In 1840, Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story dedicated his A Familiar Exposition of the Constitution of the United States to the “ingenious youth” of Massachusetts as a man who “gratefully acknowledges, that her territory is the land of his birth and the home of his choice.”Unfortunately,in recent times Massachusetts has found judges of Justice Story’s ilk in short supply.
Instead, Massachusetts, the land of Story’s birth and home of his choice, has been a breeding ground of judges who have taken a weak position on punishing sex offenders.This trend has led me to question my love for the land of my birth and the desirability of making it my home in the future.The land of the Pilgrim’s pride, the original shining city on a hill, and the home of the Sons of Liberty, the patriots who stood at Lexington Green and Bunker Hill, and the courageous men of the Massachusetts 54th Regiment,has become a cesspool of sex offenders and cowardly judges. This summer has done little to inspire hope for the future.
This summer the Massachusetts General Court passed An Act to further protect children, a watered down version of “Jessica’s Law,” a law which has been passed by 42 states in memory of Jessica Lunsford, a nine year-old girl who was abducted, raped, and murdered by a repeat sex offender in Florida. The legislation created mandatory minimum sentences for the rape of a child by force, the rape of a child without force,and the indecent assault of a child.
While this legislation was an improvement over the roll-of-the-dice sentencing that Massachusetts judges have been in the habit of dolling out, the bill fell far short of the justice that the child victims of sexual abuse deserve.
The need for reformed sentencing guidelines for child rapists was made clear by a number of notorious examples of leniency by Massachusetts judges in recent years. In 1989, Michael Bizanowicz drugged and raped an 11-year old boy and 13-year-old girl,but was sentenced to only two years in prison. After being released, Bizanowicz molested a 2-year-old girl in New Hampshire, but was only sentenced to probation. In 2004 Bizanowicz raped and murdered Joanne Presti and her 12-year-old daughter Alyssa by slashing her throat.
In addition,Judge Richard Moses released Corey Saunders,a convicted sex offender, after serving just four years for attempted child rape.After being released Saunders raped a 6-year-old boy in a library. Bristol County Sherriff Thomas Hodgson said of Judge Moses: “He’s had six sex offenders before him. And he’s let all six of them go. And that’s indefensible.” Furthermore, in 2001, Paul Leahy,who had previously been convicted and served 13 years for aggravated rape at knifepoint of a 21-year old, was sentenced to just six months for demanding oral sex from a 13-year-old girl. After being released Leahy murdered Alexandra zapp in a Burger King women’s room.
With those disgusting incidents in mind and a call from a concerned mother about a Level 3 sex offender living near a school bus stop,Representative Karyn Polito (R-Shrewsbury) authored legislation in 2006 to institute mandatory minimum sentences for child sex offenders. According to Polito, the legislation was needed to increase the sentence in Massachusetts for the rape of a child from an average of three to five years to a sentence of ten years. Unfortunately, the bill never received a hearing in the Democrat-controlled legislature.
While Speaker of the House Salvatore DiMasi and the Democrat leadership ignored the initiative in the 2006-2007 session, they could not ignore the problem indefinitely. Unfortunately, rather than support Polito’s version of Jessica’s Law, the Democrats created a new piece of legislation, An Act to further protect children, that was supported by Governor Deval Patrick, Attorney General Martha Coakley, and all eleven of Massachusetts’ District Attorneys.
In a letter to representatives, Attorney General Coakley said that An Act to further protect children, “provides prosecutors with
the tools they need to hold sex offenders accountable for their horrific actions, and thus ensures the safety of our children.” Attorney General Coakley described this bill as “the result of thoughtful analysis and vetting”and claimed that it “provides a sensible approach to dealing with an extremely difficult issue.”In addition, the Massachusetts District Attorneys Association said, in a letter crafted by Cape & Islands District Attorney Michael O’Keefe, that the bill was “in the best interests of children and public safety, in contrast to other proposals recently before you that would actually impede the work we do,” an obvious slight to those, like Representative Polito, who supported a stricter version of Jessica’s Law. The District Attorney’s said that this bill was “in the best interest of children and public safety”because the legislation would provide “prosecutors the flexibility we need in investigating, charging and trying these wrenching cases.” Furthermore, the District Attorneys characterized Jessica’s Law as a “sledgehammer” that would force prosecutors “into an all-or-nothing-at-all posture and escalates the already intolerable pressure on the child.”
However specious the logic of the MDAA or Attorney General Coakley was, there was no logic behind the attacks on stiffer penalties for child rapists by Democrat Representative James Fagan. Fagan may have been trying to argue against the bill on the grounds that mandatory minimums would not allow prosecutors to plead cases out,preventing child victims from having to take the stand in court,but it was hard to see any point from his disturbing rhetoric. Speaking on the House floor, Representative Fagan said that “the lady in Shrewsbury and the people of her ilk”would like to “do away with the right of confrontation” in criminal proceedings and that if he were defending a man accused of raping a child he would “rip them apart” and “make sure that the rest of their life is ruined.” Fagan said that he would make sure that “when they’re 8 years old, they throw up, when they’re 12 years old, they won’t sleep, when they’re 19 years old, they’ll have nightmares. And they’ll never have a relationship with anybody.”
To be generous,those canards were dishonest and distracting. As former prosecutor and Harvard Law visiting scholar Wendy Murphy pointed out in a discussion of the bill on New England Cable News, “the [sentencing] mandate does not prohibit plea bargains” and “it is a myth that you cannot deal, but it should be the exception and not the rule.” Murphy characterized the bill as an act that “gambles with children’s lives.” In addition, Sheriff Hobson also criticized the reluctance of the legislature, district attorneys, and attorney general to support expanding mandatory minimums because judges “don’t have to explain.They’re the only ones in public life that don’t have to explain their decisions that affect the public.”
Whatever this bill will do in the future to keep sexual predators behind bars and children safe, one event this summer made clear that the attitude of Massachusetts’ officials towards the sexual abuse of children has not changed. On June 1, at a Market Basket grocery store in Raynham, Massachusetts, a 71-year-old Guatemalan janitor, Valerio Rodriguez, reached under a bathroom stall and molested a four year old boy. Upon seeing what was happening, the boy’s father, Jason Beatrice, flung open the door and punched Rodriguez, leaving him with a busted lip and a bruise on his forehead. However, when the police arrived, both men were charged, Rodriguez with indecent assault and Beatrice with assault, but neither man was placed under arrest. Raynham police Chief Louis J. Pacheco defended the decision not to arrest Rodriguez by pointing to his age and claiming, “The reason you would [make an arrest] would be to stop the crime or you don’t think the person would show up in court.”But, when his arraignment date arrived, Rodriguez did not appear and Bristol County District Attorney’s office stated that it was their belief that he had fled to Guatemala, another sexual predator slipping through the cracks.
However, the greatest travesty of the situation was not just what happened, or that Beatrice was arrested, or that Rodriguez escaped justice,but rather the attitude of Attorney General Coakley towards the situation. During her regular radio appearance on “Generally Speaking”with Jim and Margery on WTKK, Coakley described the situation as “fairly minor touching” and the father’s response as “an overreaction.” Rather than confronting Rodriguez, Coakley suggested that Beatrice should have dealt “with this kid in a way that lets him get past it and move on.” Coakley made an especial point of stating that “we really try and discourage people from self-help.” Coakley’s response of characterizing sexual molestation as “fairly minor touching” and recommending that the 4-year-old “get past it and move on”was eerily similar to the recommendations of Massachusetts Judge Earnest Murphy a few years ago who said that a 14-year-old rape victim couldn’t “go through life as a victim. She’s [fourteen]. She got raped. Tell her to get over it.” While Massachusetts may have passed An Act to further protect children, it is clear that the Bay State remains a rapist-friendly Commonwealth from the bench,to the legislature, and to the Attorney General’s office.
Fortunately, it is not too late. Representative Polito and Republican Senators like Scott Brown (R-Wrentham) continue to push for Jessica’s Law in Massachusetts,in order to impose stricter mandatory minimums for the sexual abusers of children. Perhaps the Massachusetts Democrat Party would benefit from the advice of Mark Lunsford who,during his visit to the Bay State this summer,implored state leaders:“Don’t politic our kids anymore.Don’t debate their safety.”
