WORCESTER (MA)
The Ledger
By DENISE LAVOIE
Associated Press Writer
WORCESTER, Mass.
Jurors saw dramatic video Thursday of prison guards frantically trying to open the cell door of John Geoghan, then dragging another inmate out after he strangled the child-molesting former priest.
As the murder trial of Joseph Druce continued for a second day, the images - some in real time, others in time-lapse photography - conveyed the guards' desperate attempts to open the door after they realized Druce was inside.
Several guards are seen pulling on the door, which Druce had jammed shut with a book and nail clippers. After the guards retrieve tools to open it, Druce is seen being dragged from the cell. The crime itself is not visible on the tape.
Druce was in Geoghan's cell about four minutes before the guards discovered him there, officials estimate. It was then another nine minutes before the guards got him out.