Defendant's Attorney: Marc DeSisto, Caroline Murphy, Melody A. Alger

Description: Newport, Rhode Island personal injury lawyer represented Plaintiff, who sued Defendants no negligence theories.


Between December of 2017 and January of 2018, Defendant Ryan Moniz (Moniz), who was the Portsmouth High School football coach, received several harassing calls and text messages from an anonymous phone number. Moniz reported the matter to the Jamestown Police Department who, in turn, subpoenaed Cox Communication (Cox) to trace the source of the offending calls and messages. On February 1, 2018, Cox responded to the subpoena, and confirmed that the harassing messages and calls originated from the cell phone of Nathan R. Bruno (Nathan),[1] a sixteen-year-old sophomore at Portsmouth High School and member of the football team. That same day, Jamestown Police Detective and co-Defendant, Derek Carlino (Detective Carlino) shared the information he had received from Cox with Moniz and contacted Nathan's father, Richard P. Bruno, Jr. (Richard).

On February 2, 2018, Nathan and Richard appeared at the Jamestown Police Department for an interview, where Nathan admitted to making the offending calls and texts to Moniz. Nathan was immediately charged with cyberstalking and cyber harassment. During this interview, Nathan also indicated that there were two (2) other Portsmouth students involved in the cellular harassment of Moniz. However, Nathan did not divulge the names of the two students except to say that they were also members of the Portsmouth football team.

February 6, 2018 saw several escalating-though unsuccessful-attempts to get Nathan to reveal the names of the two other Portsmouth High School football players supposedly connected with the calls and messages. These attempts included: (i) a morning meeting between Nathan and the Portsmouth High School Principal, Defendant Joseph Amaral (Principal Amaral), as well as the Portsmouth Athletic Director, Defendant Stephen Trezvant (Trezvant); (ii) an afternoon appearance by three (3) members of the football team at the Bruno residence, with Richard present, in an attempt to persuade the younger Bruno into revealing the names[2]; and (iii) a late night argument between Richard and his son concerning the latter's refusal to divulge either coconspirator. During this time, Richard had been emailing back and forth with Moniz regarding

2

having Nathan apologize, an option which Moniz rejected unless the apology came paired with the names of the other students. (See Am. Compl. ¶ 14).

The next day, Nathan committed suicide. (See id.) In their Amended Complaint, Plaintiffs allege that affiliated school personnel of Portsmouth High School neglected their responsibility to communicate with Nathan's parents regarding the Jamestown Police investigation and, further, negligently engaged in a campaign to pressure Nathan to reveal the two other alleged participants. (See id., Count I - Negligence).[3] Additionally, Plaintiffs allege that Detective Carlino-and the Town of Jamestown by extension (the Jamestown Defendants)-failed to follow appropriate policing protocol with respect to the investigation of Nathan and, moreover, that Detective Carlino negligently and improperly shared confidential details of the investigation with Moniz and others while withholding the information from Nathan's parents. (See id., Count II - Negligence).

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Outcome:
For the foregoing reasons, the Court denies Defendants' Joint Motion to Strike Objections and Compel Supplemental Response to Portsmouth Defendants' First Request for Production of Documents Addressed to Plaintiffs. However, the Court will allow Defendants access to Nathan's cell phone data for the thirty (30) days prior to his first call or text to Moniz until the date of his death. The parties shall meet and confer to devise a protocol to ensure that privileged materials or "sensitive or embarrassing materials of marginal relevance" are not produced except for in camera review by the Court. If counsel cannot agree on a protocol within thirty (30) days, they will submit their respective proposals in a redlined document highlighting the disagreements and the Court will establish the protocol. Counsel shall prepare and present an appropriate order.
Bruno v. Mills (R.I. Super. 2022)

Plaintiff's Experts:

Defendant's Experts:

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