Convicted child rapist Richard Gardner to appear in Rhode Island court

Convicted child rapist Richard Gardner is again facing a judge, this time in Rhode Island, after he was arrested at his home in Providence on Nov. 2.

Gardner was recently released after serving nearly 30 years in Massachusetts and Rhode Island prisons for kidnapping and raping children in the 1980s. He moved to Rhode Island after his Oct. 11 release and was on probation and had to register as a sex offender.

The Cranston Police Department arrested Gardner on a warrant for allegedly providing false information when he applied for a marriage certificate at Cranston City Hall on Oct. 12, the day after his release. Police said Gardner gave his Weymouth, Mass., address and used his Mass. ID card.

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Gardner was charged with giving a false document to agent, employee or public official; and furnishing false information to a registrar of vital statistics. He was held through the weekend at the Adult Correctional Institutions.

Gardner pleaded not guilty at his arraignment on the misdemeanor charges Monday in Kent County District Court in Warwick. He will be presented as a probation violator in Superior Court where a judge could decide to let him out on bail or order him to serve time for the violation.

Gardner has been living in Providence, where he is registered as a sex offender, and has been under watch by Providence Police after community members voiced concerns that he was living in the neighborhood, gathering daily outside his home.

Cranston Police contacted Weymouth Police, according to the police report, and confirmed that Gardner's mother said he would not be staying at the Weymouth address, and in fact, could not even travel from Rhode Island to Mass. without permission from the probation department.

The Rhode Island ACLU issued a statement after Gardner's arrest that raised concerns about the timing of the arrest and the legal justification. “Richard Gardner was arrested yesterday not because of what he did last month in the Cranston city clerk’s office, but for the crimes that led him to serve thirty years in prison before being lawfully released," the statement said.

“While many people are undoubtedly applauding Gardner’s detention regardless of the reason, his arrest – and the deliberate timing of it on a Friday afternoon to ensure he would be locked up over the weekend – represents a disturbing abuse of police power that should be of concern to all."

The Plymouth County District Attorney's Office told Boston 25 News two years ago that they dropped the ball in the case when they didn't ask a judge to civilly commit Gardner as a sexually dangerous person.

Gardner went back to jail days after his release on a Rhode Island probation violation, and the Plymouth County district attorney then tried to ask for a civil commitment.

The state's highest court then ruled they had no jurisdiction the second time around.

"When the Commonwealth applied for a petition in this case, the defendant was serving a Rhode Island sentence in a Massachusetts prison," the judge said.

Cox Media Group