Consolidated edits and restructured narrative with sections removed
“Plymouth, Massachusetts police officer Samantha Pelrine and husband arrested, charged with child rape”
That’s the headline posted from the national CBS News website. Scroll down and there is a photo of a woman who looks terribly distressed, broken and afraid. I don’t know what she’s feeling, but I recognize that face. Given what she and her husband have been charged with, it’s the face of terrifying anxiety and heartbreak. I’m skeptical of this story. Not of the charges. Of how the story is being told. I’m not here to assess their guilt or innocence. That’s for a jury to decide. I’m here because the way this story was reported follows a pattern I’ve been documenting, and that pattern does damage regardless of how the trial ends.
The story structure is one I recognize and have been writing about. Whether intentional or tacit, the piece is the latest example of a public shaming by media.
Let’s start with the allegation, as reported by CBS.
Samantha Pelrine faces four counts of child rape, and her husband Daniel Forand faces three for incidents that, according to the accuser, allegedly happened over seven years from 2018 to 2025. Forand is also charged with two counts of indecent assault and battery.
“The allegations are that the sexual abuse started when he was 14-years-old and continued up until last year, another term for that is ‘grooming.’” The accuser, a 21-year-old male, lived with the couple during that time.
Look at the CBS headline, which features Pelrine’s name and her status as a police officer in the same sentence as “child rape.” Forand, her husband, who is actually charged with additional counts, isn’t named. That’s an editorial choice, and it’s vicious. If the alleged crime doesn’t involve her official duties as a cop, her on-duty conduct, use of badge, squad, or authority, then “police officer” in the headline is sensationalizing and, of course, a near guarantee she won’t keep her job or ever work as a cop again (she’s already had her badge revoked), even if she’s acquitted. The published headline isn’t just about an accused person. It’s about a cop accused of child rape.
The asymmetry matters. Forand is a relational appendage: “husband.” Pelrine carries the most damaging stain. He rides in attached to the scandal. That makes her the headline’s narrative engine. The reporters used her status as a recognizable public official, attached a morally radioactive accusation, and drove clicks to the story. Evidence? Nothing yet.
The bail hearing is a procedural event, not a trial.
It was the most humiliating experience of my life. The Monday morning after I’d spent the weekend locked in a tiny cell alone with my anxieties. Looking through the small window on my cell room door, I watched as other inmates were lined up to be taken to the hearing room. I waited. When it was my turn, I was taken alone because they were worried about my safety, or something. I was brought to a small room with a glass-paneled wall in front of the judge, the county prosecutor, my attorney, and a viewing area filled with strangers and the press. The prosecutor acted with the same indignation you can see in the WBZ video. I guess it’s his job to portray me as a “danger to the community” and argue that my bail ($100K!) should remain high. What an asshole, I thought. There was no evidence, of course. But he had big, government balls, and had control over my life at that moment. To stand silently in front of strangers and the media, my name attached to a litany of appalling charges read aloud as if they were unquestionably true. And the idea that a trial would undo the damage from all the shitty press was a fool’s errand.
If you watch the WBZ video, you can see Daniel Forand in the background, at one point barely shaking his head as the prosecutor reads the accusations. I’m sure he was told not to react, to stay still and silent. But I can tell you, that is the last thing you want to do. Your life is under attack, and contrary to every impulse to scream in outrage over the injustice, you have to keep your mouth shut.
What I doubt these two really understand yet, is as bad as the arrest and bail hearing was, they have no idea how dark the nights ahead are, or how many they will have to endure before they have their day in court. It’s all torture and tension.
Now, here’s the original headline again:
Plymouth, Massachusetts police officer Samantha Pelrine and husband arrested, charged with child rape.
CBS and other outlets apparently had information about the accuser’s history, prior false allegations, ongoing communication with the couple, a dispute over housing. None of that complexity made the headline. It didn’t fit the story they’d already decided to tell.
Given what they knew, perhaps a better headline would have read:
“Plymouth Officer Charged With Child Rape; Accuser’s Prior False Allegation Surfaces in Court.”
I don’t know if Samantha Pelrine and Daniel Forand are guilty. Neither does CBS News. What I know is that CBS didn’t wait to find out. They had a headline, a photo, and a police officer’s name. That was enough. Whether this couple is ultimately convicted or acquitted, the press made its call before a single piece of evidence was heard in court. Their innocence or guilt isn’t my point. It’s that the media has made it theirs 3333
