Posted on 08/27/2003 3:48:44 PM PDT by NYer
BOSTON -- On Wednesday, alleged clergy abuse victims expressed shock that Geoghan's criminal record will be erased because his case was under appeal when he died.
Newscenter 5's Jack Harper reported that Geoghan's alleged victims are shocked by the development.
"How dare the power of government try to sweep clean such a dirty slate, such a dirty slate of a child molester," said Marietta Dussourd.
Dussourd said Geoghan molested three of her sons and she is enraged by a state law which erases his conviction for molesting a 10-year-old boy. The conviction could be voided because Geoghan was killed while the appeal was pending.
"It was a shock to me that he was dead, but he lived the life of a criminal and he died as a criminal at the hands of a criminal. It was unknown to us when he would die, but it was in God's timing," said Dussourd.
Geoghan's accused killer, Joseph Druce, met with a new attorney, John Lachance on Wednesday. Lachance said his client killed Geoghan to avenge 150 children Geoghan allegedly abused.
On Wednesday, exhibits and information about Druce's previous trials and additional details of his troubled life we made public.
In 1988, Druce was convicted of killing 5-year-old George Rollo. The alleged motive was that Rollo was gay. At the time, Druce used his birth name, Darrien Smiledge.
There is a disturbing history of a young man who was sent to the Lakeside School for troubled children in Peabody, Mass., when Druce was 8-years-old. For years, clinicians charted a child of poor self-control, prone to angry outbursts, who was verbally and physically aggressive.
In 1980 a psychiatrist concluded, "I remain pessimistic about the possibility of usefulness for further therapy."
On Wednesday, attorney Mitchell Garabedien said Geoghan's death wouldn't affect pending trials but the impact on victims is profound.
"I'm sorry he died the way he did, but she was not free of guilt, he is a criminal who in the eyes of the world remains a criminal," said Dussourd.
Looked it up. Rollo was 51, not 5.
REALLY stupid mistake.
Do we know if he was abused as a child, or a homosexual himself, or whatever?
It seems like an obvious question, about which the media are suspiciously silent.
Apparently he had psychological issues from the age of 5 on. His previous murder was committed after his victim, Rollo, touched Druce's groin -- as Rollo was supposedly gay, I guess one would presume that he meant it as a sexual sort of thing, to which Druce took murderous exception.
One wonders if he was abused at age 5, or if he's just a standard-issue whackjob.
"It reinforces the notion that these guys always win," he said. "I worry that will make it harder for some victims report their abuse."
Those are the words of David Clohessy of SNAP regarding the death--the death--of John Geoghan. Apparently, because of some stupid technicality, Geoghan's conviction could be voided because he can't present for his appeal. The man was strangled and stomped to death in prison and Clohessy sees Geoghan as the "winner". Exhibit A in the "why unforgiveness is an eternal prison" display. Geoghan is a "winner" only in Clohessy's mind. But the mind can be a very effective prison until the bars are shattered by forgivenness and the abandonment of the demand for the Victimizer to be punished by unforgiveness. Geoghan will, paradoxically, continue to have power over every victim who imitates Clohessy's mindset. Poor souls.
Like I say, Christ's teachings on sex aren't the big scandal for most people. It's his teaching on mercy and forgiveness that really outrages us.
I'm afraid Christ said differently. "Forgive your enemies, not seven times, but seventy times seven."
I pray that Druce dies the same vicious way he killed Father Goeghan. I also pray that the so-called guards get it back for allowing Druce the Devil to savage that old man that way.
Ought we not say, Satan contiunes to have power? Geoghan was only his dupe.
I'm afraid Christ said differently. "Forgive your enemies, not seven times, but seventy times seven."
If they repent. The passage specifically ties repentence by a wrongdoer as a condition of beng forgiven, even up the the 70 x 7 times.
I planted one about 10 years ago and it hasn't grown very much.
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