LAWRENCE — A police sergeant testified yesterday he saw Daniel Cotnoir blow through a stop sign in his pickup truck last March, screeching his tires, but didn't pull him over because of his "past arrogance with police."
Detective Sgt. Gene Hatem said he instead mailed Cotnoir a citation for the stop sign violation and harsh tire noise.
Yesterday in Lawrence District Court, Cotnoir's attorney, Peter Caruso, asked a judge to throw out the charges.
He said the ticket was an example of the campaign of harassment Lawrence police have waged against the decorated Marine and city funeral director ever since he was acquitted of charges in a 2005 shooting outside his family funeral home.
Cotnoir, 36, said police have followed him and his family in cruisers, written bogus tickets and even roughed up his 60-year-old father.
During yesterday's hearing, Caruso told Judge Barbara Pearson the traffic charges against Cotnoir violate the state's "no fix law," which requires police officers to deliver a ticket to the violator at the time and place of the alleged violation.
"He had an obligation to stop him at that time," Caruso argued. He said the law provides no exception for Hatem's delay.
The judge took the matter under advisement, saying she'd issue a ruling later. But before ending the hearing, she said to Hatem, "It's very clear in the statute what you have to do and when you have to do it."
Hatem testified he mailed Cotnoir the ticket because of his "bad attitude" toward police and the fact Cotnoir's two daughters were in the truck. Had he pulled him over, "I know something would have escalated."
Cotnoir testified he did not see Hatem that morning in March and denied driving through the stop sign or screeching his tires.
Under questioning by Caruso, Hatem said Cotnoir "had issues" with police stemming from previous cases, including the shooting outside Racicot Funeral Home at 256 Broadway. Cotnoir lives on the second floor of the funeral home with his family.
In August 2005, Cotnoir fired a 12-gauge shotgun from a second-floor window of the funeral home after he said a rowdy crowd gathered and someone threw a glass bottle through the window. The round hit a raised concrete island and shattered, sending fragments into the legs of a 15-year-old girl and a 20-year-old man.
A Superior Court jury found him not guilty a year later.
Despite the verdict, police Chief John Romero revoked Cotnoir's firearms permit, prompting a lawsuit. Romero's decision was upheld by a Superior Court judge in February. Cotnoir has appealed.
During the hearing yesterday, Caruso tried to enter into evidence an Eagle-Tribune editorial titled "Police Chief Must Take Harassment Claim Seriously" but was rebuffed by Pearson. Caruso is the former attorney for The Eagle-Tribune.
Hatem acknowledged he was the focus of an internal affairs investigation prompted by the harassment complaints. But he said neither Cotnoir nor Caruso ever offered any evidence of harassment to the internal affairs officer.
After the hearing, Romero released a copy of the findings of the investigation, which concluded there was no evidence of harassment.
Caruso said he was "totally shocked" an internal affairs investigation had been conducted because he was never contacted.
"This is the first I've heard of it," he said yesterday. "I would have showed up with a whole slew of information but nobody contacted me."
After reading the findings yesterday, he described the report as "scant" and "lacking substance."
Romero, in response, said if Caruso has additional information, "we'll certainly take a look at that."
"We made every attempt to interview his client," he said. "In the absence of that, whatever areas we could investigate, we did."
Sgt. Emil DeFusco Jr., who heads the department's internal affairs investigation, said Cotnoir would not be interviewed or assist with the internal investigation despite 15 phone calls and a visit to the funeral home by police.
Police did interview his wife, Mary Kate Cotnoir, as well as several police officers and detectives.
Mrs. Cotnoir said she believed she was followed by what looked like an unmarked police car as she was driving her children to school one morning, according to the report, but "agreed that the unmarked police car could have simply been traveling in the same direction as her."
DeFusco also said in the report that Cotnoir's driving record includes 25 violations in the past 19 years in Lawrence and seven other cities and towns.
"That fact that Mr. Cotnoir has been issued two motor vehicle citations recently by the Lawrence Police Department does not show he is being harassed by the Lawrence Police Department," DeFusco wrote.
DeFusco concluded, "I believe that Mr. Cotnoir is attempting to create a record of harassment by the Lawrence Police Department that, in fact, does not exist."
Cotnoir stood by his claim of harassment. He still lives above the funeral home but is trying to move his family from the city.
"The police are trying to use their badges to get revenge against my family," he said.
