Pending cases affected by officer's firing
By Ethan Smith
Published in News on August 20, 2017 1:45 AM
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District Attorney Matthew Delbridge confirmed this week several pending court cases are now compromised after a Goldsboro Police Department officer was deemed ineffective and fired in July.
Delbridge declined to go into specifics on how many cases are compromised, as well as the nature of those cases.
Dave Cloutier, a former VICE Unit Corporal, was "Giglioed" following an investigation by the State Bureau of Investigation into the mishandling of evidence.
Being "Giglioed" means an officer is determined to be no longer credible as a state's witness, making them ineffective as an officer.
Delbridge said the SBI did not point out any one individual as the one who mishandled evidence.
He confirmed that both Cloutier being "Giglioed" and evidence being mishandled is what compromised the pending cases.
"The SBI report did not specifically identify any person as being responsible," Delbridge said. "However, in my review of certain statements that he made, I found that those statements, in my view, were not credible and therefore that called into question whether I would ever consider him to be trustworthy or reliable in any future dealings with him in the criminal justice system."
Delbridge said since he found Cloutier's statements to the SBI to be unbelievable, he felt the situation it created could not be remedied.
"I felt like that was a situation that couldn't be cured, and I would not any longer be able to call him as a witness in any case," Delbridge said.
Delbridge said he deemed Cloutier's statements to be unbelievable in relation to the context of other believe evidence in the investigation.
He declined to elaborate on what made Cloutier's statements not credible in his eyes.
The SBI launched its investigation into mishandling of evidence at the Police Department after it was brought to Police Chief Mike West's attention and he requested the agency's assistance.
After the investigation was launched in September 2016, information came to light that led to Cloutier being put on administrative duty with pay.
West received the "notice of Giglio" about Cloutier in May.
Cloutier was then fired July 11.
No reason has been given for the time lapse between Cloutier's Giglio notice and his firing.
He was with the department for 17 years, and was also a task force officer with the Drug Enforcement Administration in Raleigh.
West did not return a phone call seeking comment before press time.