An Old Lyme man being held on charges he repeatedly raped his former girlfriend, rammed her car, strangled her until she passed out and urinated on her contacted the woman through a third party and pressured her to recant her statement, according to state police.

Anthony L. LaCoursiere, 28, was arraigned Monday in New London Superior Court on charges of violation of a protective order and tampering with a witness.

According to an arrest warrant affidavit written by Detective Timothy Kendrick of the state police Central District Major Crime Squad, during recorded phone calls from the Corrigan-Radgowski Correctional Center, LaCoursiere told a man named James Sullivan to contact the victim, "act like you're concerned for her" and tell her LaCoursiere doesn't hate her.

Under a court-issued protective order, he is prohibited from contacting the victim in any way, including through a third party.

The state police allege LaCoursiere provided a letter instructing the victim on what to say to investigators. State police also allege that LaCoursiere convinced his mother to allow the woman to move in with her to make it look as if everything was fine, and that the mother put the woman on the phone with LaCoursiere when he called her from prison on March 28.

The 21-year-old victim contacted the state's attorney's office to say that she fabricated the story because she was angry that LaCoursiere had broken up with her. She said that she was the lead aggressor in the January incident. She also sent an email to The Day on April 9 saying she had lied about the January incident and that LaCoursiere "has never been anything but a wonderful boyfriend to me and does not deserve to live in prison for something he did not do."

The affidavit indicates that on April 1, LaCoursiere again spoke  with the victim during a phone call to his mother. He told the woman to "stay loyal" to her recantation and if she wrote anything on Facebook he didn't like, "I'm washing my hands of you." When the alleged victim told LaCoursiere she had dyed her hair and gotten a tattoo, he told her to change her hair, get the tattoo removed by laser and imposed a 9 p.m. curfew while she lived with his mother, according to the affidavit.

LaCoursiere had been held in lieu of $500,000 on the initial January charges of third-degree sexual assault, first-degree sexual assault, second-degree threatening, second-degree strangulation, second-degree kidnapping and first-degree unlawful restraint.

Judge Hillary B. Strackbein added an additional $50,000 bond on the new charges and continued both cases.

LaCoursiere is a registered sex offender, having been convicted of sexually assaulting a juvenile in 2009 and received a 52-month prison sentence followed by 10 years of probation. He was found guilty of violation of probation in 2016.

In 2011, LaCoursiere served 18 months in prison for stabbing a 17-year-old male.

k.florin@theday.com