Justin Silverman, executive director of the New England First Amendment Coalition, joined this week’s episode of “Behind the Story” to discuss the organization’s public records work and legal fund. In his conversation with Eli Sherman and Tim White, Silverman detailed NEFAC’s first legal-fund victory, a Sept. 8 Maine Superior Court decision ordering the release of records sought by local news outlets related to an October 2024 domestic violence homicide.

Hogan, who recently started covering the capital city, attended a board meeting last week that erupted into chaos. Multiple members called for the school board president to step down, while residents aired their frustrations about the dysfunction.

“This is not how school board meetings normally go, including in Providence,” Hogan said.

The internal strife comes as Providence is in its first school year since regaining control of the school district, which had been under state control for nearly seven years. Hogan said the board now oversees a host of important decisions involving budgets, personnel and policy.

But it didn’t appear to Hogan that those issues were a high priority at that meeting.

“For a community looking for answers about what the future will look like, what the school board will do, the majority of this meeting did not serve to answer those questions,” Hogan said.

Later in the show, Dan and Eli discussed the “stories we wish we wrote,” including (not all mentioned on air):

• Flock camera review, Morley Field reopening among Greenman’s first priorities as Pawtucket mayor next year by LuzJennifer Martinez, The Valley Breeze

• Two RI towns got their BearCats amid order surge fueled in part by ICE by Marc Reynolds, The Providence Journal

“Behind the Story” is hosted by Eli Sherman and Kim Kalunian of 12 News, along with Dan McGowan of The Boston Globe.

Tim White, who covers the criminal justice system, has been tracking a developing story in Cranston, where police raided the former home of a notorious drug dealer that they suspected was being used as a stash house.

The stash-house theory didn’t pan out, but police nonetheless arrested one man for illegally selling marijuana and abusing a pit bull. Two other men were also charged with animal cruelty.

The home was formerly occupied by Jasdrual “Josh” Perez, who’s currently serving time in prison for running a multistate illegal narcotics operation based in Providence. The Cranston home is owned by his mother, who’s the sister of Providence Police Col. Oscar Perez.

The mother is now renting out the home, and Oscar Perez said he didn’t know the man arrested for dealing drugs. According to a police affidavit, detectives were examining whether people in Josh Perez’s orbit were trying to pick up where he left off in the drug trade.

“Narcotics detectives will tell you that their investigations are like whack-a-mole,” White said. “Josh Perez was … a kingpin in fentanyl dealing. There were going to be other people that filled that vacuum because unfortunately, the demand is still there and other people want a slice of that pie.”

White also discussed another case receiving attention this week involving former Central Falls Municipal Court Judge Joseph Molina Flynn, 43, who pleaded guilty to wire fraud and tax evasion.

Federal prosecutors said Molina Flynn, who worked as an immigration attorney, was ripping off clients to pay for personal expenses. He has agreed to pay more than $83,000 in restitution and must repay the government between $550,000 and $1.5 million.

“Molina Flynn himself was a real success story,” White said, explaining how he immigrated to the United States as a child, attended college, taught law and served as a municipal judge.

“His whole world collapsed because he was taking advantage of the very people that were like him when he came here at 9 years old,” White added. “It’s just a fascinating story.”

Molina Flynn faces more than 20 years in prison. He’s scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 17.

Later in the show, Kim and Eli discussed the “stories we wish we wrote,” including (not all mentioned on air):

• Expert warns true crime can exploit real people and history by Dan Medeiros, The Herald News
• Providence whistleblower hotline leads to four investigations in first year by Alexander Castro, Rhode Island Current

• Smiley lists carriage house for rent for $5,500 a month by Colin Hogan and Wheeler Cowperthwaite, The Providence Journal
• Newport’s $20M harbor plan complicated by ownership mistake by Philip Cozzolino, The Newport Daily News

“Behind the Story” is hosted by Eli Sherman and Kim Kalunian of 12 News, along with Dan McGowan of The Boston Globe.