MASSACHUSETTS
Boston Herald
By Michele McPhee
Tuesday, August 30, 2005 - Updated: 06:10 AM EST
Prosecutors and defense lawyers were flabbergasted yesterday to learn of an explosive prison video in which grandstanding killer Joseph L. Druce pantomimes the brutal 2003 murder of an infamous pedophile priest.
But a Department of Correction official said his agency does not have the video, images from which appeared in yesterday's Herald.
``We are looking into the matter of the tape being released,'' said DOC spokesman Paul Henderson.
Druce's defense attorney, John H. Lachance, and Worcester County District Attorney John J. Conte both said they would demand copies of the macabre video from the DOC.
Conte said he had not seen the tape, and asked DOC officials about it yesterday. ``Our office has certainly not seen it,'' he said. ``Basically, we just want to get this case to trial. That has been our purpose for quite a while now.''
Druce, who is serving life in an unrelated case, is expected in court Thursday for a hearing in the murder of John J. Geoghan, the defrocked Weston pastor accused of abusing scores of young children. Lachance said yesterday he plans to file a motion today aimed at obtaining the Druce video, and would argue that motion at the hearing Thursday.
``I don't have that tape,'' he said. ``All I have seen of that is what is in the newspaper.''