State v. Tavone

BEVILACQUA, Chief Justice, with whom KELLEHER, Justice, joins,

dissenting.

I must respectfully dissent from the majority’s findings on the question of whether *699the state was barred from instituting criminal charges against the defendant.

In State v. Berberian, R.I., 427 A.2d 1298, 1301 (1981), we held that

“when an authoritative government agency or voice issues an official assurance or affirmatively misleads a defendant into believing that criminal sanctions do not apply to his behavior, no criminal sanctions will attach to the defendant because the defendant has been deprived of notice about…