A Republican prosecutor running a tough-on-crime campaign against a Democratic defense attorney should have checked his evidence before launching the political attack that’s now backfiring.
Hillsborough County Attorney John Coughlin’s reelection campaign recently launched a website attacking his opponent, Kim Kossick, for defending alleged Valley Cemetery rapist Amuri Diole. Diole was arrested in April 2021 for the violent rape of a woman for two hours in the cemetery.
But court records show Diole had been released from jail a week before the alleged rape because prosecutors in Coughlin’s office failed to file the necessary paperwork to keep the dangerous suspect locked up.
“I can’t change history. I can’t change the facts,” Coughlin told NHJournal.
At the same time, Coughlin’s opponent is trying to use the campaign website to get Diole off the hook for ever facing a trial over the horrific crime he allegedly committed.
Kossick is taking heat for running as a liberal reformer.
Because the campaign website mentions the Diole case, Kossick filed a motion in court to have the criminal charges dismissed. Diole was deemed incompetent to stand trial in the alleged rape in 2022 and is currently being held in the New Hampshire State Prison Secure Psychiatric Unit in Concord as the state seeks to have him ruled a sexually violent predator and then have him further held on an involuntary civil commitment.
But under state law, if Diole is ever returned to competency through medical treatment, he could then go on trial for the alleged rape. Kossik wants Diole to avoid prosecution in the future because, she says, Coughlin’s attack on her work defending Diole against the civil commitment taints the potential jury pool.
“The website is targeted at Hillsborough County voters and jurors,” Kossick said. “The people on the voting rolls are the jurors.”
Coughlin supporters say it is an example of the progressive approach Kossick would take to prosecuting crime. The issue has even reached the New Hampshire governor’s race.
On WMUR, Adam Sexton asked Democrat Joyce Craig if she supported the effort to use a campaign attack ad to get Diole exempted from prosecution. She appeared to defend her fellow Democrat.
“Everyone has the right to a civil defense,” Craig said. “And Kim Kossick is doing her job, and I believe that the county attorney has to be someone who represents our county and is always doing what’s right.”
Kossick says the real issue is that Diole wouldn’t have been out and able to commit the crime of Coughlin’s office had done its job.
“Coughlin doesn’t know what’s going on in his own office,” Kossick said.
Kossick was appointed to represent Diole during the civil commitment proceedings in the 2021 rape case, and ended up appealing the commitment to the New Hampshire Supreme Court. The Supreme Court sided against Doile. Coughlin’s website attacks Kossick for representing Diole.
“Instead of ensuring justice for the victim, Kossick prioritized the legal defense of a man deemed too dangerous to release into society,” the website states.
Coughlin, echoing the website, told NHJournal that Kossick does not prioritize the rights of victims and their families as evidenced by her work to represent Diole.
“The website is about her judgment and about victims rights, and her failure to protect the victims of crimes and their families,” Coughlin said.
But NHJournal reviewed the court records in Diole’s criminal history and found a failure by Coughlin’s office put Diole on the street a week before the alleged rape.
According to court records, Diole was jailed in early 2021 as the result of a 2018 assault case in Nashua. When the issue of Dole’s competency was raised in pre-trial in that case, he underwent an examination by Forensic Psychologist Mathilde Pelaprat. On Jan. 27, 2021, Judge Charles Temple deemed Diole a danger to himself and others and ordered Diole held for 90 days, giving time for prosecutors to have Diole committed.
But prosecutors failed to get the involuntary commitment order within the 90 days, forcing Temple to release Diole in his April 23, 2021, order.
“In accordance with RSA 135:17-a, V, the defendant is released from custody at the Hillsborough County House of Corrections. The State has been unable to secure an involuntary commitment order and the 90 day hold period expires on April 27, 2021. As such, Mr. Diole’s release is mandatory under RSA 135:17-a, V,” Temple wrote.
According to media reports, Diole went from living in the Valley Street Jail in Manchester to the Valley Cemetery across the street for the next six days before he was arrested again for the brutal rape.
Coughlin blamed Diole’s release on the fact one of his assistant county attorneys was unable to get a qualified specialist to examine Diole within the 90-day timeframe. Prosecutors must use specially qualified experts from a pre-approved list provided by the state to examine people for involuntary commitment proceedings, he said.
“We made reasonable efforts to identify specialists,” Coughlin said.
Since Dole’s re-arrest for the alleged rape, Coughlin said his office worked with the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office on an expanded list of qualified specialists to make sure people who are a danger to the community can be committed.
Kossick said blaming her, a defense attorney, for representing a criminal ignores the right every American has for a vigorous defense under both the United States Constitution and the New Hampshire Constitution.
“Defense attorneys are the only people standing between the government and their client,” Kossick said.
Kossick was surprised that Coughlin, a former judge, would attack her for the work she did as a defense attorney. Not only does such an attack undermine the criminal justice system, but it is totally out of character for Coughlin, she said.
“We all thought John Coughlin was a very good judge,” Kossick said. “We all thought he was great because he never revoked bail and never put anyone in jail. I can only assume he’s pandering to somebody.”
