Man serving life for slaying of 10-year-old girl in 2002 granted new trial
A Suffolk Superior Court judge said Joseph Cousin’s attorney had a conflict of interest because he was also drawing a substantial paycheck representing a Boston police homicide detective in a federal lawsuit.
A man serving life in prison for the killing of a 10-year-old girl will get a new trial, a judge ruled Thursday, because of his former defense attorney’s lucrative involvement with two other notorious wrongful conviction cases and subsequent lawsuits against the city of Boston.
At issue was whether attorney William White had a conflict of interest when he was appointed in 2008 to defend Joseph Cousin in his second murder trial for the 2002 killing of Trina Persad.
While working on Cousin’s case, he was also defending a Boston police homicide detective facing a federal lawsuit for his involvement in the wrongful conviction of Shawn Drumgold. Attorneys at White’s former firm were also involved in a second wrongful conviction lawsuit, defending Boston police employees in a suit filed by Stephen Cowans.
White was paid more than $300,000 by the city of Boston to represent the detective, Timothy Callahan, and worked closely with the city’s counsel during the case.
“As the entity that paid the bills, the City was essentially White’s largest paying client in the year leading up to Cousin’s second trial,’’ Suffolk Superior Court Judge Janet L. Sanders wrote in her decision released Thursday. “It does not mater whether the temptation to maintain amicable relations with that client was resisted or not, since the risk that it could have an effect is enough.’’
White said Friday that he advised Cousin on “multiple occasions’’ that he was representing a Boston police detective associated with the Drumgold case.
“I provided Mr. Cousin with a vigorous defense at his trial,’’ White told Boston.com.
The Suffolk County District Attorney’s office has already appealed the order granting a new trial.
“The idea that a prominent member of the defense bar would pull punches in the most high-profile murder trial in years isn’t just misguided,’’ District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said in a statement. “It can be refuted by anyone who watched the proceedings.’’
Trina Persad
Trina Persad was playing at a park in Roxbury in June 2002 when someone in a Honda Civic fired a shotgun toward a group of men, but struck the 10-year-old girl. Prosecutors said Cousin, then 18, was aiming at a rival gang member.
Cousin’s first trial ended in a mistrial after it was found that several jurors had lied about their criminal backgrounds.
When Cousin was sentenced to life after his second trial in 2009, when he was represented by White, he maintained his innocence.
“I can look at Trina’s picture every single day,’’ he said then. “I know I’m not the person who killed that child. I have no guilt. I know I’m fine.’’
In her decision, Sanders wrote that questions were raised about how Boston police investigated Persad’s killing, including whether a 15-year-old boy who was a key prosecution witness was coerced into fingering Cousin for the crime.
The detective who questioned that teenager, and also interrogated Cousin, was later removed from the unit, then given a 30-day suspension for making false statements during an internal investigation.
A “zealous’’ defense of Cousin would have meant attacking the homicide unit, Sanders wrote, ’’at the same time that White was defending one of its members against similar allegations.’’
“There was at least an argument to be made that members of the Boston Police Department’s homicide division had engaged in coercive and unfair techniques and ignored other investigatory leads in a rush to judgement,’’ she wrote in her decision.
Cousin’s current attorney, Robert F. Shaw, said he looks forward to a new and fair trial. Cousin will have a bail hearing on Thursday and could be freed.
“Joseph Cousin has been fighting for 14 years for his freedom,’’ he said. “The proceedings we’ve had in this case make it absolutely clear that this conviction was unjust and that his attorney was operating under a substantial conflict of interest.’’
To comment, please create a screen name in your profile
To comment, please verify your email address
Conversation
This discussion has ended. Please join elsewhere on Boston.com