Questions are being raised about whether Gerard Sullivan, chief of the federal Organized Crime Strike Force in Rhode Island, sought to use his status as a federal prosecutor to win favorable treatment after being pulled over early Thanksgiving morning for drunken driving, reports the Providence Journal. Three weeks earlier, while on a golf outing in Myrtle Beach, S.C., Sullivan and a high-school classmate had been arrested for public intoxication while standing outside a bar.
Now, a career hangs in the balance. The U.S. Department of Justice is reviewing his status. Sullivan, 50, has handled high-profile cases in 18 years as a prosecutor. In the Thanksgiving incident, Sullivan told the arresting officer in Warwick, R.I., that he was a prosecutor and knew the police chief McCartney. He asked the officer “if there was anything he could do.” Later, Sullivan again asked if there was anything the officer could do, and said that his job was in jeopardy.