Confrontation involving Scituate councilman caught on camera
By Alana Cerrone
@Alana_Cerrone
SCITUATE, R.I. (WLNE) – In a video taken at a West Warwick Cumberland Farms Monday, Scituate Councilman Nick Izzi uses the “r-word” responding to Chuck Collins, the son of Councilman Charles Collins.
He apologized for his language and says Collins followed him there, and ambushed him.
"When I turned around I was startled to find somebody in my face with a camera and unfortunately that was my reaction."
In the video, Collins questioned him about his vote to hire his cousin as EMA director and asked why he didn’t recuse himself.
Council President John Mahoney says it was an oversight, and a mistake, and shouldn’t have happened.
Izzi, Mahoney, and Council Vice President Mike Payette say Collins’ move was nothing more than a political attack on his father’s behalf.
"They’re campaigning. What they’re doing is trying to draw us into doing something bad so that we look bad.”
Collins paints a different picture.
"I was driving home…he saw me coming, he swerved right into my lane.”
That’s when he followed Izzi to the Cumberland Farms and approached him
"I vote, I’m a taxpayer, I have a right to ask these questions."
"He came at me, he grabbed my arm with the phone in it, he had my arm and was trying to push me towards the door."
Collins also claims he and his family live in fear and that Mahoney has trespassed on his property several times.
State Police are investigating.
© WLNE-TV 2018
