SOUTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. (WPRI) — Five of the people arrested following a brawl on board a Block Island ferry were arraigned Wednesday in court.
Trent Manning, 32, Abdou Njie, 37, and Daevon Silva, 19, are each charged with disorderly conduct (fighting/tumultuous behavior), while Chevon Towns, 20, faces a weapons charge and Cassandra Laurie, 30, is charged with obstructing police.
The fight, which took place on the ferry ride back to the mainland on the night of Aug. 8, sent two people to the hospital with injuries, according to police. Seven people were arrested on the ferry and an eighth was taken into custody after a fight during an event on Block Island earlier in the day.
Police don’t believe Towns was involved in the fight on the ferry, but said they found a knife on him.
Laurie, meanwhile, maintains her innocence, telling 12 News she had nothing to do with the fight and was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Outside court, Laurie said she was on the top floor of the ferry when she saw the first sign of trouble: someone with a cut on their face.
“I went down to the bottom floor because I was like, ‘I want to be one of the first people to get off this boat,'” Laurie recalled.
That’s when she was met with authorities boarding the boat. Laurie says a ferry employee told police she had a knife on her.
Prosecutors allege a man handed her a shank, which she then threw overboard. She denies that ever happened.
“I am an innocent bystander, just like everyone else, just like the guy who was walking off the boat right next to me. Why didn’t they detain him?” Laurie asked.
Laurie believes she was charged because she was unable to answer questions from police that night.
“I couldn’t tell them anything. I didn’t have anything to tell them,” she added.
All five suspects were released on personal recognizance.
Laurie was briefly handcuffed in court for being a bail violator. She said she has another court date coming up in a few weeks.
