A Plymouth couple accused of repeatedly raping their teenaged child in their care were indicted by a Plymouth County grand jury on Friday on multiple counts of aggravated rape and other charges.
The charges carry a possible life sentence.
Daniel Forand, 37, and his wife Samantha Pelrine, 31, a Plymouth police officer, first made headlines in March after the boy came forward to tell police he was assaulted by the couple for a period of 7 years beginning when he was 14.
The couple, out on bail since their initial arraignment on March 26, is expected to face another arraignment in Plymouth Superior Court on the new charges levied by the grand jury.
They have both adamantly denied the allegations, arguing they are the fabrication of a disturbed young man.
Forand – who has a long, well-documented history of erratic and abusive behavior – was indicted on nine counts of aggravated rape of a child, two counts of rape, seven counts of indecent assault and battery, and one count of assault and battery.
Pelrine was indicted on three counts of aggravated rape of a child and two counts of rape of a child. She was suspended from her police duties after her arrest by Massachusetts State Police in March.
Attorneys for the couple have called the alleged victim “disingenuous” and “manipulative.”
They said the young man was angry because the couple asked him to leave their home after they refused to let his girlfriend sleep over.
The alleged victim, now 22, was supposed to testify before a Plymouth County grand jury in May, but he had just enlisted in the Marines and was ordered to basic training.
He finally was able to appear before the grand jury on Thursday, Sept. 10, according to two people briefed on the matter.
Also expected to testify were his girlfriend and at least one other friend, according to someone briefed on their appearance.
The alleged victim alleged he was sexually assaulted, at first by Forand and later by Pelrine too, over a period of seven years while he lived with the couple.
The alleged assaults included oral sex, sexual touching and intercourse, Assistant District Attorney James Duffy said at their arraignment.
Since their arrest, Forand, 37, who ran a pest control company in Plymouth, and some of his supporters have used social media to defend him and attack his accuser.
On May 10, someone anonymously posted what was described as Forand’s version of events, titled “REALForandFiles,” on Medium.com, an online platform. It has since been taken down.
In it, the author accused the alleged victim of fabricating the allegations because Forand was “enforcing rules” in the home.
He and Pelrine took in the boy in 2018, when his parents and other relatives couldn’t care for him. He became the boy’s legal guardian in 2019. In court papers, Forand described the boy’s parents as “close friends.”
After their arrest, Forand’s ex-wife, whom the Independent has not identified because she has also alleged abuse by Forand, asked a probate court judge to suspend his visits with their now 11-year-old daughter.
She alleged their daughter was likely visiting the house at some point when assaults against the young man allegedly took place.
The judge rejected her request, touching off a series of shortened visits that sometimes became so contentious police were called to intervene.
The mother said in court papers she repeatedly urged their daughter to go with Forand, but she refused.
“When I initially spoke with my daughter about seeing her father again, she broke into crying hysterics and sobbing that she would not go with him for any visits,” she wrote in a June affidavit.
“Her reaction to the prospect of seeing her father caused her to become inconsolable and she collapsed on the driveway.”
Forand accused his ex-wife of poisoning their daughter against him and asked that she be held in contempt of court for violating the custody order.
“Mother is making false accusations against me, arguing that I am a danger to my own child, having no evidence of the same,” Forand wrote to the probate judge. “And when this court has already heard and found insufficient evidence to suspend parenting time, yet, the allegations continue.”
Instead of going with him for overnight visits, the young girl would meet her father at a neutral place — like the Carver police station. The meetings often ended badly — with the girl flatly refusing to go with her father, according to police reports.
A June 1 meeting at the girl’s school seemed cordial enough that a Middleborough police officer who was monitoring the meeting left after about two hours.
But 15 minutes later, a 911 call came in asking for an officer to respond to the school.
When he returned, he saw Forand “aggressively carrying a young female in his arms,” wrote Middleborough patrol officer Terry Meleski.
“The young female was crying, kicking, and trying to get away. The child’s feet were lifted from the ground, and both her arms were extended out, I believed the young girl could be hurt and did not know the man’s intentions,” he wrote.
Forand became enraged when the officer intervened, standing between him and his daughter.
He demanded the officer’s badge number and threatened to sue, the officer wrote.
Forand was placed in a cruiser briefly. When he emerged, he resumed cursing and yelling.
“He called me an asshole and threatened to sue me again,” Meleski wrote. He threatened another officer also, he said.
As he was leaving Forand put his arm out the car window and “flipped his middle finger,” the officer wrote.
According to many people who have encountered Forand, the behavior described in police reports is not unusual.
An Independent investigation found a long history of angry and violent confrontations with neighbors, police, town officials — virtually anyone he thinks crossed him.
The Independent has reported he has been accused of shooting at a neighbor’s dog, texting his ex-wife 436 times over 13 hours and calling a tenant 700 times after she complained about the way he was boarding her horses.
He has been ordered to stay away from government offices in Carver and Plymouth, the Plymouth police headquarters, the Plymouth Verizon store, the New Hope Chapel and All-Wayz Towing.
Even though he was never criminally charged, police weighing whether to reinstate his gun permits in 2016, 2017 and 2019 were emphatic he was not a suitable candidate.
Carver and Plymouth police documented dozens of disputes involving Forand when they were deciding whether to reinstate his gun permits after they had been rescinded. Both departments rejected his requests.
Carver Police Sgt. Sheri Sarmento started an investigation in 2016, when Forand’s then-wife showed up at the Carver police station, saying she didn’t feel safe at home.
While she was at the police station, Sarmento wrote, he called her more than 20 times.
She obtained a restraining order, saying she was “in fear for my life and my child’s life.” They had an 8-month-old daughter. She later filed for divorce.
After their meeting, Sarmento pulled up Carver police logs and found approximately 20 calls involving him between 2012 and 2016.
In her 8-page report, Sarmento said people who had difficulty with Forand were terrified of him.
“Mr. Forand’s angry, threatening and intimidating behavior has shown that he would be a danger to public safety if his firearm’s license were to be reinstated,” Sarmento wrote in her 2016 report.
Sarmento reviewed Forand’s application again in 2017 and concluded he still shouldn’t have a gun permit.
“During my interview with Mr. Forand he did not convince me that he has changed his behavior or how he responds to people he has conflicts with,” she wrote.
“Mr. Forand became visibly upset and seemed enraged because his hands were shaking as he was trying to control his response to my questions,” Sarmento wrote. “He also exhibited his notorious paranoid attitude by telling me that this was personal.”
He owned nine guns, which were seized that year, police reports said.
Plymouth Police Chief Dana Flynn, a captain at the time, also denied his request for a gun permit.
Andrea Estes can be reached at andrea@plymouthindependent.org.