The trial of Nicholas McGuffin, charged with the 2000 murder of 15 year old Leah Freeman begins tomorrow almost eleven years to the day after her death. It has been a long and circuitous journey from the night she was first reported missing to the Coquille Police Department, which passed her disappearance off as a runaway, to the discovery of her body weeks later off a remote stretch of logging road and finally to trial this week. From the beginning, the odds of this murder ever reaching trial were heavily stacked against it by an incompetent, insecure and abusive former police chief, Mike Reaves, and a fossilized city council that defended him instead of protecting its constituents.
Reaves ran the police department not as a law enforcement and public safety agency but as a revenue collection service. The city of 4,300 working class people would see six hundred officer initiated reports and citations per month on petty infractions like seat belts or helmet violations. Officers of the Coquille PD were regarded more as an organized gang of street thugs shaking down their fellow citizens than as protectors. Real crimes went unsolved and because the public distrusted the department so much were frequently unreported. Reaves’ quick dismissal of the missing person report filed by Freeman’s mother, Cory Courtright, entering into the long 4th of July weekend was totally in keeping with the disdain and contempt he showed to most residents.
From the beginning, and even after the discovery of the body, Reaves was reluctant to allow experienced outside help in to investigate and eventually the case went cold. Reaves’ orchestrated reign of terror upon everyday Coquille citizens, however, continued unabated. In January of 2008, Officer James Bryant, frequently accused of brutality, along with another officer was involved in an arrest that left Carl Foster, 5’4″ tall and 115 pounds a quadriplegic. Paul Frasier, the same district attorney trying McGuffin, held a grand jury investigation that inconceivably found Bryant innocent of using excessive force. Always, the Coquille city manager, Terrence O’Connor and the city council stood against their constituents and behind Reaves’ including his decision to keep Bryant on the force. (Bryant was later canned by Dannels over an unrelated incident).
Courtright continued her efforts to keep the case in the public eye. She wrote letters held vigils and spoke out at the city council requesting again and again to allow outside investigators to assist with the case. Reaves maintained the obviously dead investigation was ongoing and in some sort of jurisdictional pissing match adamantly refused any outside help.
In 2007 a gathering instigated by a local CPD victim, Clifford Latta, helped organized the community to rise up against the tyrannical behavior of the CPD and the indifference exhibited by the city council. A series of protests were organized by another relative of Freeman, Dian Courtright, demanding higher standards of law enforcement. Reaves called these citizens malcontents and through his lawyer, the ‘hairy unwashed’. The protests continued and combined with repeated impassioned pleas from Cory Courtright led to the appointment in the summer of 2008 of a new police chief, Mark Dannels.
Dannels reopened the Freeman case, invited expertise from other local law enforcement and built a strong multi-agency team to work on solving the murder. The team interviewed more than a hundred witnesses and eventually pieced together enough evidence to satisfy the grand jury and charge Freeman’s boyfriend, Nick McGuffin, with her murder. In short, the community had to rise up and get rid of one police chief and demand excellence of a replacement before any hope of closure for Freeman’s family would ever be possible.
Dannels also rebuilt the reputation of the Coquille PD and brought a new attention to solving crimes and less focus on revenue generation. Citizens were no longer afraid to report crimes to the police department leading some people to remark that crime had risen since Dannels appointment. Convictions for real crimes also rose. Today, citizens are proud rather than fearful of the Coquille Police Department.
Whether the district attorney can prove McGuffin guilty beyond a reasonable doubt or not, this trial is a triumph of a mother’s will to see justice for her daughter despite impossible odds. For the citizens who rose up to bring badly needed changes to their city it is proof that working together, even against the inertia of an aging and disdainful city council and an unfeeling city manager, can make a difference.
We love you Leah
I think the gray PAINT CHIP on Leah is HUGE. Again… The green river killer (Gary Ridgway) was caught because of paint chips on SEVERAL of his victims! Every color too. Blue red etc…. Thhis one on Leah is said to have been Gray…… The only thing we know is that it didnt come from any of Nicks vehicles..
@carole and @rebel belle it appears you both assume the investigation never looked at other possibilities simply because they charged McGuffin. Further, your arguments almost seem to imply that any cold case should never be tried because witnesses memories may be hazy or because trace evidence has been lost. If that were true they may as place a statute of limitations on murder.
KNOCK IT OFF.
I think Carole and her sister are trying to influence a trial.
Let’s please stop this. Throw enough spaghetti at the wall and some will stick.
Not related my old arse. Enuff? Enuff for me, let the jury decide for crying out loud.
i still believe in the presumption of innocence – too many American’s are less inclined to give our fellow citizen the benefit of the doubt when we are watching safely from a distance… however, it could be just a twist of fate that keeps us from being seated at the defense table.
I am huge fan of the “innocence project” – i hate to see any one wrongly convicted – that serves NO ONE justice and it leaves more victims…
I think the paint chip is a very compelling pc of evidence. I haven’t heard much else about than the comments written here, however, i do agree that it is highly coincidental that paint chips were found on Leah, and that Gary Ridgeway worked in that area, in many ways, the location and the way Leah was found match his MO, and he was free at that time. He himself has admitted that there were others he forgot – and since he killed recreationally, we may be finding his victims for many years to come sadly. I think if this angle was not properly investigated that a HUGE miscarriage of justice has been served and i believe if i were a juror that would leave a gaping hole of reasonable doubt in my mind…
Carole, I am not sure what your trip is but no one reopened a cold case just to pin a murder conviction on a convenient boyfriend. You seem to imply that people would be happy to let a real killer go and to incarcerate an innocent person after ten long years… why would anyone do that?
There have been strong and credible witnesses so far and the defense team is very competent. McGuffin is receiving a fair trial
Sadly, the writer points out that the Grand Jury in that area seems to be directed and led by the Prosecutor and the Mayor. It is clearly written above that the writers opinion shows no faith in Grand Jury’s and how they appear to be led by the powers that be in Coquille. Why then should there have been any credence to the Grand Jury’s indictment of Nick McGuffin? Afterall, the media has reported that opening statements said that there is NO physical evidence. How does this make a difference? How many ppl, agree with charges against a person a decade later, where there is no evidence? What is happening to American Justice? How is it being served? It is quite clear that McGuffin has always been dealt with as guilty. Your example of Bryants Grand Jury acquittal speaks volumes. Does anyone else see that? Hopefully the jury chosen was instructed, and will follow direction. I still have faith. I cant imagine living in the mothers shoes. I empathize with her. I dont blame her for wanting justice. It just seems painfully obvious that the investigation failed Leah Freeman and her family, and I dont see any sense in pinning it on the boyfriend just to appease the community. He said she said, 10 yrs later is not justice. There are too many innocent ppl in jail because of the jury of public opinion.
RUSERIOUS asked what about that old yarn about “innocent till proven guilty”.
Well I guess that flew out the window a long long time ago. If you had any doubts, the President of the United States of America claims the right, indeed has done so, that he can put a professional (Military) hit on “any person he deems a threat” to the nation. He did just that and many amarakans praised him for it. Two days later he tried to do the same with a United States Citizen living in Yemen. So why should WE THE PEOPLE behave any other way RU?
@aghast! just writing about Leah’s case, I try to leave Coquille to the Sentinel as earning a living and following the Port and the county is more than I can handle
What happened to presumed innocent?
Glad to see you writing about Coquille again.
Wishing you the best, Cory
I’m sending good thoughts to Cory. I know it’s going to be hard for her. I hope it turns out as it should, and that it’s not too terribly painful for her. I cannot imagine what she’s gone through. I pray I won’t have to.