Mayor's brother gets halfway home

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) - Disgraced attorney John M. Cicilline arrived at a halfway house in Boston Tuesday afternoon, Federal Bureau of Prisons confirmed.

Cicilline, who is the older brother to Providence Mayor David Cicilline, will spend the next 41 days at the Coolidge House in Boston. Cicilline is still considered an inmate under the Federal Bureau of Prisons, but will have significantly more freedom outside the walls of Fort Devens Federal Prison in western Massachusetts.

Federal Probation official Barry Weiner tells Target 12, Cicilline, like all inmates in a halfway house, must either have employment or be looking for a job while under their care. He did not know where the 52-year-old will be working, but said Cicilline will be encouraged to seek employment in Rhode Island to help acclimate back into society.

Cicilline can also apply to be released early on home confinement from the halfway house, Weiner said. He is scheduled to be out from under the thumb of the federal prison system on February 8.

As part of his conditions of release, Cicilline had to surrender his license to practice law in both Rhode Island and the federal courts. Cicilline will be on supervised release for 24 months, but will not have to wear an electronic monitoring bracelet.

The Coolidge House is the same facility convicted Providence Mayor Vincent “Buddy” Cianci stayed in following his release from prison in 2006. The multi-story nondescript brick building sits on a gritty stretch of Huntington Ave near the Northeastern University Campus in Boston.

As Target 12 first reported last year, Cicilline struck a deal with prosecutors and pleaded guilty to shaking down his drug dealing clients. He was sentenced to 18 months in prison.

His former law partner, Joseph Bevilacqua Jr., was also implicated in the scheme and given 24 months in a prison in New York.

Cicilline’s father, famed defense attorney John F. Cicilline tried unsuccessfully to get his son released early, citing unusual personal problems surrounding his family and mortgage.

Cicilline will be allowed to leave the halfway house to visit friends and work, according to Weiner, but must go through several days of orientation first.