4 Young Women Charged as Vandals

Four young women have been charged by Barrington police for a spree of vandalism with spray paint and eggs in town over the past five weeks.

Samantha Ferreira, 20, of 124 Maple Ave., Barrington; Jessica P. Boukarim, 18, of 49 Baker St., Warren; Sarah E. Letoile, 19, of Swansea, Mass., and Tayna E. Sirignano, 18, of 29 Ide Ave., East Providence have been charged with 10 counts each of vandalism on public and private property in Barrington.

They will be arraigned in District Court on June 1.

The arrests follow the spray painting and “egging” of the Temple Habonim sign on New Meadow Road, the concession stand at Chianese Park several times, the Barrington High School sign and tennis courts; the Barrington Middle School signs and walls; the bathhouse at Barrington Beach; the white fence on Nayatt Road at the Rhode Island Country Club; St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church, and a private vehicle and house.

“Excellent police work” led to the arrests, said Police Chief John LaCross, who had particular praise for the detective division and Patrolman John Sgagliardich.

The patrolman, said Det. Lt. Dino DeCrescenzo, detective commander, linked a car to a particular store where the women purchased eggs late at night. Video surveillance was used to identify the vehicle and several of the women.

A vehicle matching the description of the car linked to the store was pulled over by Det. Benjamin A. Ferreira at a later date. He found three cans of spray paint in the car, DeCrescenzo said.

“They admitted to doing everything,” DeCrescenzo said. “They were just stupid pranks.”

LaCross said the detectives had mapped out the spots hit by the women.

“It soon became obvious they were driving around,” he said.

All but one of the locations they vandalized seemed to be random. A son of a victim whose car was spray-painted and house egged over and over again, he said, did have a Facebook fight with one of the women.

“Each of the girls had one color,” DeCrescenzo said of the spray paint -- black, blue, green and red. But at the beginning, it seemed that only black paint was used.

The women never went out when there was snow on the ground, the chief detective said. So, any vandalism done before mid-April has not been linked directly to them.

DeCrescenzo described their motive for the vandalism as a result of “boredom, nothing too crazy.”

The most recent vandalism at the high school tennis courts did include the use of vulgar words, though.

The police chief said he is particularly proud of the department because “we do a lot of cross-training with uniforms working with detectives” for a few weeks at a time to better learn how to gather evidence, work in intelligence and do analysis. Sgagliardich is one of the patrolman who has completed cross-training, LaCross said.

None of the women has a prior arrest record, LaCross said.

Three of them worked together at a Seekonk, Mass., amusement business, DeCrescenzo said. One worked at a restaurant on County Road.

Ferreira and Boukarim are Barrington High School graduates and long-time friends, the detective said.

The women face penalties that could include making restitution and community service. LaCross said he will recommend to the judge that any community service be done on behalf of the victims, a concept he referred to as coming from a “restoring of justice program.”

The program puts a face to a crime to show criminals that there really are no victim-less crimes, LaCross said.