By Karen Lee Ziner
The Providence Journal (Rhode Island)
Copyright 2006 Providence Publications, LLC
The alleged victim, now 19, says Dominic P. Marchetti began molesting him when he was 11 years old.
The state has summarily suspended the emergency medical technician license of Dominic P. Marchetti, after learning that the 29-year-old Hope Valley man is facing trial for child-molestation charges.
The Department of Health has determined that allowing Marchetti to continue practicing as an EMT “would constitute an immediate danger to the public,” department spokeswoman Maria Wah-Fitta said.
The department’s Division of Emergency Medical Services last week announced that it completed its own investigation into charges filed by the Rhode Island State Police against Marchetti in April, on four counts of first-degree child molestation.
The alleged victim, who is now 19, told the police that Marchetti had been sexually assaulting him beginning when he was 11 years old, according to the Health Department’s suspension order.
State police Maj. Steven G. O’Donnell said Friday that Marchetti is a family friend of the complainant. The incidents allegedly occurred in Richmond, beginning in the spring of 1997 and continuing sporadically until 2000.
The alleged victim went to state police in April, after he “observed the same type of sexual abuse occurring between the suspect and another young boy,” O’Donnell said.
In its suspension order, the Health Department noted that Marchetti had made self-implicating statements to state police regarding the alleged sexual assaults.
Those assaults occurred once a week, on average, from the spring of 1997 through 1999, and then rekindled during the summer of 1999 and continued into the year 2000, according to O’Donnell.
Bruce McIntyre, legal counsel for the Health Department’s Division of Legal Services, said the department learned of the case when Marchetti called to report a change of address and indicated that he had just been arrested on four felony counts of child-molestation.
“Ultimately, we got a complete copy of the investigation along with an interview with this guy with state police,” said McIntyre.
On Tuesday, the Health Department completed the final phase of its investigation by interviewing the alleged victim and his family, McIntyre said.
McIntyre said Marchetti was arraigned on April 30 and put on home confinement. He formerly lived in West Warwick, and worked for Universal Ambulance on Douglas Avenue in Providence. He received his EMT license in 1999, according to McIntyre.
Marchetti declined to voluntarily surrender his license on Tuesday, “so we are giving him the opportunity for an administrative hearing” on July 6 at 10 a.m., McIntyre said. “In the meantime, his license is suspended.”