Boston Sexual Abuse Lawyer Blog

Kudos to Boston lawyer Mitchell Garabedian, a fellow advocate for victims of child sexual abuse, for releasing more than 100 names of people in the church who have been accused of abuse. Cardinal Sean P. O'Malley announced in March 2009 his plans to make these names public. That has not occurred.

The Boston Archdiocese's excuse for this 22-month delay is that officials must "continue to evaluate the complexities of this initiative." However, other archdioceses across the country have managed to release their own lists.

A former Holyoke, Massachusetts school teacher who ran off with a male student and pleaded guilty to statutory rape charges was given probation yesterday by a judge who said he does not see her as a sexual predator.

Lisa Lavoie, a 25-year-old former teacher at Maurice Donahue Elementary School in Holyoke, was charged in 2009 after she and a 15-year-old boy were reported missing and found a week later in a motel in Morgantown, W.Va. She pleaded guilty last month to three counts of statutory rape and one count of enticement of a child under the age of 16.

Prosecutors asked Judge Cornelius Moriarty to sentence Lavoie to three to five years in state prison.

But Moriarty, saying he does not think Lavoie will reoffend, spared her jail time and sentenced her instead to five years of probation.

"There are those who perhaps will say this sentence is too lenient,'' Moriarty said, as reported by the Associated Press. "This too shall pass,'' he told Lavoie.

Hampden District Attorney Mark Mastroianni did not immediately return calls from the AP seeking comment on the sentence.

Moriarty said Lavoie's conduct was "seriously exacerbated by the fact that she was a teacher.''

He said that in most cases involving adults having sexual relations with children it is an adult male and the motivation is more likely to be sexual gratification.

"But I find this is not the case,'' he said. "In fact it's quite the contrary.''

Moriarty said he thinks Lavoie's "interest and concern for [the boy's] emotional well-being was what originally began this episode,'' which he said "was originally well-intended.''

He said it appears Lavoie's kindness toward the boy was what led to his sexual interest in her.

As part of her probation, the judge ordered her not to have any contact with the boy or his immediate family.

Prosecutors asked Moriarty to also order Lavoie to not have any unsupervised contact with children under 16.

The judge rejected that request, saying, "I don't find this young lady to be a sexual predator.''

The judge ordered Lavoie to complete an alcohol rehabilitation program.

Last month, Lavoie's bail was revoked after she violated a pre-sentence probation condition of no alcohol.

Her lawyer said Lavoie accepts responsibility and does not excuse what she did.

The Berkshire Eagle reports that Anthony Austin, 37, was sentenced last week to state prison after pleading guilty in Berkshire Superior Court to three counts of indecent assault and battery on a child under age 14. The admission came after lawyers for the prosecution and defense reached a plea agreement.

Austin received a 10- to 14-year sentence for three counts of the felony charge, according to Frederick A. Lantz, a spokesman for Berkshire District Attorney David F. Capeless.

Austin was convicted of similar crimes in Worcester Superior Court in 1999.

In Pittsfield, the boy's father praised Berkshire Superior Court Judge Daniel A. Ford for handing down the tough sentence, but thought it could have been even harsher.

Authorities said Austin came to know his young victim through an adult friend of the boy's family.

In the 1999 case in Worcester, Austin was convicted of crimes that included one count of rape and abuse of a child, one count of assaulting a child with intent to commit rape, and five counts of indecent assault and battery of a child less than age 14.

Austin was a Level 3 sex offender at the time of the Pittsfield assault, according to the Massachusetts Sex Offender Registry Board. A Level 3 designation is the most severe category, meaning Austin was at "high risk" of re-offending.

"We did get somebody dangerous off the streets," the boy's father said, referring to Austin as a "sexual predator."

A man convicted of sexually abusing a 6-year-old girl in Canandaigua, New York 15 years ago is facing new charges in Massachusetts after he allegedly failed to register as a sex offender there.

Michael J. Frediani, 38, was found guilty of first-degree sexual abuse, second-degree aggravated sexual abuse and endangering the welfare of a child in 1996 after fondling a girl in Canandaigua while visiting her family for Thanksgiving. He spent less than three years in prison after pleading guilty to the charges. Frediani was then listed as a Level 3 sex offender in New York.

Police in Springfield, Mass., charged Frediani Thursday with failing to register as a sex offender.

Frediani currently works as a manager of Holy Grounds Coffee House in Springfield. The cafe is the center of the Redemption Gate Mission Society, a Christian organization. The cafe is run by Scott Lively, an anti-gay activist and author of the book "Pink Swastika," which links homosexuality and Nazism.

Speaking to local media in Springfield, Lively said he didn't know Frediani was a sex offender.

Frediani moved to East Rochester in October of 2008, where he lived at 210 W. Hickory St. with his girlfriend. In July 2009 he moved to Holyoke, Mass., where he now resides.

According to Barb Montcrieff of the East Rochester Police Department, Frediani said he was moving out of state because he would be "less of a sex offender there."

East Rochester police said they notified the Massachusetts Division of Criminal Justice Services that Frediani was relocating to the area at that time.

The Patriot Ledger reports that the Boy Scouts leader and religious education teacher accused of sexually assaulting a child told investigators he is sorry if he did anything inappropriate, quoting a police report. Michael Cimmino, 54, of 400 Commercial St., Braintree, has pleaded innocent to assault with intent to rape a child, kidnapping and eight counts of indecent assault and battery on a child under age 14.

At a bail-review hearing in Norfolk Superior Court last week, Judge Janet Sanders reduced Cimmino's bail from $50,000 in cash to $15,000 in cash and lifted a bail restriction imposed at his Quincy District Court arraignment that he have no contact with his own three children.

During the hearing, Norfolk County Assistant District Attorney Erin Murphy said the allegations stem from "inappropriate touching" of the victim. "No intercourse is alleged," she said.

Authorities say the assaults took place while the male victim was at Cimmino's house for a New Year's sleepover.

Murphy said Cimmino told investigators that "he was drinking throughout the night."

Reading from a police report on the incident, Sanders said Cimmino allegedly rubbed the head and the shoulders of the victim. Cimmino told police officers he "does that to his own kids," Sanders read. "If he did touch someone inappropriately, he was sorry."

In arguing for bail reduction and removing the restriction against contact with his children, Cimmino's attorney said he has "significant ties to the community and no record" of criminal offenses. He has lived in Braintree for 21 years.

Cimmino has worked for the Boston Housing Authority for the past 11 years and is currently its assistant director of finance and accounting. He is a former assistant director of the Weymouth Housing Authority.

Cimmino's wife, Patricia, attended the hearing, he noted. He also said that prohibiting his client from having contact with his own children was "draconian."

Cimmino is also facing more charges involving a second child. He pleaded not guilty on Jan. 11 in Quincy District Court on an additional coiunt of indecent assault and battery on a person under the age of 14 and one count of open and gross lewdness.

The alleged incident occurred in 2009 involving a different alleged victim who has come forward and spoken to police and authorities, said David Traub, spokesman for Norfolk County District Attorney Michael Morrissey's office.

The next court date for both the old case and the new case is Jan. 31 for a probable cause hearing. Judge James McGovern set an additional $15,000 bail in the new case, bringing the current total to $30,000.

Continue reading "Bail Reduced For Braintree Assault Suspect" »

The Milford Daily News reports that a former priest at the Holy Angels Church in Upton is facing a lawsuit after he allegedly assaulted and abused a boy between 1979 and 1982.

The boy, who is now in his late 30s and lives in Worcester County, filed a complaint in Worcester Superior Court last week against Ronald Provost and the Diocese of Worcester. The complaint alleges that Provost sexually assaulted and abused the man in Provost's van in Worcester between 1979 and 1982, when the victim was 8 to 11 years old.

The Milford paper reports that Provost was assigned to Holy Angels from 1986 to 1988, according to BishopAccountability.org, a Massachusetts nonprofit organization that maintains a website containing a collection of public documents on abuse cases in the Catholic church.

In 1993, Provost was convicted in Worcester Superior Court of soliciting a child to pose in a state of sexual nudity, said Carmen L. Durso, a Boston lawyer representing the Worcester County victim.

During the investigation into that crime, Provost showed investigators more than 100 nude photographs of young boys, but the diocese did not attempt to determine the identities of the victims or to offer them treatment and support, Durso said.

A spokesman for the Diocese of Worcester did not return a call yesterday seeking comment.

The NY Daily News reports that an outgoing Massachusetts prosecutor has stated that New York officials are trying to protect accused sex abuser Ernest Lorch, founder of the famed Riverside Church basketball program.

An extradition hearing was postponed again Monday because New York state officials said Massachusetts authorities failed to send them all of the required paperwork.

But the prosecutor who brought the sex abuse case to a grand jury told the Daily News that New York officials were looking for an excuse to "protect" Lorch, who was indicted in October for allegedly molesting a 17-year-old basketball player during a trip to Amherst for a basketball tournament in the 1970s.

"New York is demanding things never demanded before for a governor's warrant," said Jane Mulqueen, the outgoing chief of the child abuse division of the Northwestern District Attorney's Office, to the Daily News. "Why they are trying to protect this guy, I don't know."

Mulqueen officially resigned from the DA's office on Dec. 31, but she said she was remaining on the job until Wednesday, when DA-elect David E. Sullivan assumes office. She said Lorch will continue to be prosecuted by the office, which serves Hampshire and Franklin counties in western Massachusetts.

Continue reading "Mass. DA Says NY Officials Trying to Protect Lorch" »

The Boston Globe reports that the YMCA of Greater Boston has begun screening all current and prospective members and guests against the state's registered sex offender list, banning access to those classified as Level 2 or Level 3 offenders -- those at moderate or high risk of reoffending.

The measure follows the recommendation of a statewide YMCA task force created to improve safety at the community centers after a former girls basketball coach at the Melrose YMCA, which is run independently of the Greater Boston organization, was arrested in early 2009 and pleaded guilty last summer to sexually assaulting girls at the club.