Warrant Issued For Dedham Drowning Victim’s Brother For Viciously Beating Former State Trooper On Courthouse Steps After Taking Plea Deal

 

Two years ago we published a story about the tragic drowning death of 17 year old Alonzo Polk in Dedham, who was celebrating graduation with friends when he fell into a pool. What was not reported at the time was that the home belonged to retired State Trooper and former Norfolk County Sheriff candidate James Coughlin, who along with his wife Leslie were later charged with reckless endangerment of a child and procuring alcohol to a minor.

It is beyond stupid for any parents to allow underage drinking at their house. But James Coughlin especially should have known better, considering his background in law enforcement. If anyone at that party drove drunk and killed someone he and his wife would be responsible for that.

I also said last night, without apology, that everyone should teach their kids how to swim. The earth is 70% water and swimming is as important of a life skill as brushing your teeth. This isn’t victim blaming, as some suggested. It wouldn’t be considered victim blaming to say that you should teach your kids to run in the other direction if they heard gunshots. Swimming is a survival skill that could’ve saved Alonzo Polk’s life.

I’ve heard reports that Alonzo was pushed into the pool by friends who were messing around and didn’t realize he couldn’t swim. If that’s the case then I’m wondering why only the Coughlin parents are being prosecuted. It was clear that the Coughlins did not intend for Alonzo to die, and were as grief stricken as anyone about the tragedy. Yesterday Leslie and James Coughlin took a plea deal that put them both on probation for 2 years and ordered them to complete community service.

A lot of people have been commenting about how this is a slap on the wrist, and suggesting that Coughlin received favoritism because he is former MSP. I get why people would feel that way in light of the massive corruption we’ve seen from the MSP and their cozy relationship with the Norfolk County DA’s Office (who was prosecuting this case).

But the fact of the matter is that Alonzo Polk had no alcohol in his system according to a toxicology report. However, he was pictured holing or near alcohol at the party, which the defense did not want presented at trial, since alcohol consumption was not the reason he died.

This case is also interesting because it involves a lot of familiar names. The Commonwealth’s “expert” in cell phone data analysis this time was Lt. Brian Tully, who worked in conjunction with Trooper Nicholas Guarino. They used the same software that Richard Green used to extract data from Jen McCabe’s cell phone – Cellebrite.

But I guess Cellebrite is only reliable when it doesn’t inculpate Jen McCabe for her involvement in a murder.

The State Police appoint random troopers to be “experts,” despite lacking any sort of expertise. Also on the list were Trooper Matthew Dunne, who handled the missing Canton Library surveillance video, and conflicted detective Michael Proctor.

I don’t know what their role was in this case, but they were all listed as witnesses for the Commonwealth, which means they were not there to defend the former state trooper defendant. In the Karen Read case they used their power to do the opposite – protect and provide cover for law enforcement.

Outside of court yesterday Coughlin was assaulted by at least 3 supporters of “justice” for Alonzo Polk who were not identified or arrested. These “supporters” made numerous threats that “this isn’t over” and “this is the beginning,” and the Coughlins have reportedly had to flee their home. Coughlin’s 90 year old mother was also reportedly threatened by “protesters.”

There was no media present, and I have yet to see a video of the assault. Many people in the comments are posting about how Coughlin deserved that, which is a notion I completely reject. We’re supposed to be living in a civilized country with law and order. We aren’t allowed to assault people when we’re not happy with the sentencing in a trial.

My question is, where was the Dedham Police and the Norfolk County DA’s Office? How did they not realize there would be tension outside of court? Morrissey’s Office released a statement about the verdict, but only mentioned the “altercation” briefly at the end.

Why didn’t Morrissey’s Office ensure there would be court officers to protect the defendants on their way out? They had dozens of white shirts at our peaceful protest in July at the Norfolk Superior Courthouse, who worked with me to make sure that nothing bad happened. We never threatened or assaulted anyone involved in this case. The “supporters” of Alonzo Polk have. The Dedham Police had undercover cops taking pictures of us from across the street at our July 25 protest, but didn’t have anyone there to witness or prevent this vicious assault.

This is negligence on the part of DPD and the Norfolk County DA’s Office. It is yet another screwup by a completely incompetent administration, and one that they should have seen coming. Polk’s friends and family have been threatening witnesses and the defendants for the last two years. In one case they confronted a witness and tried to intimidate them into changing their story about how Alonzo Polk died. When he refused he was punched in the face twice.

On the one year anniversary of Polk’s death dozens of supporters showed up at the Coughlin’s house at 4 AM, blaring music with gunshots in it, and kicked the Coughlin’s cars.

Nothing was done about it.

“AP Strong”

The family chants as they leave that home where Polk died and joins this crowd. The teen had just graduated high school last weekend when he was found dead in a pool at his friend’s grad party here in Dedham @boston25 pic.twitter.com/gtpnN0fB77

— Litsa Pappas (@LitsaPappas) June 13, 2021

I accurately predicted in my original article that it would result in racial tensions since Coughlin was a police officer, and Alonzo Polk was a black kid living in a predominantly white town. Every hearing has been like this.

There was nothing to protest here. There was no coverup for favoritism given to the Coughlins. Unlike Karen Read, the justice system was working for Alonzo Polk, and not covering up what happened. They have every right to peacefully protest outside of the courthouse or people’s homes, but clearly they were doing more than that.

At the center of protests has been Roshawn Drane, the brother of Alonzo.

Roshawn isn’t some grieving brother looking for justice, because justice wasn’t being obstructed in this case. He’s just a career criminal looking to incite racial tensions.

Roshawn has a long and documented history of criminality, including multiple gun charges. He’s been charged in several Boston district courts with unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle, assault to murder, A&B with a dangerous weapon, carrying a firearm without a license, discharging a firearm within 500 feet of a building, A&B on a police officer, possession of burglary tools, felony breaking and entering in the nighttime, and more.

He has been released on cheap bail several times, and clearly is a dangerous person with no intention of obeying the law. Yet he’s upset that the Coughlins received this same treatment from the courts.

Roshawn’s 2016 assault to murder charge out of Brighton District Court was moved to Suffolk Superior Court, where he was found guilty of carrying a loaded firearm without a license, but acquitted on on the A&B with a firearm charge. He was sentenced to 2.5 years in jail, which he didn’t serve in its entirety. One of the judges involved in the process at Suffolk Superior was Beverly Cannone.

He got off probation last year.

It has been confirmed that Drane was one of the assailants who attacked Coughlin outside of court yesterday, and he has been charged with A&B with a dangerous weapon. There is a warrant out for his arrest.

There is no excuse for this to happen. Last year I had to go to Worcester District Court when some ratchet DCF Moms applied for a ridiculous order against me for reporting on their fraudulent nonprofit. The order was denied, and since the people I was dealing with were clearly miscreants the court officers made me wait 10 minutes before leaving, so we didn’t run into each other outside. Unfortunately they were waiting for me, and one of them threatened to come to my house.

It’s really unacceptable for our courts to turn into places of lawlessness like this. It doesn’t matter if you don’t like how a court proceeding turned out. You’re welcome to peacefully protest and make your voice heard, but you can’t assault witnesses, damage their property, or try to coerce people to change their testimony. We’re not doing any of those things, yet we’ve been lectured by the Police Chief and DA about how we must stop peacefully protesting “witnesses” who conspired to murder John O’Keefe. No such lecture was ever given t Roshawn Drane, despite his criminal history, threatening statements, witness intimidation, and vows to provoke violence outside of court.

Morrissey’s Office isn’t just corrupt, they’re also incompetent.