Increased penalty sought for child endangerment
The one-year sentence in a house of correction given a man who did nothing to stop the repeated rape of a 9-year-old girl has prompted a state senator to draft a bill to increase the maximum penalty in such cases.
"This is outrageous, and someone has to do something," said Senator Bruce Tarr, Republican of Gloucester, reacting to the sentencing Monday of Patrick Doyle, 42, of Salem.
Doyle was sentenced after being convicted of child endangerment in connection with accusations that a Beverly woman, Mary Jean Armstrong , allowed two men to have sex with her daughter in exchange for cocaine. Doyle was accused of doing nothing to stop the assault taking place several feet away from him.
Superior Court Judge Leila Kern sentenced Doyle to five years of probation for child endangerment and 2 1/2 years for intimidating a witness, with all but one year suspended.
Kern remarked when sentencing Doyle that she was comparing Doyle's behavior -- engaging in sex with the girl's mother -- with the behavior of the other two men in meting out the sentence, according to a report in the Salem News.
Tarr, the ranking Republican on the Joint Committee on the Judiciary, said last night that he expected to file a bill Wednesday to make child endangerment a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison. Currently, child endangerment is a misdemeanor punishable by up to 2 1/2 years.
Child endangerment involves an act or omission of an act that puts a child in jeopardy of harm or actually harms a child, Tarr said.
"We have to send a strong message that a much longer sentence should be imposed when aggravating circumstances like these call for it," said Tarr, who said he expected to have broad bipartisan support for the measure.
Tarr said the Legislature enacted the child endangerment statute in 2002 in reaction to the clergy abuse scandal and that it was intended for circumstances in which officials of an agency or institution failed to act on knowledge of possible abuse.
"The case here is an unspeakable thing," he said.
The prosecution of Doyle was handled by the Middlesex district attorney's office because one of his relatives is a ranking prosecutor in the Essex district attorney's office.
A spokesman for the Middlesex district attorney said his office recommended a four-to-six-year term for Doyle, which exceeded the one-to-three-year term called for in the state sentencing guidelines.
"We went beyond the guidelines because of the aggravating circumstances and the vulnerability of the victim," said the spokesman, Corey Welford.
