Patrick apologizes for disclosure missteps

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Deval L. Patrick yesterday apologized for not fully disclosing the extent of his advocacy on behalf of convicted rapist Benjamin LaGuer, as he struggled to move past the biggest controversy of his campaign.

``I apologize to anyone who feels we didn't come forward with all the facts," Patrick said at a campaign event in Worcester.

Patrick told reporters he should have researched his involvement in the case before offering statements over the past week that minimized his role. ``We screwed up in terms of how we have handled doing the homework before we answered questions about this issue, no question about that," he said. ``And I take the responsibility for that."

He provided no new details about his involvement in the case. Patrick said that he was not trying to mislead the public about his ties to the man convicted of raping a 59-year-old neighbor for eight hours in 1983, but that he simply did not remember that he had written two letters to the Parole Board seeking his release or that he donated money to help pay for DNA testing of LaGuer in 2001.

Patrick spoke to reporters after the Globe disclosed that he had contributed to the DNA test. Yesterday, asked to explain why he is unable to verify the donation, Patrick said he does not keep canceled checks that are more than three years old and said he donated more than $100,000 to a variety of causes in 2001. LaGuer said Patrick donated $5,000 toward the DNA test.

``In 2001, we were a blessed family, and we were able to make contributions in excess of $100,000 and, frankly, I couldn't tell you, in detail, what any one of them was," Patrick said, adding later, ``I appreciate that people are very skeptical about that, but I have a lot of stuff on my plate."

He also said it wasn't until reporters asked about the case last week that he learned the results of the DNA tests, which four years ago linked LaGuer to the crime. Patrick said he concluded ``justice has been served" last week and backed off his support of LaGuer.

Last week, Patrick told reporters he had written one letter to the Parole Board ``maybe 15 years ago." He also said at the time that was his ``sole involvement" in the case. On the same day, he issued a statement saying he had written a letter 10 years ago.

The Globe has since reported that he wrote two letters to the Parole Board in 1998 and 2000, wrote two notes to LaGuer, and contributed money for the DNA test.

Although Patrick initially told the Globe Wednesday that he had ``absolutely no memory" of making the donation to LaGuer, he later conceded he must have made one, given a thank-you note addressed to him.

That thank-you note, he said, was turned over yesterday by a well-known Boston minister who had been in contact with LaGuer. That minister, according to Patrick campaign aides, was Minister Don Muhammed of the Nation of Islam.

But even yesterday Patrick at first said he was unsure whether he would write to the Parole Board again on LaGuer's behalf, knowing the results of the DNA test.

``If the question is would I have gotten involved knowing that DNA testing had been done -- I will tell you I think that's hard, because the question of parole is a broader question than guilt or innocence," he said. ``That question is about whether time has been served and the readiness for release."

Asked again whether he would recommend LaGuer for parole, he answered: ``No is the answer because I'm running for governor, and now everything is overly scrutinized."

Patrick, who accused his opponent, Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey, of trying to distract voters by wrongly suggesting he is soft on crime, said he called the family of LaGuer's victim yesterday to apologize. ``I called them and told them how sorry I was that this issue had become a campaign issue."

Robert J. Barry, the son-in-law of the woman bound, gagged, and raped by LaGuer, told the Globe on Wednesday that his family was upset to learn that Patrick had gone to bat for LaGuer without ``doing his homework.

``There have been more people duped by Mr. LaGuer than I could have imagined, " he said. ``Obviously it's continuing to happen, even with Mr. Patrick. It was one of the strongest sentences [the judge] has ever given from the bench. It was because of his brutal attack on my mother-in- law. My mother-in-law never had a doubt as to who that was."

Yesterday Healey questioned Patrick's honesty for acknowledging donating to LaGuer's defense fund after days of downplaying his involvement.

``We aren't getting a straight line," Healey told reporters before addressing students at a Wilmington middle school. ``I think it's important, because honesty is always important in government." She then added, ``Did he not remember he donated money to help exonerate this violent rapist?"

Meantime, some Democrats worried that Patrick suffered some political damage from the episode.

``People like outsiders, and that's good; Deval brings that," said US Representative Michael E . Capuano. ``That brings a freshness, a new approach, no ties to anybody. That's a good thing. At the same time, it brings maybe a little bit of a less-smooth reaction to a difficult situation."

Two Democratic analysts said Patrick helped himself by apologizing publicly yesterday.

``It was a misstep, but apologizing goes a long way toward resolving the problem," said former Boston city councilor Michael McCormack. ``That should be the end of it."

Democratic strategist Mary Anne Marsh said Patrick made an error in judgment by standing up for LaGuer, but ``he wasn't alone in making it."

``The question now is -- is it a pattern," she said. ``The way Deval Patrick puts this to rest is to do what he started to do today. Rule number one -- never answer a question you don't have an answer for, and two -- apologize, which he did."

Former governor Michael S. Dukakis said Patrick was handling the situation well.

``You have to deal with this kind of stuff quickly, which I think he is doing, and then you've got to make sure that you and the other candidates are talking about the real issues," Dukakis said. ``He's got a terrific field operation out there. I think what will happen here is that folks out there walking the streets and knocking on doors will be energized even more."

A 7News/Suffolk University poll taken Tuesday through Thursday said Patrick was leading Kerry Healey 49 to 28 percent.

Meanwhile, campaign finance records yesterday showed that Healey contributed another $3 million of her own money to her campaign on Sept. 18. She has now donated a total of $7.2 million to her campaign.

Healey also appeared yesterday at a news conference with the prosecutor in a Florida murder case in which Patrick argued a sentencing appeal in the mid-1980s. Tom Hogan, a Republican who said the Healey campaign had contacted him and flew him to Boston, also read a letter from the daughter of Ronald Smith, who was not yet 2 when Carl Ray Songer killed her father, Trooper Ronald Smith.

She wrote that she remembered, as a teenager in 1985, ``being in that courtroom and watching Deval Patrick defend my father's killer."

Healey made the case the subject of a campaign ad that began airing this week.

Patrick said of Healey's ad, ``I don't apologize for the work I've done, and I will not have it trivialized or minimized by someone who has never been inside a courtroom."

Lisa Wangsness of the Globe staff contributed to this report. Andrea Estes can be reached at estes@globe.com.