WORCESTER (MA)
Telegram & Gazette
By Gary V. Murray TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
gmurray@telegram.com
WORCESTER— A court hearing concerning a videotape allegedly showing Joseph L. Druce re-enacting the prison slaying of defrocked pedophile priest John J. Geoghan was postponed yesterday, pending an investigation by the district attorney’s office into the circumstances surrounding the tape.
The Boston Herald obtained a copy of the video and published still photographs from it two weeks ago. The videotape reportedly showed Mr. Druce in a cell at the Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center shortly after the Aug. 23, 2003, strangulation and beating death of Mr. Geoghan, acting out the killing.
Mr. Druce, 40, is awaiting trial in Worcester Superior Court on a charge of first-degree murder in the prison slaying.
His lawyer, John H. LaChance, maintains the videotape may be relevant to a pending motion to dismiss in the murder case. That motion 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, who is raising an insanity defense on Mr. Druce’s behalf, said the videotape may also provide evidence of his client’s state of mind after the killing.
Michelle McPhee, a Boston Herald reporter whose stories accompanied photographs made from the video, was subpoenaed by Mr. LaChance for a scheduled hearing yesterday before Judge Timothy S. Hillman. Mr. LaChance said he intended to question Ms. McPhee about the source of the video and any information she might have been given about how and when it was made. He said he already had been told by Ms. McPhee that she no longer had the video and had returned it to its unidentified source.
Jeffrey P. Hermes, a lawyer for the Herald, presented Judge Hillman with a motion to quash the subpoena.
The subpoena and motion to quash became moot, however, when Judge Hillman allowed a request by Assistant District Attorney Lawrence J. Murphy to postpone the hearing. In his written motion seeking postponement, Mr. Murphy said the office of District Attorney John J. Conte was “investigating and interviewing witnesses regarding the videotape.”
Mr. LaChance said he did not object to the hearing being put off until after the investigation was completed.
At the time of the killing, Mr. Druce was serving a life sentence at the maximum-security prison on the Lancaster-Shirley line for the 1988 murder of a man he believed was gay. Mr. Geoghan was serving a sentence of 9 to 10 years for sexually assaulting a 10-year-old boy.
Mr. Druce allegedly confessed to the slaying, telling investigators he killed the 68-year-old defrocked priest “to save the children.”
A hearing on a motion to suppress Mr. Druce’s statement to police is scheduled to begin today. Mr. LaChance maintains the statement should be excluded from evidence because Mr. Druce was “in pain, suffering from a major mental illness and in a manic state” at the time of the police interrogation.