Has this Diocese fought the opening of the records? Is this Diocese among those which have sought to hide from their responsibilities by seeking bankruptcy protection?
Posted on 07/27/2004 10:29:07 AM PDT by JesseHousman
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (AP) -- The state's highest court on Tuesday lifted an order that has sealed the investigative files in the unsolved 1972 murder of a 13-year-old altar boy.
The Supreme Judicial Court said a lower court judge was right to order the unsealing of the records from a state police investigation into the death of Danny Croteau. Defrocked pedophile priest Richard Lavigne was the only publicly identified suspect in the boy's slaying, but he was never charged.
"The public's right of access to judicial records, including transcripts, evidence, memoranda, and court orders, may be restricted, but only on a showing of good cause," the justices wrote in their decision. "Good cause sufficient to justify further impoundment no longer exists."
It was not immediately clear when the documents would be unsealed.
Croteau's bludgeoned body was found on the banks of the Chicopee River on April 15, 1972. Lavigne did not emerge as a suspect until the 1990s, after he pleaded guilty to molesting two other children.
Documents in the case were impounded in 1996 after Hampden District Attorney William M. Bennett closed the case when blood tests failed to conclusively link Lavigne to the crime. The records include a 1993 search warrant that authorized taking a sample of Lavigne's blood to test against blood found along the river bank where Croteau's body was found.
The case was reopened last year when Bennett said he was pursuing more sophisticated DNA testing. Because the case is active, he said, information about it should remain under wraps.
In October, Hampden Superior Court Judge Peter A. Velis lifted the impoundment order on some of the investigation documents, but other records remained sealed pending the appeal.
Bennett said Tuesday that he was still reading Tuesday's ruling and had no immediate comment.
The Republican newspaper of Springfield and an attorney for more than 20 people claiming they were abused by Lavigne argued that the files should be made public.
"We are delighted that the justices are unsealing documents in this tragic unsolved case," said Managing Editor Marie Grady. "We have been fighting in the courts for release of this information for almost a decade beginning with the lower courts."
Lavigne's lawyer, Max Stern, did not immediately return a call seeking comment. Lavigne, who served 10 years on probation after his guilty plea in the case involving two other boys, lives in Chicopee and does not have a listed telephone number.
John Stobierski, lawyer for Lavigne's alleged victims, also did not immediately return a call.
The problem with perverted priests could be resolved so easily if the Church would just fire all homosexuals.
That Lavigne has a special place reserved in hell.
You will not solve the problem even then. Want it all to stop, fire all sinners.
ping
Has this Diocese fought the opening of the records? Is this Diocese among those which have sought to hide from their responsibilities by seeking bankruptcy protection?
We need to send these pedophile priests to the BIG house with the rest of the BIG guys. I bet those priests would really like that.
The article says he was "defrocked".
Homosexuals, it has been proven, are easily incited to commit murder and have, in fact, committed 90 % of the serial killings of history.
I wish reporters would learn that there's no such term as "defrocked" in the Catholic Church. The correct term is "laicized."
I know. Consider the source ... I'm also a 'gun nut'. You should see how they butcher firearms terminology.
I'm convinced that the average reporter flunked Fifth Grade, and never really progressed beyond that level; just got "socially promoted".
Maybe our organization can help in some way. Let me know!
When I saw your response I wondered if my mind had completely slipped. I would hope we could lend some help. This article was posted in July.
My help is simply this....Whatever I can do to stir up the pot is what I would like to do, however, point in the direction that would be able to assit you in any way that I can.
Mike
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