Matthew Reilly, a Republican Cranston City Councilman from Rhode Island, who was previously arrested on drug possession charges, has now been charged with multiple counts of child molestation.
The charges were filed after the guardian of a 12-year-old girl filed a complaint with the Cranston Police Department. Reilly was arrested on Thursday morning and taken into custody without incident. The Cranston Police Department has declined to comment on the case.
Reilly's attorney, Michael Lepizzera, Jr., has asked the public to avoid jumping to conclusions regarding the new charges. He stated, "With these types of charges, I can see the general public and even close friends instantaneously turning their back on Mr. Reilly and drawing knee jerk conclusions. I simply ask everyone to refrain from public ridicule and gossip and allow the legal process to unfold in the ordinary course."
Lepizzera continued in his statement without directly commenting on the charges, calling the U.S. justice system "near perfect" and saying the courts should be trusted as "final adjudicator" of "any legal outcome." He added, "While we may not have a perfect system of justice in this country (as nothing is perfect), my 30 years as a lawyer allows me to state that we have as near perfect judicial system as could exist, and we should trust in the system to be the final adjudicator of the facts, the law, and any legal outcome."
Reilly, previously the chairman of the Cranston Republican Party, was arrested in May after a passerby tipped police off to a man who appeared to be having a medical episode in his car. Reilly, 41, was found passed out in the driver's seat, and an officer on the scene told Reilly, "You have a crack pipe in your hands," according to the bodycam footage. An officer observed that he appeared to have difficulty breathing or was choking, according to a police report.
Video released by the Cranston Police Department shows the officer shaking Reilly awake before searching him and his vehicle. Reilly, who initially denied having drugs in his car, later allegedly admitted to buying $100 worth of crack cocaine the day before. Police discovered a "white, rock-like substance" inside a container in the vehicle's center console. The substance later tested positive for cocaine and Fentanyl, according to police.
Reilly's attorney has asked the public to avoid jumping to conclusions in the face of the new charges. The U.S. justice system is "near perfect," the courts should be trusted as the "final adjudicator" of any legal outcome.
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