Globe Article about Winfield & Coakley

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Some saw Coakley as lax on '05 rape case: AG defends steps in long process

Rezendes, Michael.Boston Globe [Boston, Mass] 06 Jan 2010: A.1.

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[...] before Winfield's trial, prosecutors sought to admit evidence that Winfield, in the days leading up to the rape, was treated for a substance abuse problem and had threatened to kill himself by holding a gun to his head, "evincing great emotional stress and the strong possibility that [he] would harm himself or others." The Globe is withholding the names of the family members because naming them would indirectly identify the victim and the Globe does not publish the names of sexual abuse victims.

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In October 2005, a Somerville police officer living in Melrose raped his 23-month-old niece with a hot object, most likely a curling iron.

Keith Winfield, then 31, told police he was alone with the toddler that day and made additional statements that would ultimately be used to convict him.

But in the aftermath of the crime, a Middlesex County grand jury overseen by Martha Coakley, then the district attorney, investigated without taking action.

It was only after the toddler's mother filed applications for criminal complaints that Coakley won grand jury indictments charging rape and assault and battery.

Even then, nearly 10 months after the crime, Coakley's office recommended that Winfield be released on personal recognizance, with no cash bail. He remained free until December 2007, when Coakley's successor as district attorney won a conviction and two life terms.

Coakley, now the Democratic candidate for US Senate, has made much of her record prosecuting crimes against children, and says her office handled this investigation appropriately. But the case stands out as one in which she drew criticism for not being aggressive enough. Indeed, the case gave rise to Coakley's last competitive election.

Candidates debate on health care, abortion, terrorism. B3

Larry Frisoli, a Cambridge attorney who had represented the family of Jeffrey Curley, a 10-year-old Cambridge boy murdered by sexual predators in an infamous 1997 case, was so angered by Coakley's handling of the Winfield investigation that he ran against her as a Republican for attorney general in 2006, ultimately unsuccessfully.

"That was the principal reason Larry decided to run," said Frank Frisoli, Larry's brother and former law partner. "He clearly felt that procedure was not being followed."

Larry Frisoli died of kidney and liver failure last year.

In a recent interview, Coakley said her office acted appropriately at every turn, adding that her office fielded 900 complaints of sexual and physical child abuse each year. She asserted that it was not unusual for prosecutors to require more than one grand jury before obtaining indictments, especially in cases such as Winfield's, in which there is only circumstantial evidence and the victim is deemed too young to testify.

"I think the jury's conviction is sound and will be upheld on appeal," Coakley said.

Coakley pointed out that Winfield had no prior convictions, had deep roots in his community, and had appeared voluntarily at his arraignment after a 10-month investigation, leaving her office with scant reason to ask for cash bail and little reason to believe that a judge would order it.

She insisted that Winfield's status as a law enforcement officer had no bearing on her decisions. "The fact that he was a Somerville police officer was irrelevant," she said.

Coakley's prosecutors made the recommendation that Winfield be released with no cash bail, even though an investigator with the Department of Children and Families, working in the weeks immediately following the rape, found that Winfield had been suspended from his job with the Somerville police for disciplinary reasons and had lied about it.

In addition, the investigator found that Winfield had concealed the fact that he had been evaluated at Melrose-Wakefield Hospital for stress less than two weeks before the rape.

Indeed, before Winfield's trial, prosecutors sought to admit evidence that Winfield, in the days leading up to the rape, was treated for a substance abuse problem and had threatened to kill himself by holding a gun to his head, "evincing great emotional stress and the strong possibility that [he] would harm himself or others."

Although high cash bail is intended primarily as a means to ensure that the accused appear for court dates, judicial guidelines say it can be imposed in cases because of "the nature and circumstances of the offense" or the potential sentence a defendant faces. Each of the rape charges on which Winfield was indicted carried a potential life sentence.

John Swomley, a defense lawyer who has represented clients prosecuted by Coakley, said he found her decision to recommend that Winfield be released on personal recognizance unusual.

"Given the evidence it appears they had, I can't imagine them not asking for cash bail," he said.

Family members of the toddler remain troubled by Coakley's recommendation that Winfield be allowed to remain free.

"Why was he able to be two years out of jail? Why is that?" said one family member. "We ask that question all the time."

The Globe is withholding the names of the family members because naming them would indirectly identify the victim and the Globe does not publish the names of sexual abuse victims.

But Robert L. Sheketoff - Winfield's attorney in his appeal, which is still pending - said the decision by Coakley's office to allow Winfield to remain free on personal recognizance was appropriate.

"Bail is not supposed to be used as a means to keep someone locked up," he said.

The Winfield case began Oct. 13, 2005, after a day when Winfield and his wife were baby sitting their niece, along with their own two children.

That afternoon, when the toddler's grandmother stopped by to pick her up, she found the toddler crying, and the child refused to walk. After taking the toddler home, the grandmother changed her diaper and noticed what she could only conclude was a severe diaper rash, according to a narrative of the case detailed in court documents.

When the toddler's mother returned from work, the girl was still crying and in obvious pain. And when the mother changed her diaper, she, too, noted that the area was very red.

By 11 p.m., when the toddler's mother once again changed her diaper, the redness had become alarming. "Her genital and anal area was bleeding, and her skin was peeling off," according to prosecutors.

The next morning, after her condition had worsened, the toddler's mother took her to a Somerville pediatrician who referred her to Children's Hospital and notified the Department of Social Services (now the Department of Families and Children), along with Melrose police. The toddler ultimately spent a month at Shriners Hospital for Children in Boston recovering from burns.

Three weeks after the rape, on Nov. 7, Winfield gave his interview to Melrose detectives, saying he was alone with the toddler for about an hour on the day of the crime. He also said, "I would have never, ever, ever, ever wanted to take on another child," a statement that was later used by prosecutors at trial to show that Winfield's commitment to care for his niece was an intolerable burden and, therefore, a motivation to harm her.

The following January, after neither Melrose police nor Coakley's office had taken any public action against Winfield, Frisoli wrote to an assistant district attorney saying that he and the toddler's mother planned to pursue charges on their own.

"I believe I already have enough evidence for the issuance of a complaint," Frisoli wrote, "and do not intend to allow them to go unprosecuted."

In response, Coakley's office contacted Frisoli and assured him that the case would go before a grand jury. Yet, months later, after presenting testimony, Coakley's office decided that "additional time was needed to determine the legal sufficiency of the evidence" and did not ask the grand jury to take action.

By that time, Frisoli had announced his plans to run against Coakley for attorney general. On July 10, he followed through with his promise to have the toddler's mother file applications for criminal complaints against Winfield and his wife. A magistrate's hearing was set for Aug. 1.

"To me, it was a ploy and a political stunt to promote his own race for attorney general," Coakley said in the interview. Coakley also said she believed Frisoli was "trying to have his cake and eat it, too," by accusing her of foot-dragging while knowing that if indictments were issued, he could claim credit for prompting her to take action.

Coakley's office presented the case to another grand jury, offering previously submitted testimony along with new evidence that included telephone records and information about Winfield's employment history.

In late July, that grand jury issued the two rape and two assault and battery indictments against Winfield and, on Aug. 1, the day the hearing on the applications for criminal complaints was to have taken place, Winfield was arraigned and released on personal recognizance.

Coakley said that her office did not ask for a dangerousness hearing - a proceeding in which prosecutors may request pretrial incarceration by arguing that the accused presents a danger to the community - because Winfield did not show any sign of being a repeat offender or sexual predator. It would take another 15 months and a new district attorney, Gerard T. Leone Jr., before Winfield was convicted and sentenced to prison. Winfield appeared voluntarily for trial, generally meeting the terms of his release.

Recently, the question of bail in child rape cases made local headlines when a Kingston man was accused of raping a 3-year-old girl while free on $10,000 cash bail, which was imposed after an earlier charge of breaking and entering and raping a 5-year-old girl. Prosecutors had recommended $200,000 cash bail after the first alleged rape, but a judge would not agree to it.

Following the Kingston incidents, state Representative Karyn E. Polito, a Shrewsbury Republican, filed legislation that would require prosecutors to request a dangerousness hearing in all child rape cases.

"What happened to this little girl is horrendous," said Polito, referring to Winfield's niece.

Credit: Michael Rezendes, Globe Staff

Word count: 1580

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