R.I. judge unafraid of controversy

He was the judge who sentenced a former Superior Court colleague, Antonio S. Almeida , to six years in prison in 1992 for taking bribes from a lawyer in exchange for favorable rulings.

In 1998 he sentenced former Governor Edward D. DiPrete to a year in prison in a controversial plea bargain that added DiPrete's name to the daunting list of Rhode Island politicians convicted of corruption charges.

Few of Darigan's rulings, however, are likely to linger as long in public consciousness as the deal he accepted for the owners of The Station, the West Warwick nightclub where 100 people died in an inferno in February 2003. The brothers plan to plead no contest today to 100 counts of involuntary manslaughter in an agreement that spares Jeffrey Derderian jail time and sends Michael Derderian to prison for four years, ending the extraordinary criminal case stemming from the disaster.

The deal has left relatives of people killed in the fire seething.

``As far as I'm concerned, they got away with murder," said Charles Sweet , of Pembroke, whose 28-year-old son, Shawn , died in the blaze that started when the tour manager of the rock band Great White set off pyrotechnics in the packed nightclub, where the Derderians had installed highly flammable soundproofing in violation of the state fire code. ``If this is what [Darigan] calls justice, I don't know. . . . I couldn't put my head on the pillow and go to sleep with that kind of verdict."

But those who know Darigan say the ruling is characteristic of the white-haired, bespectacled jurist, who was preparing a letter to send victims telling them about his decision when news of the deal broke. He wanted to shield them from seeing ``vivid and disturbing" photographs and videotaped evidence that might not lead to a conviction, his letter said.

Darigan is a thoughtful and dispassionate jurist who is unafraid to take an unpopular stand, said several in legal and political circles.

``I think what it told me was there was great doubt about the outcome if it went to trial," said former governor Bruce Sundlun , a one-time federal prosecutor who promoted Darigan from the District Court to the Superior Court in 1991. Darigan had been appointed a District Court judge in 1984.

A former president of the Rhode Island Bar Association, John M. Roney , said the outcome was consistent with the sentence Darigan gave Daniel M. Biechele , who ignited the pyrotechnics. Darigan sentenced Biechele to four years in a minimum-security work-release program , telling him that ``the greatest sentence that can be imposed on you has been imposed on you by yourself."

David M. Zlotnick , who teaches criminal law at Roger Williams University in Bristol, R.I., said the deal with the Derderians might be the right approach, particularly if prospects for conviction at trial were in doubt. Legal specialists have noted, for example, that the town fire inspector had inspected the club several times and never cited the packing foam in reports.

The problem, Zlotnick said, is that Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch immediately decried the terms of the agreement, even though he authorized its negotiation.

``It looks like something's being swept under the rug, when I don't think it is," Zlotnick said.

Darigan declined to be interviewed through a spokesman.

The son of a grocer and a stay-at-home mother, Darigan, 64, was an altar boy who grew up in South Providence and wanted to become a priest, said Joseph F. Rodgers Jr. , presiding justice of the Superior Court, who has been a friend since their childhoods in a predominantly Irish and Jewish neighborhood.

Darigan attended LaSalle Academy and Providence College, served as chairman of the national Catholic Youth Organization, and went to law school at Suffolk University. Now married and the father of four grown children, he lives in Jamestown.

In the early 1970s, the Democrat won a seat on the Providence City Council and served two terms.

He ran for mayor in 1974, 1978, and 1982, winning the Democratic nomination the last two times. But Vincent A. ``Buddy" Cianci Jr., the charismatic rogue who dominated Providence politics for nearly a quarter of a century before landing in federal prison in 2002 after a racketeering conspiracy conviction, won all three races.

In one contest, Cianci 's lieutenants plastered Cianci posters with bumper stickers saying ``Get the Garlic Out of City Hall. Vote Darigan Mayor" in an attempt to inflame the passions of Italian-American voters and stir a backlash against Darigan, according to ``The Prince of Providence," the 2003 book by Mike Stanton. Darigan denied responsibility.

``Frank wouldn't even conceive of it," said his former campaign aide, Paul F. O'Malley, who now directs the graduate history program at Providence College.

In retrospect, O'Malley said, Darigan was better suited for the bench than for City Hall.

Michael Levenson of the Globe staff contributed to this report.