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| Report Calls Housing Ex-Priest With Dangerous Inmates an Error |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 02/04/2004 |
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Prison officers harassed pedophile John J. Geoghan and wrote trumped-up disciplinary reports that landed the former Roman Catholic priest in the dangerous-inmate unit where he was strangled and beaten by a fellow prisoner, a report released Tuesday found. Investigators said a series of "overzealous and unwarranted" reports by a handful of officers led to the frail, 68-year-old Geoghan being classified as one of the state's most dangerous prisoners and sent to the high-security unit at the Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center. The officers' disciplinary reports, the investigators' report said, "were more the result of personal animus against [Geoghan] than serious infractions that required formal findings." Public Safety Secretary Edward Flynn, who appointed the three investigators, said the report shows that "under no circumstances should John Geoghan have been in the special housing unit at Souza-Baranowski Corrections facility." The report cites specific failures at Souza-Baranowski that allowed Geoghan to be attacked, including insufficient staffing procedures at his unit. But much of the criticism focuses on his time at MCI-Concord, the medium-security prison where he was "unduly harassed and physically abused," the report said. Geoghan was killed by Joseph L. Druce last August as he and other inmates returned to their cells after lunch, authorities said. Druce, who is serving a life sentence for killing a gay man, has been charged with murder. Authorities say Druce followed Geoghan into his cell, then jammed the door shut with a book, and beat and strangled Geoghan. Geoghan was the priest at the center of the Boston Archdiocese's sex abuse scandal. At the time of his death, he was accused in civil lawsuits of molesting nearly 150 children over three decades and was serving a 9- to 10-year sentence for groping a 10-year-old boy. Geoghan's lawyers said they had frequently complained to corrections officials that officers were mistreating Geoghan by taunting him, filing bogus disciplinary reports against him, and even urinating and defecating on his bed. They said their complaints were ignored by prison officials. No evidence was uncovered that officers, despite allegations some had a grudge against Geoghan, set him up to be killed. The report found that Druce worked "alone and in secret," and that there was nothing to indicate anyone at the prison -- inmate or employee -- knew of his plans to harm Geoghan. |
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