Richard Lapointe could not have killed Bernice Martin. “None of the confessions fit the crime,” Andy Lefebvre, a retired Bloomfield police officer, told Rick Green. He has been following the case and doing his own detective work for years, after his parish priest asked him to look into it.
“He should have been examined prior to any investigation to see if he was even competent,” Lefebvre said. “He would cop out to executing Abraham Lincoln. I could get that confession out of him.”
Today the hearing before Judge John Nazzaro continued. The judge must decide whether to order a new trial.
Lapointe, in orange jumpsuit and shackles, sat at the defense table, detached from the grave proceedings. He busied himself doing simple word puzzles from a stack of books in front of him. Sometimes he would look out at the Friends, his group of supporters, apparently looking for a face or a nod or a smile.
“I pray that the judge really listens,” said Rosemary Hargrave, who tutors Lapointe once a week in jail and who went to court in support. “Our hopes have been dashed so often.”
I hope Judge Nazzaro is listening. That he listens to the not taped interrogation stories, that he listens to Karen Lapointe’s scared voice on wiretaps obtained without a warrant, that he listens to the DNA report findings, that he listens to the explanation of what Dandy Walker Syndrome is and that none of the physical evidence found matches Lapointe’s DNA.
Please, Judge Nazzaro, please be the kind of judge Lapointe should have had in the first place. One that truly listens to find the truth no matter how well she was kept hidden in this case.