RI deputy chief/union prez worked 18 hours OT after fight with lieutenant
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Payroll records obtained by the NBC 10 I-Team reveal Cranston’s deputy fire chief/union president earned a significant amount of overtime pay in the hours immediately after allegedly punching a fire lieutenant. He wasn’t placed on leave for another two days, according to records.
Responding to an I-Team records request, the city’s fire department confirmed Deputy Chief Paul Valletta (who is also fire union president and statehouse lobbyist) worked a 24-hour overtime shift on Saturday, September 9. Around 2 p.m. that afternoon, six hours into the 24 -hour stretch, Lt. Scott Bergantino told Rhode Island State Police Valletta assaulted him by pushing him up against a chalkboard, punching him in the head twice and throwing him over a recliner onto the floor.
State police have since charged Valletta with assault.
Bergantino told police he called Fire Chief William McKenna immediately after the incident and then drove himself to Fatima Hospital for a welt on his right shoulder, neck and back pain. Bergantino told the I-Team he also had a concussion.
State Police detectives listened to a recording of the incident, supplied by Bergantino, and wrote they could hear Bergantino say to Valletta “Go f*** your mother.”
