FROM OUR MAY 2022 PRINTED EDITION

Lives Destroyed by the Massachusetts Court System

Falsely Convicted?

PART 2: David Daniel Coutu

‘I’m in Prison. Behind Razor Wire.
My Life – Stolen From Me.’

by Lonnie Brennan

First, a quick re-cap from Part 1: David Daniel Coutu was tried and convicted of rape and was sentenced to “not exceeding 40 years or less than 35 years.” He’s been in prison for more than 16 years. David says he was set up by his problematic/druggie sister who wanted to dispose of him.

According to court documents, the crime was committed by a man of slight build with brown hair and a deep receding hairline who did NOT wear blue jeans and who entered and exited through a small hole in a sheetrock wall near floor-level, crawling from an adjoining vacant apartment.

David is a big guy, lived down the street, had black hair, no receding hairline. A pair of his blue jeans was found along with a tool in his basement with an apparently tiny amount of the victim’s blood.

David’s sister, at the time “a druggie with issues,” David related, had full access to his apartment and walk-in basement. He said she lied stating that she did not. David’s sister, Eleanor, told police that her brother commited the crime. That was it, case closed.

Still, David’s’ photo was shown to the victim, twice. The victim was emphatic that she had taken a good long look at her attacker five times after he had crawled across her carpet and attacked her (more on the carpet shortly…). When she got to David’s photo, she said, “Definitely not.” When shown the photo array a second time, for David’s picture she said, “Definitely not this one.”

Fast forward a year, David’s been in jail awaiting trial. In a closed courtroom, the victim, Ms. Chiu, was asked to identify the attacker. David detailed how he was the only one surrounded by guards and lawyers – he stuck out like a sore thumb. Still, she hesitated. She asked him to stand up, asked if she could come a little closer to the big man with black hair and no receding hairline, the one she had twice said in photos was definitely not her attacker, and finally, looked above him, David said she moved her head in an arch, then the court document details she said: “Okay. Yes, that is the person. I can recognize his energy because of my trade of work.”

Accused by a Psychic, Pinned by a Druggie, and Convicted by ‘Selective Presentation of Evidence’

The jurors were told that Ms. Chiu identified David as the rapist. And that she got a good look at her attacker, at least five times, and that there was DNA evidence linking him to the crime, and yes, that Ms. Chiu is a medium.

David’s mother describes her troubled daughter, Eleanor, David’s sister, as a known liar. She added that  she’s “very well known to the police.” But, no one was allowed to counter her statements.

“The one thing I want people to know is that when you sit in the jury box, you assume all those police, all those troopers, and those prosecutors did their job,” David told the Broadside. “You assume they wouldn’t be holding a trial unless the guy in front of them were guilty. Well, they would be wrong. Who would have ever thought the police would ignore the statements of the victim, and discard evidence that didn’t fit their narrative? It was too easy. They took the easy way and didn’t do their job … I’m in prison. Behind razor wire. My life – stolen from me.”

How Did it Unfold?

How did it unfold? Well, that would take a thick book to detail (and yes, we’ll print some of the court documents next month and online), but the jury saw: a pair of blue jeans with the victim’s DNA on it, DNA from David on the jeans because they were his jeans, and, David described, four near-equal-sized pieces of sheetrock stuffed into the back pocket of the jeans (weird).

David’s jeans, the victim’s blood on them, sheetrock connecting him to the crime location… Call that Nail-in-the-coffin #1.

Then there was a tool (some claled it a knife – it wasn’t and our prior report on it was thus wrong) found with the blue jeans. The tool was apparently used to make the hole in the sheetrock. Call that Nail #2.

Eleanor took the stand and swore against David. A lot of time was spent on placing David at the scene that afternoon – at his sister’s apartment. Call that Nail #3.

But What Did the
Jury Not Hear?

The list is long as to what the jury did not hear, so we’ve started to summarize the case in a “Table of Truth” we’ll print next month. Some of the items are amazing. For example:

Magic Blue Jeans: The attacker crawled across a carpet in the victim’s room at floor-level, yet David detailed that there were no carpet fibers on the jeans. Apparently, everything that came in contact with the carpet had visible fibers on it, but not the magic blue jeans.

Magic Fingerprints: Unknown DNA: The tool had DNA on it, the victim’s and a male, but not David’s. And the tool didn’t have David’s fingerprints on it, yet the attacker was said not to have worn gloves. Actually, David commented that his fingerprints were not on the tool, nor in the apartment, and wouldn’t be, just like you wouldn’t find his fingerprints on the Space Shuttle because he wasn’t in it either.

Magic Morphing: Brown hair, receding hairline, not blue jeans, not him (photo arrays), all just ignored/marginalized.

Immaculate Conviction: The jury heard that the victim scrutinized her attacker and was able to identify David. They were told that physical evidence linked David to the crime.

David described at one point that the prosecutor told the jury how severe the attack was, absolutely brutal, and that the police presented the photo arrays to Ms. Chiu in the hospital two months after the attack. Not to diminish the attack in any way, but she apparently wasn’t in the hospital for the attack, but rather for a chemical reaction. But, the way the prosecution states it, it sure sounds like it’s time to torch the man in the defendant’s chair.

For her part, David’s 93-year-old mother has a simple summary of David’s court-appointed lawyer as she looks back with 16 years of hindsight: “The lawyer he had? I wouldn’t recommend him to be a lawyer for a dog.”

We’ll print more in our next segment. If you or a friend or a loved one has a case you would like our Broadside Special Investigations Team to look into, please contact Lonnie@BostonBroadside.com or call 833-800-NEWS. We will get back to you.   ♦