Newsmakers 11/13: Judge divorce scandal

EAST PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) - This week on Eyewitness Newsmakers, Tim White sits down with Former Rhode Island Chief Justice Frank Williams to discuss a divorce scandal surrounding the retired judge.

Former Chief Justice Frank Williams was caught in the middle of a messy divorce. The proceedings have revealed his close relationship with the family of his former driver, Pamela DosReis and her husband Frank which ended in a settlement.

In the interview, Williams vehemently denied questions of an affair with Pamela DosReis, who was his former driver.

White: Are you the biological father to that 6 year old girl?

Williams: Of course not. And I know you felt you had to ask but it’s outrageous to ask it. In view especially of the relationship that Virginia my wife and I have had with them.

White: Behavior what might be perceived as inappropriate behavior when it came to the child, for example watching a 6 year old girl in the bathtub some people took issue with that.

Williams: She wasn't six years old at the time when I was asked by mother and father to watch the child while they were busy doing something else. When it was time for her to be bathed it was always the mother that did the bathing.

William's is the girl's godfather. A court order effectively barring Williams from seeing the child will remain in effect for about three months.

White: Once that is lifted to plan on visiting the child again?

Williams: I do hope to continue my relationship but it really depends on what evolves, we've been through a terrible time here, we've been hurt

As the messy divorce played out in court reports surfaced that the former chief justice hired a DosReis family member as a part-time janitor and another for a paid internship in the courts.

White: How is that not favoritism?

Williams: Because if you look at my track record as chief and how we chose people based on merit some of whom we knew, or administrators knew.....Am I supposed to hire a stranger for these kinds of positions when we know them and we know the quality of their work.

White: There's a lot of strangers out there who might want that job.

Williams: Well sure and we hire strangers too. Don't you think the head of a department has some say in who was hired? And that if you did know these people or other people that you wouldn't recommend them, as with law clerks.

White: I don't work on Benefit Street but I would think if the chief justice picked up to the telephone to me as a department head, it would carry some weight.

Williams: Yes of course. I do not dispute that one bit, nor am I removing myself from the responsibility of hiring them.

White: So was it favoritism?

Williams: I didn't think so. I thought it was hiring people on the merits that we needed.

Williams says the entire relationship he had with the DosReis family was distorted and taken out of context in court testimony. He says the past month has been one of the worst times in his life.