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American Morning

Accused Killer of Defrocked Priest May Seek Insanity Defense

Aired August 29, 2003 - 07:07   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Now to the latest in the death of John Geoghan. The attorney for the inmate accused of killing the defrocked priest said he will seek a psychiatric evaluation of his client. Joseph Druce, already serving a life sentence, confessed to strangling Geoghan last weekend. Geoghan was serving a 9 to 10-year sentence in Massachusetts for molesting a boy a decade earlier.
So, will Druce's attorney pursue an insanity defense for his client?

Druce's lawyer, John LaChance, joins us this morning from Orchard Beach, Maine.

Good morning. Nice to see you, and thanks for joining us.

JOHN LACHANCE, ATTORNEY FOR JOSEPH DRUCE: Good morning. Nice to be here.

O'BRIEN: Thank you very much. This was your first meeting. I know it was not in private, so you were a little bit restricted in what you talked about. But what did he say to you?

LACHANCE: Well, essentially, I introduced myself to him and gave him something of my background. It's a little bit difficult to gain confidence in an attorney that you don't know and have never met before.

We discussed some preliminary issues, including, you know, some of the information that was -- has been circulated in the press about him. And in addition to that, we outlined what possible strategies that we might use in conducting the investigation. And I got some information from him about his background, so that we could conduct a full and complete investigation to determine whether or not a psychiatric defense or some other defense might exist in this case.

O'BRIEN: Some of the information, in fact, that is circulating in the press he is very unhappy about. And there were some things he wanted to make very clear. Like what?

LACHANCE: Well, for example, the press has described him, as have the D.A.'s office and some of the other people who have been speaking about him, as a homophobic individual. He wanted to assure me that he was not homophobic, that he did have a sincere disgust for pedophiles, for what they had done to young children, and for the scars that that pedophilia, those acts on 8, 9 and 10-year-old boys and girls leave on those individuals for the rest of their lives.

O'BRIEN: Did you have the opportunity to ask him...

LACHANCE: So...

O'BRIEN: And forgive me if I'm cutting you off there. But did you have the chance to ask him about the involvement of any other prisoners?

LACHANCE: Pardon me?

O'BRIEN: Did you have the chance to ask him about the involvement of any other prisoners in the murder of John Geoghan?

LACHANCE: No, not really. And the reason for that is we were talking through prison phones and through a glass panel. That's not a criticism of the institution. We saw him on relatively short notice, and that was the security facility that they had available for us to talk to him.

I assume we're going to be able to have, you know, a private room and face-to-face meetings between himself and me and my attorney. It was simply not appropriate over prison phones to talk about any of that, so I can't really comment.

I can tell you that, based upon the initial investigation that the police did and the district attorney's office did, that the Department of Corrections is conducting an investigation. And the governor has appointed at least a three-member commission, board or committee -- however you want to phrase it -- to investigate the entire situation, including why Father Geoghan was in a maximum security protective custody unit, and what might have happened that day with regard to the security that the protective custody inmates are supposed to have to ensure their safety.

O'BRIEN: I know that it has been said, and you said it, you might pursue a psychiatric defense there, saying that basically your client is insane. But that's been tried before and it failed when he was incarcerated -- excuse me -- 15 years earlier. Why do you think that strategy might work this time around?

LACHANCE: Well, I think the issue really comes down to the fact that all of the information concerning his background may not have come out at that time. That's the first reason.

The second reason is that since that time, he's been incarcerated and institutionalized over a 15-year period. During part of that time, he spent that in the DDU unit at Cedar Junction. That unit is a maximum, maximum security unit, in which prisoners are isolated. They have almost no privileges, and they have very little personal contact with other human beings.

You know, that being the case, the institutionalization and the -- that sensory deprivation kind of situation over a period of three and a half to four years can certainly exacerbate any mental problems that might exist, and might either create a mental health issue where it might otherwise not exist, or might simply create one.

O'BRIEN: John LaChance is the attorney for Joseph Druce. Thanks for joining us this morning. Appreciate it.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.





Defense>


Aired August 29, 2003 - 07:07   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Now to the latest in the death of John Geoghan. The attorney for the inmate accused of killing the defrocked priest said he will seek a psychiatric evaluation of his client. Joseph Druce, already serving a life sentence, confessed to strangling Geoghan last weekend. Geoghan was serving a 9 to 10-year sentence in Massachusetts for molesting a boy a decade earlier.
So, will Druce's attorney pursue an insanity defense for his client?

Druce's lawyer, John LaChance, joins us this morning from Orchard Beach, Maine.

Good morning. Nice to see you, and thanks for joining us.

JOHN LACHANCE, ATTORNEY FOR JOSEPH DRUCE: Good morning. Nice to be here.

O'BRIEN: Thank you very much. This was your first meeting. I know it was not in private, so you were a little bit restricted in what you talked about. But what did he say to you?

LACHANCE: Well, essentially, I introduced myself to him and gave him something of my background. It's a little bit difficult to gain confidence in an attorney that you don't know and have never met before.

We discussed some preliminary issues, including, you know, some of the information that was -- has been circulated in the press about him. And in addition to that, we outlined what possible strategies that we might use in conducting the investigation. And I got some information from him about his background, so that we could conduct a full and complete investigation to determine whether or not a psychiatric defense or some other defense might exist in this case.

O'BRIEN: Some of the information, in fact, that is circulating in the press he is very unhappy about. And there were some things he wanted to make very clear. Like what?

LACHANCE: Well, for example, the press has described him, as have the D.A.'s office and some of the other people who have been speaking about him, as a homophobic individual. He wanted to assure me that he was not homophobic, that he did have a sincere disgust for pedophiles, for what they had done to young children, and for the scars that that pedophilia, those acts on 8, 9 and 10-year-old boys and girls leave on those individuals for the rest of their lives.

O'BRIEN: Did you have the opportunity to ask him...

LACHANCE: So...

O'BRIEN: And forgive me if I'm cutting you off there. But did you have the chance to ask him about the involvement of any other prisoners?

LACHANCE: Pardon me?

O'BRIEN: Did you have the chance to ask him about the involvement of any other prisoners in the murder of John Geoghan?

LACHANCE: No, not really. And the reason for that is we were talking through prison phones and through a glass panel. That's not a criticism of the institution. We saw him on relatively short notice, and that was the security facility that they had available for us to talk to him.

I assume we're going to be able to have, you know, a private room and face-to-face meetings between himself and me and my attorney. It was simply not appropriate over prison phones to talk about any of that, so I can't really comment.

I can tell you that, based upon the initial investigation that the police did and the district attorney's office did, that the Department of Corrections is conducting an investigation. And the governor has appointed at least a three-member commission, board or committee -- however you want to phrase it -- to investigate the entire situation, including why Father Geoghan was in a maximum security protective custody unit, and what might have happened that day with regard to the security that the protective custody inmates are supposed to have to ensure their safety.

O'BRIEN: I know that it has been said, and you said it, you might pursue a psychiatric defense there, saying that basically your client is insane. But that's been tried before and it failed when he was incarcerated -- excuse me -- 15 years earlier. Why do you think that strategy might work this time around?

LACHANCE: Well, I think the issue really comes down to the fact that all of the information concerning his background may not have come out at that time. That's the first reason.

The second reason is that since that time, he's been incarcerated and institutionalized over a 15-year period. During part of that time, he spent that in the DDU unit at Cedar Junction. That unit is a maximum, maximum security unit, in which prisoners are isolated. They have almost no privileges, and they have very little personal contact with other human beings.

You know, that being the case, the institutionalization and the -- that sensory deprivation kind of situation over a period of three and a half to four years can certainly exacerbate any mental problems that might exist, and might either create a mental health issue where it might otherwise not exist, or might simply create one.

O'BRIEN: John LaChance is the attorney for Joseph Druce. Thanks for joining us this morning. Appreciate it.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.





Defense>