WORCESTER (MA)
Telegram & Gazette
By Gary V. Murray TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
gmurray@telegram.com
WORCESTER— The inmate charged in the prison slaying of defrocked pedophile priest John J. Geoghan told a judge yesterday that a correction officer helped him gain access to the victim’s cell before the slaying.
Joseph L. Druce is awaiting trial in Worcester Superior Court on a charge of murder in the Aug. 23, 2003, strangulation and beating death of the 68-year-old former priest in a protective custody unit at the Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center on the Lancaster-Shirley line.
During a court hearing yesterday on a motion to dismiss the murder indictment against him, Mr. Druce told Judge Timothy S. Hillman that a correction officer allowed him into Mr. Geoghan’s cell immediately before the slaying. He accused Department of Correction officials of later trying to cover up the officer’s alleged complicity. When asked about the allegations after the hearing, Mr. Druce’s appointed lawyer, John H. LaChance, noted that his client was raising an insanity defense to the murder charge. “In a lot of circumstances, he gets very manic and sometimes his in-court behavior reflects his mental illness,” Mr. LaChance said.
Paul J. Henderson, a spokesman for the Department of Correction, declined to comment on Mr. Druce’s allegations and said correction officials would defer to District Attorney John J. Conte, whose office is investigating the case. Mr. Conte was not immediately available for comment.
At the time of the killing, Mr. Druce was serving a life sentence for the murder of a man he believed was gay. Mr. Geoghan, who was a central figure in the clergy sex-abuse scandal that rocked the Boston Archdiocese, was serving a 10-year term for molesting a boy.
Mr. Druce, who has publicly identified himself as a victim of sexual abuse as a child, allegedly told investigators after the prison slaying that he killed Mr. Geoghan “to save the children.”
Authorities said Mr. Geoghan was killed as he and other inmates returned to their cells after lunch at the maximum-security prison. Mr. Druce allegedly followed the former priest into his cell, jammed the door shut with a book and beat and strangled him.
A report by a three-member commission that was released last year found that Mr. Druce acted alone and said there was nothing to indicate that anyone at the prison, inmate or employee, knew of any plot to harm Mr. Geoghan.
Mr. LaChance and Assistant District Attorney Lawrence J. Murphy were scheduled to make their closing arguments yesterday in connection with the defense motion to dismiss. The final summations were postponed at the request of Mr. LaChance after he and the prosecutor told the court they wanted to try to get access to a videotape allegedly showing Mr. Druce re-enacting the killing of Mr. Geoghan.
The Boston Herald obtained a copy of the videotape and published still photographs from it this week. Correction officials said they believed the videotape was an unauthorized, pirated recording made by a prison employee and that they had never had a copy of it.
The defense lawyer said the tape could be relevant to the motion to dismiss, which is based on a claim that correction officials have interfered with Mr. Druce’s right to a fair trial through “a pattern of misconduct and coercion.” Mr. LaChance said the tape may also provide evidence of Mr. Druce’s state of mind after the slaying.
After contacting Boston Herald reporter Michele McPhee by telephone yesterday, Mr. LaChance said he had been told that she no longer had a copy of the tape and that it had been returned to an unidentified source.
Mr. LaChance was granted permission to subpoena Ms. McPhee to court. He said the subpoena would ask her to bring any copies of the videotape she or the newspaper might have, as well as photographs that were made from it. Mr. LaChance also told the judge he intended to question Ms. McPhee about any information the source of the tape might have given her about how and when it was made.