‘Real Housewives’ friend ‘Dino’ rejects plea deal to avoid jail time

(USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect) – Dino Guilmette, recently of “The Real Housewives of Rhode Island” fame, rejected a plea deal on June 25 that would have seen him escape jail time for drug and fraud charges.

Guilmette faces seven felony charges and one misdemeanor charge ranging from drug dealing to fraudulently obtaining COVID-19 relief money to conspiracy. The charges, which were filed in 2022 but are only now leading to trial, carry a maximum sentence of 88 years.

Rhode Island Assistant Attorney General Jim Baum set forth the state’s final plea deal on June 25. Guilmette could have pled guilty to counts of delivery and conspiracy to delivery of Lorazepam. In exchange, the other six charges would have been dropped, and he would have received five years of probation, avoiding jail time entirely. The Providence Journal previously reported that he allegedly supplied Lorazepam that was prescribed for him to the girlfriend of a friend.

However, Guilmette appeared before Magistrate Gina Lopes and rejected the state’s offer, sending the case to trial.

Defense attorney John L. Calcagni III said his client turned down the offer because he maintains his innocence.

Guilmette is friends with “The Real Housewives of Rhode Island” cast member Liz McGraw and her husband, Gerry McGraw, who owns the Slater Compassion Center retail cannabis store. He appeared on the Bravo reality show at a party hosted by the McGraws and was frequently mentioned over the duration of the show.

Both Liz and Gerry McGraw are listed as associates of Guilmette in a 2021 affidavit from state police Detective Matthew Lynch, who was attempting to secure a permit to wiretap Guilmette’s phone on a drug-related investigation unrelated to the charges he currently faces. In a sworn statement, Lynch said he believed Guilmette was a member of the New England La Cosa Nostra crime family.

“If anybody knows anything about organized crime, people will tell you that organized crime is dead,” Guilmette’s lawyer, Calcagni, told reporters on the steps of the Superior Court on June 25.

When previously contacted by The Journal, Guilmette declined to comment on the case, but he did say he is friends with Liz McGraw.

Guilmette’s case will return to court on July 17. Calcagni said he expects the trial will not take place for several months.