An internal investigation by the Little Compton Police Department has “sustained” a complaint from a former resident who claimed last year that a lieutenant had an inappropriate, on-the-job relationship with his wife.

Following an internal investigation, Police Chief Scott Raynes in early February “sustained” the complaint of former Long Highway resident Robert Bruno, who alleged that department veteran Lt. John Faria had an inappropriate relationship with a subordinate, part-time employee of the town, Rachel Bruno.

Bruno claimed that his wife, a former, part-time police dispatcher and clerk at Little Compton Town Hall who was arrested last November for allegedly embezzling $1,000 from the town, would often meet with Faria during business hours. And he further alleged that after his own arrest on a domestic assault charge last June, Lt. Faria abused his power by counseling Rachel Bruno on legal matters, all while Robert Bruno was still unaware of the affair.

Citing the Rhode Island Law Enforcement Officers’ Bill of Rights, Chief Raynes and Little Compton Town Solicitor Anthony DeSisto each declined to comment on the case, and Little Compton Town Council president Robert Mushen, who was advised of the issue late last year, did not return a telephone call from the Sakonnet Times.

But in a Feb. 1 letter to Robert Bruno, Chief Raynes wrote that the internal departmental investigation sustained one of two claims, that Lt. Faria did have an inappropriate relationship with the part-time dispatcher (Rachel Bruno). Another complaint, that Faria “utilized his cell phone” during Robert Bruno’s arraignment on the domestic charge, was dismissed as “unfounded.”

“The Little Compton Police Department has now closed the matter,” Chief Raynes wrote, but did not add what, if any, sanctions or penalties had been levied against Lt. Faria.

Reached by phone last Thursday, Robert Bruno declined to discuss the matter, saying only that after the news of the affair and his wife’s felony embezzlement charge came to light, his life unraveled. He has since left town, he said, and has moved on.

Complaint to the town

In documents obtained by the Sakonnet Times, including a Thursday, Jan. 18, letter to the town council, Robert Bruno contends that Little Compton needs to reckon with the behavior of its employees, and chastised Mushen, Raynes and others for allegedly turning a blind eye to what he said were his valid concerns. Many of them stem from his arrest on a domestic charge last June 1, 2023.

Following the arrest, Bruno moved out of the home he shared with his wife, whom he married in 2021. Though the charge was dismissed two months later, Bruno complained that after his arrest, but prior to his knowledge of the affair, Lt. Faria appeared at a court date and “stood up in a court against me and continued to provide her with legal advice regarding keeping me out of our home.”

“I find it unfathomable that the leaders of this community can dismiss my numerous attempts at reporting that someone of significant authority such as a Lieutenant was allowed to be present and participate in a court room with myself and my wife, when he was obviously not a neutral party in this legal action and at the time was already having adulterous interactions with my wife,” Bruno wrote in the letter to the town.

“I struggle to understand how further actions against Lieutenant Faria and his inappropriate behavior has not been addressed,” he added.

Though the letter was sent to members of the town council, it was not discussed publicly. While the council did meet in executive session the same day the letter was dated, minutes of that meeting are sealed and it is unknown if that item was on the agenda.

Meanwhile, the case against Rachel Bruno continues.

She was charged with felony embezzlement/fraudulent conversion over $100, a felony, on Thursday, Nov. 30, after Little Compton officials contacted state police officials and asked them to investigate a report from a resident who had paid a tax bill with cash and received a receipt, but later got a tax delinquency notice from the town.

According to state police, Bruno admitted during questioning that she had taken the resident’s $1,000 cash tax payment.

Her next court date is Thursday, July 18, at which a pre-trial arraignment is scheduled.