Nearly every day, the Poland Spring delivery truck drove by the house Dana Desjardins built for his family. It traveled cautiously along the narrow wooded road, bumping and jolting as it headed to customers down that stretch of Raymond’s treasured rural paradise.

It was as regular as a neighbor’s walk; as familiar as an old friend. So when it stopped in the driveway one September morning, it wasn’t so surprising that, seeing the vehicle and its uniformed driver, Desjardins’ 10-year-old son answered the door – even though his parents weren’t home.

But the boy couldn’t help driver Derrick Coffin with the directions he requested. So Coffin left, after asking him if his parents were there. And the boy went back to watching television upstairs, after answering Coffin in the negative.

It wasn’t long before the boy heard another knock. He left his cartoons – and his childhood – upstairs and went down to open the door once again. Seeing no one on the wide front porch or in the driveway, the boy began to close the door. But at that moment, Coffin sprang from behind the woodpile, naked except for a crude mask he wore over his head.

“That’s when Coffin rushed my son and pushed him into the house and told him if he didn’t do what he wanted that he was going to snap his neck like a twig,” Desjardins said, while sitting at the kitchen table recently, telling the horrible story that has haunted his family for the past six months.

Recalling the events of that terrible day, an underlying sense of rage and sorrow pervaded Desjardins’ calm and private exterior – rage and sorrow and helplessness at his inability to turn back time, his inability to make everything normal again for his son and his family. And as he continued his narrative, Desjardins’ eyes often filled with tears.

Once Coffin was inside the house, he bolted the door and grabbed the boy, slamming him repeatedly against the wall. Coffin then tried to get him to perform oral sex and squeezed the boy’s neck in his hands until he became disoriented and possibly passed out for a short time.

Meanwhile, Desjardins’ daughter had awakened to the commotion. Hearing her on the stairs, Coffin realized they were not alone and ran out of the house and up the hill to the spot where he had hidden the delivery truck.

Shaking with fear, Desjardins’ daughter finally got through to the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office. In her nervousness, she had tried to punch in the number before waiting to hear the dial tone.

She also called Desjardins, who was working six hours away at his farm in New Canada. As he picked up his cell phone, he accidentally hit a button that sends a caller directly to voicemail. When he retrieved the voicemail, his daughter’s frightened voice and cryptic message saying only that “something had happened” to his son quickly convinced him that something was seriously wrong at home.

He tried calling back but the line was busy. So he called E-911, asking authorities to send someone to his house, and then he called the Raymond Town Office.

“I didn’t care who answered the phone,” he recalled. “I was going to instruct them to come down here.”

Elisa Trepanier, who used to babysit his children when they were younger, picked up and drove right over. The emergency operator told Trepanier to wait in the car with the children and not to touch anything.

With the observations and descriptions the boy was able to give investigating officers, apprehending Coffin was just a matter of time. Detectives retrieved DNA samples from Desjardins’ home and discovered the towel mask in a dumpster in Naples.

Coffin was sentenced for the crime last Friday – a sentence that has the Desjardins family reeling. Although he could have received up to 30 years in prison on his gross sexual assault, burglary and criminal threatening charges, Coffin received 15 years, of which he will serve only eight because he pled guilty to all three counts and “took responsibility” for his crime, the judge ruled. The sentence will be followed by 10 years probation and Coffin must also register as a violent sexual predator for the rest of his life.

“That guy had a choice – once he left, he didn’t have to come back and commit the crime,” Desjardins said. “To say that he got less time because he took responsibility is such an outrageous statement. He threatened to kill my son – but he took responsibility and he got less time.”

Desjardins supports LD 1717, Jessica’s Law, which mandates a 25-year minimum sentence followed by a lifetime of probation for anyone convicted of gross sexual assault against a minor under the age of 12. A mandatory life sentence is inflicted upon any perpetrator with a prior conviction for gross sexual assault, rape or gross sexual misconduct against a minor under the age of 12.

Sen. Bill Diamond, D-Cumberland, chairs the Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee, the committee of reference for the bill.

Had Jessica’s Law been in effect, Diamond said, Coffin would have had to serve 25 years for his crime. There would not have been a reduction of time as part of a plea bargain.

“I don’t think Coffin’s sentence was nearly high enough for how he traumatized this little boy and changed his life, most likely, forever,” Diamond said. “There is a mandatory five-year sentence for lying on an application to buy a handgun and yet he only gets eight years for what he did. These guys – they know the system: if I fess up then I get to cut my sentence in half. There’s a clear strategy.”

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, “Maine has the most lenient range of penalties available in New England for gross sexual assaults against children less than 12 years of age.” It also reports that Maine is ranked among the top eight states with the weakest penalty ranges for sex crimes against children.

In addition, several studies show that if sexual predators abuse victims under age 12, there is a greater risk of repeat offenses.

Sheriff Mark Dion does not agree with the mandatory sentence lengths proposed in Jessica’s Law. Instead, he believes attention should be focused on providing improved therapy to offenders once they’re released, possibly in a confinement post-prison situation. He also says more prosecutors who specialize in prosecuting sexually based crimes should be hired to assist local district attorneys, saying, “if a prosecutor has credibility, they can get a good plea bargain.”

While Dion said he sympathized with the Desjardins family in Raymond, he defended the process.

“I don’t think there is a sentence you could give that would satisfy me as a parent,” he said. “If you’re a parent, nothing’s enough. But the plea bargain is designed so that all parties achieve some self-interest. It may be a lesser sentence but it’s a sure sentence. I think everybody gets something from the process.”

Dion said that younger victims often fall apart while testifying. And he added that sometimes, a child is relieved not to have to testify.

“It’s embarrassing for them to have to describe what happened,” he said. “They feel isolated and alone.”

While they may not agree with the length of Coffin’s sentence, the Desjardins are trying to move forward with their lives. But the incident has changed them all. Desjardins says his daughter is much more nervous now – she uses the deadbolt although she never used to lock the door at all.

And his son still suffers from nightmares – recurring images so terrible he wakes up crying. He still can’t play outside with the dogs or shoot hoops in the driveway. But his greatest fear, Desjardins said, is of the day Coffin is released from prison.

Although the Coffin case did not go to trial, the Desjardins were allowed to speak at his sentencing. Desjardins’ son chose to go to school that day instead of to court, but, with his dad’s help, he wrote a letter for his dad to read to Coffin at the sentencing.

“I am lucky to have a family like mine,” he said in the letter. “Derrick Coffin, I guess you weren’t so lucky because you do bad things to kids. I also know you pleaded guilty for what you did to me, but guess what – I’m the one who lost his innocence.”

Derrick Coffin, 23, of 23 Wakefield Street in Lewiston was sentenced last Friday to 15 years in prison with all but eight suspended. The sentence was part of a plea agreement in which Coffin admitted guilt to abusing a 10-year-old boy, whose father sat down with the Lakes Region Suburban Weekly to tell how the crime has impacted his family. Courtesy photo

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