WORCESTER (MA)
Boston Globe
By Denise Lavoie, AP Legal Affairs Writer | September 1, 2005
WORCESTER, Mass. --The man accused in the jailhouse killing of John Geoghan said Thursday that a Department of Correction officer allowed him into the pedophile priest's cell before the slaying so he could kill him, and top agency administrators are trying to cover it up.
"This ain't about the correction officers," Joseph Druce said after Worcester Superior Court Judge Timothy Hillman granted his repeated requests during a pretrial hearing to speak. "This is about the administration of the Department of Correction."
Druce's attorney, John LaChance, also asked in the hearing to be given a copy of a videotape described in a published report this week that purportedly shows Druce re-enacting Geoghan's killing. The defense maintains the tape was released by the Department of Correction to try to sabotage Druce's chances for a fair trial.
During Thursday's hearing, Druce said top administrators helped cover up the agency's role in Geoghan's killing in his cell in August 2003 at Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center in Shirley.
"I was allowed to go into John Geoghan's cell," Druce said.
Department of Correction spokeswoman Kelly Nantel declined to comment Thursday on Druce's allegations.