Following a Rhode Island State Police investigation into how she obtained a parcel of vacant land next to her home, Warwick City Councilwoman Donna Travis pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of filing a false document on Tuesday.
Under the terms of an agreement with prosecutors from the Rhode Island Attorney General’s Office, Travis will be returning the land to the Oakland Beach Real Estate Owners Association, and will receive a one-year suspended sentence with one year of probation.
The nolo contendere plea is essentially the same as a guilty plea, and means that Travis has waived her right to a trial.
Travis turned herself in and was arraigned by Third Division District Court Judge J. Terence Houlihan Jr. at the Kent County Courthouse. She declined to comment as she left the courtroom.
Travis was the subject of a Providence Journal investigation
As The Providence Journal first reported, Travis and her husband, William, acquired a piece of land valued at $65,700 via a quitclaim deed in August 2021.
The land was transferred to the Travises from the Oakland Beach Real Estate Owners Association. Both WIlliam and Donna Travis previously held leadership roles in the neighborhood association.
In 2023, a new slate of leaders began asking questions about the property transfer, saying that members never voted to give the land to Travis, as required under the organization’s bylaws.
A prosecutor from the Attorney General’s Office said on Tuesday that, had Travis not agreed to enter a nolo contendere plea, the state was prepared to prove that the quitclaim deed contained false information and was “intended to mislead the city of Warwick.”
As part of the State Police investigation, detectives interviewed members of the OBREOA and confirmed that there was never a meeting or a vote to convey the property to Travis. The deed was signed by Beverlee Sturdhal, a woman in her 90’s who was not an officer of the association at the time.
In interviews with The Journal in 2023, William and Donna Travis characterized the board members who raised questions about the property transfer as being newcomers “from Massachusetts,” and William Travis described them as a “troublemaker” and “the broad with the big mouth.”
Travis told The Journal that the property transfer was fair because she’d paid the back taxes on it, and her husband did all the maintenance.
On Tuesday, Travis’ attorney said that OBREOA had agreed to reimburse Travis for the taxes that she paid while the parcel was in her name. However, Brian Hodge, a spokesman for the Attorney General’s Office, said that was not part of the agreement. Houlihan did not impose that condition on the association.
Councilwoman previously announced she would not seek re-election
Travis, who is 75, has served on the Warwick City Council on and off for three decades, making her its longest-serving member. She told the Warwick Beacon in June that she did not plan to seek re-election, citing her health and her husband’s health.
According to the Beacon, Travis continues to hold down a job at the Rhode Island Traffic Tribunal, where she deals with constituent matters.
This story has been updated to reflect the fact that the Oakland Beach Real Estate Owners Association was not ordered to reimburse Donna Travis for the taxes she paid while the lot was in her name.
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Warwick councilwoman who took Oakland Beach lot now told to give it back
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