By JON BAKER

CENTRAL FALLS — Walk up the driveway to Raymond Burrows Jr.’s brown and yellow, three-decker home at the intersection of Richardson and Pine streets, and one will notice a white U.S. Army flag waving outside a second-story, living room window.

He promised he’s left the banner hanging not for love for or pride in the Army — far from it — but instead for his son, Pfc. Raymond R. Burrows III.
“I’m keeping it up for Raymond, not for anything else, especially the Army,” said the 47-year-old dismantler at Woonsocket Auto Salvage. “The Army, Seattle Police and the media, they all have thrown my son under the bus. They don’t deserve any respect.
“You know, Ray-Ray came home for Christmas last December for a couple weeks, and we hadn’t seen him in a long time,” he added. “He flew back to Seattle on Jan. 3, and a few days later, he called and said, ‘Dad, guess what? I’ve been promoted to Private First Class!’ I was like, ‘That’s really cool.’ I was still against him joining the Army, but the idea started growing on me because I knew how happy it made him.”
Less than a month later, Burrows III sat in the King County Correctional Detention Center for
felonious first-degree robbery along with two “buddies” from the 4th Stryker Brigade stationed at Fort Lewis, located in Seattle.
Burrows III, 22, spent over seven months behind bars, but – on Friday, Sept. 18 – the family finally received the word it craved: A King County Superior Court jury acquitted the 2006 Davies Tech graduate and former Honor Roll student of all charges, including two counts of first-degree robbery and one of rendering criminal assistance.
“He called me at about 9 p.m., and said, ‘Hey, Dad, what’s goin’ on?’ I just said, ‘You tell me,’ and that’s when he blurted, ‘Not guilty, not guilty and definitely not guilty!’” the elder Burrows said, eyes welling with tears. “We were so excited, but – man – the whole experience put us through holy hell.
“He spent well over seven months in jail for crimes he didn’t commit,” he added. “It wasn’t fair, and this is something he didn’t deserve. I won’t forget this as long as I live. I’ll never forgive Seattle, Wash., the police who tried to find him guilty or the Fort Lewis higher-ups who didn’t lift a finger to help him.
“Actually, Ray has already been through his own personal war. I feel like we have, too.”

**

The ugly story began harmlessly enough during the late-night hours of Jan. 9, when Burrows III and two pals – Pvt. Robert E. Lucas of Murfreesboro, Tenn. and Chad A. Braden of Etna, Oh. – decided to go out on the town.
“They went out for a few beers and maybe do a little ‘skirt-chasing’; I guess you could call it ‘night maneuvers,’” his dad grinned. “At some point, Ray-Ray told me he lost track of his ‘friends’ and started text-messaging them to locate them. Unbeknownst to my son, the two others had pulled an armed robbery.”
According to reports in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, three victims indicated they were en route to the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity at 2 a.m. (Jan. 10) when three men, one of whom drew a silver semiautomatic pistol, confronted them and commanded their wallets.
“Turns out, those two other soldiers were around the corner, and Ray didn’t even know it,” Burrows Jr. claimed. “They ended up meeting up again, hopped in the car and went back to the base. Nothing was said. Evidently, one of those morons started bragging about pistol-whipping a student, and they said Ray was there, too, but Ray was texting at the time because he wanted to head back to the base.”
Exactly a week later, at about 2:30 a.m., Jan. 17, a similar incident occurred to a pair of students walking back to Beta Theta Pi fraternity on Northeast 47th Street. The victims told police Lucas and Braden drew their firearms and demanded their wallets. When one refused, Braden twice bashed the man’s face with his gun. Police claimed the two suspects fled, as did Burrows.
A Post-Intelligencer reporter wrote one student gave $145 and $25 in Canadian currency to the suspects, and that Army Criminal Investigations Division detectives later recovered $25 in Canadian cash from Burrows’ pants pocket, according to documents.
“Ray didn’t even know about the second attack; he wasn’t there,” Burrows Jr. remarked. “He used to give his friends rides because he was the only one with a car. I think he was found guilty by association.”

**

The elder Burrows stated he never knew about his son’s horrifying experience until his home phone rang at 9 p.m., Wednesday, Feb. 4.
“His staff sergeant called me, saying Ray was being arrested for armed robbery and conspiracy to commit armed robbery with two other Fort Lewis soldiers. He also told me he would receive a dishonorable discharge. He stated the Seattle Police had called the base and said they had credible evidence that Raymond Burrows III was the third participant (in the robbery).
“My response was, ‘What the hell are you talking about?’ I was on the phone for 30 minutes, and the sergeant said the Army wanted me to fly out and pick up Ray’s car and personal belongings,” he continued. “I just told him my sister, Lisa Holliday, lives in Eugene (Ore.), and that I gave her permission to make any decisions. Any belongings should be released to her.
“I got off the phone and sobbed. I couldn’t believe it. He wasn’t raised that way. He was Honor Roll at Calcutt Middle School and Davies. The kid was a certified lifeguard at Lincoln Woods, and also a tremendously talented carpenter.”
Burrows phoned his father, live from the detention center, a few days later.
“He swore to me he didn’t do it, and I said, ‘Son, if you did, be a man, own up to it and take your medicine. If you didn’t do it, fight it tooth-and-nail,’” his dad insisted. “I mean, he was only 22, and being arrested and dishonorably discharged would hurt him for the rest of his life. I sat here and read the newspapers online, and still have no clue as to why Ray was arrested.
“In fact, the day he was arraigned, Army officials found two 16-year-old girls on the base; one was dead of a drug overdose and the other heavily intoxicated on drugs. That’s why I call Fort Lewis ‘Romper Room.’”
Burrows III explained his bond was $100,000, and that his dad would have to relinquish $25,000 in cash and also the house in which the family lived.
“I said I couldn’t help because I didn’t have that kind of money,” the father stated. “It broke my heart. I figured if he stayed incarcerated, it would benefit him with time served, and it would also help speed up his court date. And where was he going to stay? He couldn’t even go his aunt’s house. That would be crossing state lines.
“You know what impressed me? He said it was no worse than boot camp, and he was OK. I felt some major relief, but still was upset I couldn’t help him. I was working 12-hour days at a Providence car wash, and I couldn’t get it out of my head. I couldn’t sleep, couldn’t eat. Ray-Ray would call when he was depressed and say, ‘Dad, people in Washington state don’t get off (for crimes like this). You’re guilty until proven innocent. I was put on trial long before I went to trial.’
“I just said, ‘Life sucks, but hang in there. Keep at it, and things will work out.’ I can’t honestly say I believed what I was saying. But not once did the kid say, ‘I did it.’”

**

In essence, his public defender, Ramona Brandes, gleaned cellphone and texting records proving Burrows III had spoken truth, and victims had stated one suspect was black. Lucas and Braden, both white, already had pled guilty.
“You know what really (irritated me)? Some local broadcasts – like Channels 6 and 10 – and the Providence paper all covered the story, but those at Channel 6 looped it every half-hour,” Burrows noted. “Talk about a painful day. We ended up fielding calls from Ray’s friends and relatives. They were saying, ‘Please, tell us this isn’t happening!’ I just said, ‘It’s no joke, but he’s fighting it. We know he’s innocent.’
“Another thing? He was never dishonorably discharged,” he continued. “On Sept. 22, he went back to the base and found he was still in the Stryker Brigade, even though it already had deployed to Iraq. He went to his old barracks and said, ‘Where’s my stuff?’ It all had been stolen, which brings me back to the ‘Romper Room’ comment.
“He later discovered the Army would award him seven months of back pay (about $21,000), and that it would pay him for items stolen. But I still say the Army is backtracking, throwing the kid under the bus. Not a chaplain, not his sergeant, no one made any attempt to support him in any way, shape or form. The Army finds out he’s been exonerated, and they welcome him with open arms.”
The good news: Burrows Jr. and his daughter, Raeayna, will see Ray sometime in the next two weeks, though he’s scheduled to rejoin his brigade overseas soon after.
“I’ve got the scariest feeling the Army just wants to bury him in Iraq so it doesn’t have to deal with him, plus he’s lost seven months of training,” Burrows Jr. said. “Still, he’s only got 10 months of service left, and he’s already told me he wouldn’t re-enlist. No way.
“The bottom line is I want vindication for my kid. I want his name and picture splashed on newspapers and TV, ‘Burrows III Not Guilty!’ or ‘Exonerated!’ He deserves that.”