FRAMINGHAM (MA)
MetroWest Daily News
By Timother R. Homan/ Daily News Correspondent
Monday, February 6, 2006 - Updated: 12:43 AM EST
FRAMINGHAM -- Defending a client in a high-profile murder case can be challenging enough. Add in a distrustful, paranoid defendant who insists on taking copious notes during all facets of the case and that only complicates matters.
Framingham criminal defense attorney John LaChance had to deal with just that when he represented Joseph Druce, who plead insanity for the Aug. 23, 2003, first-degree murder of defrocked pedophile priest, and fellow prison inmate, John Geoghan, 68. Druce was found guilty Jan. 25.
Both men were inmates at the Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center in Shirley. Druce, 40, was serving a life sentence for the 1988 murder of a hitchhiker.
"Difficult clients are the ones that need a lawyer the most because it’s easy to ignore them and shove them off," LaChance said during an interview at his law office in Framingham.
Some of Druce’s habits, however, ensured neither he nor any aspect of his case would be overlooked. "He took notes at every conference that we had," said LaChance. "He was extremely obsessive."