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| Inmate accused in priest's killing seeks to have case dismissed |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 04/26/2005 |
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A lawyer for the man accused in the jailhouse slaying of pedophile priest John Geoghan said Monday that prison officials retaliated against his client by denying him access to his attorney. But an official at the maximum-security prison said Joseph Druce wasn't allowed a private visit with his lawyer because that's the prison's policy. Druce's attorney, John LaChance, wants Worcester Superior Court Judge Timothy Hillman to dismiss the murder charge against his client, who is already serving a life sentence for murdering another man. "There was retribution for the problems he caused the Department of Correction by his alleged actions of going into John Geoghan's cell and killing him," LaChance said during the first day of what's expected to be a three-day hearing on the motion to dismiss the murder charge. Geoghan was a key figure in the clergy sex abuse scandal that erupted in the Boston Archdiocese in early 2002. The 68-year-old defrocked priest was serving a 10-year sentence for molesting a 10-year-old boy when he was killed in his cell on Aug. 23, 2003. Thomas Dickhaut, deputy superintendent of operations at the Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center in Shirley, testified that no undue action was taken against Druce. Dickhaut acknowledged that morale was low among officials at the prison after Geoghan's death because of questions raised by the news media and politicians over security procedures at the prison. But the decision not to let Druce meet privately with LaChance was a matter of policy, not punishment, he said. Druce, who is expected to testify on Tuesday, says he's been harassed by prison officials who encouraged him to plead guilty to killing Geoghan so he would be transferred out of Souza-Baranowski. |
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