Mass. faces wrongful death lawsuit

Families of slain couple call officials negligent

Lawyers for the victims' families called Daniel T. Tavares Jr. ''a ticking time bomb.''

The families of a Washington state couple murdered by a convicted killer who had jumped bail in Massachusetts told the attorney general here that they are preparing a wrongful death lawsuit against the state and that their lawyers believe a jury might award their clients as much as $20 million.

Lawyers for the estates of Beverly and Brian Mauck have written Attorney General Martha Coakley that they intend to sue a host of Massachusetts public safety officials and the Worcester district attorney's office, contending that they were negligent in handling the release of Daniel T. Tavares Jr., 42, who shot the couple to death Nov. 17, 2007.

A judge had released him from prison four months earlier, even though Tavares, a mentally ill drug abuser who had completed a sentence of 17 to 20 years for killing his mother with a carving knife, faced new assault charges and a prosecutor had suggested he might flee.

"Tavares was a ticking time bomb, and it was only a matter of time before he killed again," two lawyers representing the families of the Graham, Wash., couple, said in a letter obtained by the Globe. "Massachusetts had a duty to protect the citizens of Washington from this incredibly severe danger."

Coakley confirmed that her office has received the letter but declined to comment.

The lawyers, John R. Connelly Jr. of Tacoma and John J. Greaney of Kent, said that they plan to sue the state Executive Office of Public Safety and Security, the Department of Correction, the State Police, and the Worcester district attorney's office but are willing to settle out of court. Jury awards in comparable cases, they said, have ranged from $16 million to $20 million.

"If [jurors] get the facts in this case, where the guy was out here for four months like he was and causing the deaths of these two kids, it isn't just puff to think that a jury might be substantial in their award," Greaney said in a phone interview yesterday.

Greaney declined to say where the families of the Maucks intend to file their suit. Under the law, the soonest they could file would be July, six months after they sent the letter. Efforts to reach the families were unsuccessful yesterday.

Andrew C. Meyer Jr., a veteran Boston lawyer who specializes in wrongful death and personal injury claims but who is not involved in the matter, said it was unlikely such a suit would get to a jury.

He said Massachusetts case law gives public safety officials wide latitude in the exercise of their duties and specifies they can only be held liable for behavior that "shocks the conscience or reaches the level of callous or reckless indifference." The mistakes in the Tavares case, said Meyer, do not appear to reach that level.

Superior Court Judge Kathe M. Tuttman waived bail and released Tavares from prison July 16, 2007, after he had finished his murder sentence, even though a Worcester prosecutor argued he should be held while awaiting trial on recently filed charges of assaults on guards.

Former Governor Mitt Romney, who had appointed Tuttman, assailed her as he ran for the Republican presidential nomination, but a Globe investigation a month after the murders said the episode revealed breakdowns throughout the Massachusetts criminal justice system.

The Globe found that the prosecutor never mentioned Tavares's egregious prison record, which included more than 100 serious disciplinary complaints.

Moreover, the judge freed Tavares even though he had been telling prison mental health counselors for two years that he planned to move to Washington state to be with a woman he met through an online dating service.

Once State Police learned he had flown to Washington, they sought permission to arrest him. But the Worcester district attorney's office waited six weeks to answer their request for an arrest warrant and then issued a warrant that applied only if Tavares returned to New England.

In addition, prison officials later acknowledged that a disciplinary committee had recommended holding Tavares for an additional two years, but a bureaucratic foul-up freed him early.

Tavares kicked in the front door of Brian Mauck, 30, and Beverly Mauck, 28, who were his neighbors, and shot them to death, according to prosecutors. In February 2008, he reached a plea deal with Washington state prosecutors in which he agreed to serve life in prison in order to avoid the death penalty.

Saltzman can be reached at jsaltzman@globe.com.