Dino Guilmette (RI): Felony Charges, Rejected Plea, and Defense

Dino Guilmette, a Cranston resident known for a boxing bout, a tie to Aaron Hernandez’s former fiancée, and a 2026 guest turn on Bravo’s The Real Housewives of Rhode Island, faces seven felony counts and one misdemeanor in Providence Superior Court over alleged prescription drug dealing and pandemic-era rent relief fraud. The Rhode Island case against him has been pending since July 2022. In June 2026, he rejected a plea offer that would have kept him out of prison, and his lawyer says he intends to fight the charges at trial.¹

The Charges

Assistant Attorney General Joseph McBurney signed the criminal information on July 18, 2022. It originally listed ten counts tied to an alleged offense date of November 10, 2021; two were not charged, leaving eight.²

Two of the counts are drug charges. Prosecutors allege Guilmette supplied his own prescribed Lorazepam to the girlfriend of a friend, and conspired to do so.³

The other six counts come out of Rhode Island’s Rent Relief program. According to state police investigation documents, Guilmette and an unnamed female tenant submitted what investigators called a “phony application” to Rent Relief RI and obtained $7,000. A check from “Yardi Systems Inc – Rent Relief Fund” was deposited into Guilmette’s bank account on November 29, 2021. The next day, he withdrew $2,500 in cash, consistent with what investigators described as an agreement to give the tenant $2,000 of the proceeds. The application said the tenant was unemployed and needed rent payments; investigators said she had already paid her rent.²

The fraud-related counts are: obtaining money under false pretenses over $1,500, conspiracy to obtain money under false pretenses, perjury, conspiracy to commit perjury, giving false documents to a public official, and conspiracy to give false documents to a public official.²

What He’s Facing and What the State Offered

Assistant Attorney General Jim Baum has said the combined counts carry a maximum sentence of 88 years.⁴

On June 25, 2026, Guilmette appeared before Superior Court Magistrate Gina Lopes and formally rejected what the state described as its final offer. Under the deal, he would have pleaded guilty to the two Lorazepam counts (delivery and conspiracy to deliver) in exchange for five years of probation and no jail time. The other six counts would have been dismissed.¹

Defense attorney John L. Calcagni III said Guilmette turned it down because “he maintains his innocence.”¹ Local reporting treated the gulf between 88 years of theoretical exposure and a probation-only offer as a sign the state saw weaknesses in its own case.

Why the Defense Thinks It Can Win

Calcagni has moved to suppress evidence from a court-authorized wiretap, arguing state police did not exhaust other investigative techniques before applying for it and obtained it “much too soon.”⁵ He has also requested a Franks hearing, the procedure used to challenge whether officers made false statements in warrant affidavits, alleging “reckless disregard for the truth” in claims about organized crime ties and about a confidential informant’s reliability.⁶

The defense contends a confidential source fabricated cocaine buys and that a recorded conversation between Guilmette and a friend “contradicts the only controlled purchases” used to support the wiretap application.⁵

Questions About the Lead Investigator

The case’s lead investigator, Rhode Island State Police Detective Matthew Lynch, is separately accused of fabricating facts in warrant affidavits in an unrelated drug prosecution, State v. Kenneth LaFlamme. In a 102-page motion, defense attorney Kevin Bristow presented travel records placing LaFlamme in Florida for stretches when Lynch swore he was surveilling him in Rhode Island, and pointed to warrant affidavits describing a “garage/warehouse structure” at a Providence address that Bristow says is a vacant lot.⁷

As of June 2026, no judge had made a finding that Lynch was untruthful, and the Rhode Island Attorney General’s office maintained the LaFlamme defense had “failed to make a substantial preliminary showing” that Lynch’s statements were knowingly false or made with reckless disregard for the truth.⁷ Local reporters have linked the softness of the Guilmette plea offer to concerns about how Lynch’s credibility could play at trial.

Organized Crime Allegations in the Affidavit

Guilmette is not charged with any organized crime offense. But a 2021 search warrant affidavit written by Detective Lynch alleged he had ties to Matthew “Matty” Guglielmetti, described as a captain in the New England La Cosa Nostra family.⁶ The affidavit said five confidential informants told state police Guilmette distributed multi-kilogram quantities of cocaine in Rhode Island, allegedly smuggled in from the Caribbean through the Port of Providence, and that DEA cellular records showed consistent contact between Guilmette and Guglielmetti. State police wrote that Guilmette was allegedly paying Guglielmetti in cocaine proceeds “to demonstrate his allegiance” to the family.⁸

Guglielmetti pleaded guilty to RICO conspiracy in 1991 in the case tied to the FBI’s recording of a 1989 Mafia induction ceremony, and in 2005 pleaded guilty in Providence to conspiracy to possess and distribute more than five kilograms of cocaine, drawing a sentence of over eleven years.⁹ In September 2024, WPRI cameras filmed Guilmette outside the wake of Edward “Eddie” Lato, the former underboss of the New England Crime Family, who died August 23, 2024.¹⁰

Calcagni has called the organized crime allegations “patently false” and “defamatory,” describing them as unsupported claims in a warrant affidavit. After the June 2026 hearing, he told reporters: “If anybody knows anything about organized crime, people will tell you that organized crime is dead.”¹

What Happens Next

The case was scheduled to return to court on July 17, 2026, for a scheduling hearing. Calcagni told reporters a trial was not expected for several months.¹¹

Who Dino Guilmette Is

Guilmette, 47, lives in Cranston, Rhode Island. He has been described as a former boxer and actor, though a 2017 WPRI report noted that while he had trained in boxing gyms for years, he had not fought a sanctioned bout before a May 2017 “Brawl for it All” event in Smithfield, where he fought a personal rival under amateur rules.¹²

He drew tabloid attention in June 2018 when Shayanna Jenkins, the former fiancée of late New England Patriots player Aaron Hernandez, gave birth to their daughter, Giselle. Guilmette told Radar Online at the time that he and Jenkins met “through mutual friends” and confirmed paternity.¹³ Some celebrity outlets reported that Guilmette and Hernandez had been teammates at the University of Florida, but the Boston Globe reported in 2018 that it could not verify the claim.¹⁴

His profile widened again in 2026 when he appeared on The Real Housewives of Rhode Island as a friend of cast member Liz McGraw and her husband, Gerry McGraw, a connection Guilmette confirmed to the Providence Journal.³

1
The Providence Journal. Dino Guilmette Drug Case, Rejects Plea Deal
2
GoLocalProv. RI Boxer and Actor With Ties to Aaron Hernandez Faces Felony Charges
3
Yahoo Entertainment. Real Housewives of RI Guest Hit With Drug Charges
4
GoLocalProv. Dino Guilmette Was Facing 88 Years, State Offered 5 Years Probation
5
NewsNation. Dino Guilmette Real Housewives Rhode Island Drug Case
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WPRI. Dino Guilmette, Seen on Real Housewives of RI, Rejects Plea Deal in Drug Case
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GoLocalProv. Allegations Top RI State Police Investigator Fabricating Facts Impacts Major Drug Case
8
GoLocalProv. Bravo’s Housewives of Rhode Island Star Has Close Ties to Accused Drug Dealer
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GovInfo. Guglielmetti v. United States
10
WPRI. Eddie Lato, Underboss of the New England Crime Family, Dead at 77
11
Union Leader. Real Housewives Friend Dino Guilmette Rejects State’s Plea Deal
12
WPRI. Brand of Boxing Brings Street Grudges Into the Ring
13
Yahoo Entertainment. Dino Guilmette Connection to RHORI Star
14
The Boston Globe. Aaron Hernandez Former Fiancee Has Baby