A Massachusetts man was assaulted earlier this week after a court appearance regarding the death of a teen who drowned at his home.
James Coughlin, a former Massachusetts State Police captain, and his wife Leslie pleaded guilty on Monday, Sept. 11, to furnishing alcohol to a minor. The two did not plead guilty to the additional charge of reckless endangerment of a child but conceded that prosecutors had enough evidence to find them guilty. The court gave each defendant a one-year suspended sentence and a requirement to do 50 hours of community service.
The charges are linked to the death of 17-year-old Alonzo Polk. The teen, a student-athlete at Dedham High School, was celebrating his graduation at a party hosted at the couple’s home in the Boston suburb of Dedham in June 2021.
While at the event, Polk, who didn’t know how to swim, was pushed into their pool and started drowning. First responders arrived at the scene at around 12:30 a.m., and Polk was transported to a local hospital. He was pronounced dead days later, which prompted demands for accountability from his family.
Brian Kelly, the couple’s attorney told the court that toxicology tests showed Polk had no alcohol in his system on the night of the party, and the friend who pushed him wasn’t unaware that he couldn’t swim.
Days after Polk drowned at the party, hundreds of people, including his family, rallied in Dedham, calling for answers, Boston 25 News reported. At one point, the group even marched in front of Coughlin’s home.
“We need answers. We need people to be charged,” the teen’s brother, Shawn Drane, told the news station in 2021. “We need people to understand the pain that we’re going through.”
The Coughlins successfully petitioned the court earlier this year to ban displays of support for the deceased teen outside the courthouse if the case were to go to trial.
Leaving Dedham District Court on Monday morning, the couple’s attorney told news outlets he witnessed his client get “attacked” by three people.
“It was basically an unprovoked assault on the streets of Dedham, right in front of the courthouse,” Kelly said, per Boston 25 News. “Two individuals snuck up from behind him, punched him in the head. A third individual came in, punched him, started kicking him.”
Dedham Police said nearby officers and court officials “intervened to stop the altercation and restore order.” The agency is probing the incident and urging eyewitnesses to come forward. The attack comes after Kelly said Coughlin has experienced harassment for years, WCVB reported.
“It’s totally crazy that something like this would happen in the middle of Dedham after a court proceeding,” Kelly told the Boston Globe. “We hope the [district attorney]’s office will bring the appropriate charges and not permit our criminal justice system to be replaced by mob justice.”
