By Maureen Boyle, Enterprise staff writer
BROCKTON — Florientino Ruidiaz wasn't worried when police pulled the silver, loaded .357 Magnum handgun from his waistband.
“I'm gonna beat this (expletive),” he told police after his arrest on a gun charge. “I'll get a year mandatory at most. I'll do the year.”
Ruidiaz will be doing a few years more than that.
Ruidiaz was sentenced to 15 years in prison this week in U.S. District Court after pleading guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm earlier this year.
The 26-year-old Brockton man was involved in one of the dozens of cases prosecuted in federal court — where sentences can be longer and prison far from home — as part of a partnership between Plymouth County prosecutors and the U.S. Attorney's office.
“Wherever we can get the biggest bang for the buck, we will,” Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy J. Cruz said. “If we can get the significant players off the street and locked up far away, we will do it.”
Under a partnership through the federal Project Safe Neighborhoods Initiative, a program targeting gun crimes and repeat violent offenders, state district attorney's refer cases involving so-called violent “impact players” to the U.S. Attorney's office for prosecution.
Since June 2004, the U.S. Attorney's office agreed to prosecute 36 Plymouth County cases. All of the defendants have been convicted.
“It has been an incredibly valuable resource for us,” Cruz said. “It makes the city safer, I believe. These are individuals who are repeat gun offenders who obviously don't care about the city.”
Bristol County District Attorney C. Samuel Sutter, who took office this year, said he's doing the same thing in his county.
“The word is out on the street and the word is out in the jails,” Sutter said.
Working with the U.S. Justice Department's Project Safe Neighborhoods program, Sutter secured money to pay the salary of a prosecutor who will target gang leaders, as well as violent and habitual offenders.
Earlier this month, 37 members of the Latin Kings in Bristol County were indicted in federal court.
Brockton Police Chief William Conlon said sending cases to federal court for prosecution is paying off for the community.
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