WORCESTER (MA)
Telegram & Gazette
By Milton J. Valencia TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
WORCESTER— The inmate accused of killing defrocked pedophile priest John J. Geoghan in prison claimed in court yesterday that prison guards have interfered with his case, read his mail and listened to phone conversations, depriving him of his right to access to a lawyer.
Joseph L. Druce submitted a motion through his lawyer seeking to have the case dismissed on the grounds of interference. Superior Court Judge Timothy S. Hillman did not comment on the motion yesterday, but urged Mr. Druce’s court-appointed lawyer, John H. LaChance, to make arrangements with the superintendent of the state prison in Walpole, where Mr. Druce is being held, to assure the defendant that his rights are being preserved.
Mr. LaChance did not argue on behalf of Mr. Druce’s motion, but did say that his client has been so obsessed with the concern jail guards are reading his mail and monitoring his telephone conversations that he has difficulty communicating with him to prepare for the trial.
Mr. Druce has been moved to several prisons since the Aug. 23, 2003, killing of Mr. Geoghan, who was incarcerated for fondling a 10-year-old boy. Mr. Geoghan had been at the center of the Boston Archdiocese sex-abuse scandal. Mr. Druce, 38, was serving a life sentence at the Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center in Shirley for the 1998 murder of a gay man.
Mr. Druce allegedly attacked Mr. Geoghan in his cell after jamming the door shut to prevent anyone from intervening. He allegedly told investigators after Mr. Geoghan’s death that he killed the former priest “to save the children.”
Mr. LaChance has informed the court that he plans an insanity defense, and has won approval to subpoena Mr. Druce’s medical records, as well as records compiled in a state investigation into the killing.
A report by a three-member commission found that failures in the inmate classification system, disciplinary procedures and internal investigative processes in the state Department of Correction contributed to circumstances leading to the killing of Mr. Geoghan.
Yesterday, Mr. LaChance notified the court that several of the records he has obtained through subpoenas have been sent to the clerk’s office for review by the district attorney’s office. However, Judge Hillman, acting on a request by Mr. LaChance, immediately sealed those records outside the view of the defense and the prosecution.
Mr. Druce complained in court yesterday that he is being harassed by jail guards pushing for him to enter a guilty plea rather than allow sensitive information — such as records in the investigative report, called the Delaney report — to be released at trial.