Geoghan suspect says guard allowed him to kill priest
WORCESTER -- The man charged with killing pedophile John Geoghan accused a correction officer at the maximum-security prison in Shirley yesterday of turning his back on a plot that he knew would result in the former priest's murder.
''Lonergan let me in there to kill . . . I mean, castrate him," an agitated Joseph Druce said of David Lonergan as he was led out of Worcester Superior Court yesterday.
Earlier during the pretrial hearing, Druce said, ''I was allowed to go into John Geoghan's cell" while a correction officer knowingly turned his back and went into his office. He later added: ''A corrections officer let me kill John Geoghan. . ."
Druce, who had been imprisoned for killing a man in 1988, is charged with the murder of Geoghan, who was strangled in his cell at the Souza-Baranowski Correction Center in Shirley in August of 2003. A law enforcement source with knowledge of the investigation said yesterday after the hearing that Druce has confessed to killing Geoghan. Druce himself has said publicly at a previous court hearing that he ''did it for the children."
At yesterday's hearing, Druce also accused Department of Correction officials of covering up for Lonergan.
''This isn't about correction officers, it's about the administration of the DOC," said Druce, who yesterday filed his own motion for a protective order against the department. ''My sanity is about to break. They're either going to kill me or I'm going to go nuts, but before that, so help me God, this court will know the whole story."
Druce's mother, Donna Gauthier, said her son is afraid that correction officials will kill him.
''He feels like if he doesn't make the facts known now, he will never get the chance to do that because they've been trying to kill him," she said.
Kelly Nantel, spokeswoman for the department, declined to comment on Druce's allegations. She said Lonergan, who was put on leave during an internal investigation following the murder, was still working as a guard at Souza-Baranowski.
A report released after an investigation into the murder by an independent, governor-appointed panel revealed that Lonergan was the only guard on duty in Druce's area at the time of the killing. He was in a back room fixing his lunch when an inmate working in the area noticed ''a head bobbing" inside Geoghan's cell, according to the report.
Druce's attorney said his client's frequent public rantings illustrate why he is mounting an insanity defense.
''This defense is one of a lack of criminal responsibility due to his mental state," said John LaChance, adding that his client is ''manic and has a very explosive personality."
''His in-court behavior is reflective of his mental state," LaChance said.
Prosecutors have charged Druce with first-degree murder and have said he carefully plotted to kill Geoghan, who was serving a nine- to 10-year sentence for molesting a 10-year-old boy.
The hearing on a motion to dismiss the charges against Druce was continued until next Thursday. Defense attorneys are trying to get a copy of a videotape that correction officials say was ''pirated" from their system and given to a reporter for the Boston Herald, which published photos from it earlier this week.
LaChance said he plans to subpoena the reporter who wrote the story. Worcester Superior Court Judge Timothy Hillman cautioned LaChance against ''assigning it value that it doesn't deserve." 