Posted on 02/26/2004 6:26:20 AM PST by A. Pole
He was 17 and she was 14, but her father went to court to keep the sweethearts apart.
Now the young man's mother says her jailed son is being punished too harshly for simply following his heart.
Kevin Bucchio, 18, has been in the Billerica House of Correction since July for violating restraining orders obtained by the parents of his girlfriend, Colleen Lambert, 15, who has compared their plight to Romeo and Juliet.
``Kevin's never been in trouble. He's not a kid who does drugs or alcohol. He just thinks he's in love,'' said his mother, Sandra Bucchio.
Michael Lambert of Pepperell, Colleen's father, acknowledges he and his wife obtained the restraining orders primarily because they thought Bucchio was too old for their daughter and that he was trying to have sex with her, not because he harmed her.
``What would you do? I'm going to defend my daughter,'' Lambert said. ``I did exactly what the (Pepperell) police told me to and exactly what the court told me to.''
But Bucchio's lawyer, who characterized the teens' relationship as ``puppy love'' gone too far, said the maximum three-year sentence his client received is unfair.
``This is a misuse of the system,'' said attorney Matthew Pingeton, who took on Bucchio's case after the youth already was in jail. ``(Colleen) loved him. She wanted to be with him. She never wanted him kept away.''
Bucchio was 17, and Lambert was two weeks shy of her 14th birthday when they first met at the movies at the Pheasant Lane Mall in Nashua, N.H., in July 2002. Lambert's parents initially liked Bucchio.
``He came over to our house a couple times. Seemed like a nice kid,'' Michael Lambert said. ``I asked him his age, and he said, `15.' I figured she's almost 14. You've got to let the reins go a little bit.''
Sandra Bucchio also thought highly of Colleen Lambert.
``I always thought she was 16. They basically would go to the mall or they would go and get something to eat,'' she said.
Then the teens exchanged baby pictures, and Lambert's parents noticed Bucchio's birth year was 1985.
``The kid was lying to my face,'' Michael Lambert said. ``From there, we realized he was up to no good.''
Lambert telephoned Sandra Bucchio and said he feared her son was trying to steal his daughter's innocence. He said he did not sense the same level of concern from Sandra Bucchio.
Lambert ordered his daughter to stop seeing Bucchio, but Sandra Bucchio said the girl continued to telephone her son at odd hours of the night. The girl's parents eventually forbade her from using their phone or computer e-mail, but the pair found ways to rendezvous outside their homes.
Michael Lambert charged that Bucchio snuck around his house at night and slept in the back yard several times.
On the advice from a friend on the Pepperell police force, Lambert and his wife, Paula, went to Ayer District Court on Aug. 8, 2002, on behalf of their daughter and obtained a restraining order against Bucchio. The order was extended to a year, and the parents returned to court numerous times because Bucchio violated the order repeatedly.
At the same time, Lambert sent poems and notes to Bucchio with passages such as, ``All I could think was that I don't have nothing if I don't have Kevin! You mean everything to me hunnie (sic) and we will get through this. We have to! Romeo + Juliet!''
In July 2003, Judge Paul McGill sentenced Bucchio to 75 days in the Billerica House of Correction for failure to comply with the order. Within hours of landing in jail, Bucchio violated the order again, arranging to leave a phone message for the girl. He told her he did not blame her for his incarceration and wished her a happy 15th birthday.
As a result, McGill imposed a maximum two-year sentence that had been suspended for an earlier violation and tacked on another six months for the jailhouse transgression.
Court spokeswoman Joan Kenney said McGill could not comment on the case while it is in the process of being appealed by Bucchio and his lawyers.
Paul Martinek, editor of the Lawyers Weekly publications, said he was disturbed by the case.
``Certainly, on the surface, it strikes me an oddly harsh punishment without any evidence that (Kevin) did this girl any harm or evidence that he even threatened her in the first place,'' Martinek said, adding that judges tend to err on the side of caution and grant restraining orders.
``Judges are terrified these days of not issuing restraining orders for fear that something tragic is going to happen, and they'll find themselves on the front page of the Herald,'' he said.
Middlesex District Attorney Martha Coakley, whose office handled the case, defended the sentence imposed by McGill, saying, ``A judge can't have a young man keep coming in front of him and essentially saying he's not going to obey the court's order.''
Meanwhile, Bucchio's mother constantly worries about her son's ability to cope behind bars.
``He's not street-smart. He's had a very rough time in there,'' she said, noting that another inmate beat him up. ``He's not a tough kid. I dread it every time I go up to visit him. Sometimes he makes the best of it; sometimes he's upset. I try to make him feel as good as I can.''
"watch when my beautiful face is on 20 20 and your still doin what again.... :) everyone is always hating on someone becasue there life sucks"
I can deal with poor typing skills. Poor usage skills drive me up a wall! It doesn't suprise me this is the sort of talent in college today.
well one thing i know for srue is that she doesn't love you anymore. as soon as you got hauled off to the slam i started calling on her. she's into some freaky-deaky stuff now a days. in fact, last sunday, for her birthday, she and i did our new favorite thing- we picked up a transvestite streetwalker, took her into the basement of an abandoned house in mantua, tied it up, smoked all its crack and beat the hell out of it. sshes a real savage these days! we're hoping we can rob her and chinese delivery guys enough to get her into dental assistanat school.
btw- she told me that likely the reason that no one thingks you belong in prison is because your'e such a terrible lover. all greedy. you never take care of anybody else. why dont' you learn to do that and your time in prison will be al ot happier.
Owl_Eagle
”Guns Before Butter.”
I believe he is in college as much as I believe my cats are learning ancient Greek while I am at work, but believe me I know what you mean!
Good luck with that, there. You will find more words put in your mouth than you ever thought possible.
In plain English that's 13 years old. This kid is lucky the dad put him in jail instead of pulling out a shotgun.
"But Bucchio's lawyer, who characterized the teens' relationship as ``puppy love'' gone too far, said the maximum three-year sentence his client received is unfair."
Yeah, you are right. He shouldn't be punished for repeatedly breaking the law and violating the restraining order on multiple occasions. /sarcasm
That the boy lied about his age in the first place to the girls' father shows that he was well aware that his attentions would not be deemed suitable. The father did not trust the boy once he discovered he had lied about his age. Seems like a reasonable reaction. How had the boy shown the father he was worthy of trust? He hadn't. In fact, he'd shown the opposite. Then the boy further proved the father correct in his assessment of the boy by continuing to deliberately circumvent the father's rules and then the court's orders. "Well sheeeeeeeee did it toooooooo..." is not a defense for the boy.
The father might just as well have deemed a 14 or 15 yr old unsuitable for any number of reasons. Maybe he hangs out in a bad crowd, cuts school, uses drugs, is sexually experienced, has a bad attitude, doesn't honor curfew rules...
The fact is, the father was well within his rights and the boy was not. The court was well within its rights to grant the restraining order and then impose the jail sentence.
If the father should have 'controlled his daughter' better, then so too should the boy's mother have controlled her son.
I'd like to see this boy's reaction when some 17-yr-old liar comes sniffing around his 13-yr-old daughter....
Age was not a factor? In a formal legal sense, maybe. But in a biological/hormonal - passionate sense it was. Human nature does not follow legal conventions.
I am obligated to ping you to #58.
You made my day with your response!
Bravo!
Do you see cats?
I meant that Romeo's and Juliet's age was NOT THE REASON for their parents' disapproved of the match.
The law in our home was our daughter was not allowed to socialize with ANY boys who were older than her. EVER!!! Not even on the phone. She gave us a lot of grief during her teen years, but now that she is graduating from college, she has nothing but praise for the way we protected her during those years. Statistically the girls who get in trouble are almost always involved with an older boy.
Like every other teenager, right?
It just makes you look stupid. All of you.
Thanks for the pings. My list is still a hostage on a sick computer. Hope to have it back tomorrow.
Fortunately y'all have been finding these critters without my help. :D
its my way of being individual on the net - Chef Dajuan
Like every other teenager, right?
It just makes you look stupid. All of you. - hellinahandcart
Owl_Eagle
”Guns Before Butter.”
LOL!!!!! 
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