna regret this'

Reporting by Melina Khan and Bailey Allen, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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