The dudes on work release and a familey member brought him some chicken soup. Back to the can. The guy gets a slap on the wrist and even manages to screw that up
Illicit meal puts Derderian in the soup at ACI
01:00 AM EST on Thursday, December 7, 2006
BY PAUL EDWARD PARKER
Journal Staff Writer
It was chicken soup that got Michael Derderian in hot water at the state prison.
Derderian, who owned The Station nightclub with his brother and is serving a four-year prison sentence for the 2003 fire there that killed 100 people, was found guilty of three violations of prison rules in a disciplinary hearing Friday.
One of those violations was for receiving unauthorized food while at his work-release assignment at Allendale Auto Body and Sales. Prison officials said yesterday that the offending comestible was chicken soup, brought to Derderian by a family member whom a prison spokesman would not identify.
Derderian also was found guilty of having an unauthorized visit from a friend while at work and of lying to authorities who were investigating the infractions. As an example, he told them the friend was actually a customer at the business.
Derderian has appealed the guilty finding to the warden of the minimum-security facility to which he has been assigned.
The hearing officer imposed penalties, which are postponed during the appeal, including permanent removal from work release at Allendale and 25 days of disciplinary restrictions, including spending 15 days in a higher-security unit at the Adult Correctional Institutions.
On Tuesday night, Derderian was temporarily transferred from minimum security to the prison’s intake center, the second time he has been moved there this week so that officials can keep a closer eye on him. He had been moved there Monday, then returned to minimum security on Tuesday.
Both times were because he was exhibiting behaviors that showed he was not adjusting well to confinement after the disciplinary sanctions had been imposed, according to A.T. Wall II, director of the Department of Corrections, who declined to elaborate.
Derderian, 45, was sentenced in September to four years in prison after pleading no contest to involuntary manslaughter charges after the Feb. 20, 2003, fire at his West Warwick nightclub, which killed 100 people. His brother, Jeffrey A. Derderian, 40, the nightclub’s other owner, also pleaded no contest and was ordered to perform 500 hours of community service. Daniel M. Biechele, 30, the rock band tour manager who triggered fireworks that started the blaze, pleaded guilty earlier in the year and was sentenced to four years in prison. He is currently in minimum security and, as part of work release, has a bookkeeping job at a Woonsocket social-service agency.
