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Geoghan's Death Could Void Conviction

Geoghan Died While Appeal Pending

POSTED: 3:50 pm EDT August 27, 2003
UPDATED: 8:26 pm EDT August 27, 2003

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.

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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 51-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.


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