Boston Sexual Abuse Lawyer Blog

A Massachusetts grand jury has indicted a convicted murderer in the beating death of another inmate who was nearing the end of his sentence on a sexual abuse conviction.

Christopher Fletcher was indicted last week by a Norfolk County grand jury in the Dec. 12 death of Richard Silva at the state prison in Norfolk. The 64-year-old Silva was convicted in 2003 of indecent assault and battery on a child under 14. He was scheduled to be released in March.

The 50-year-old Fletcher is currently serving a life sentence for the 1995 rape and murder of Elizabeth Salsbury of Lunenburg. Last month, Fletcher was indicted in the 1986 killing of Peggy Sue Calvillo, a mother of two from Sterling.

A grand jury did not find enough evidence to indict Kevin Treseler of Millis, the 21-year-old Stonehill College student who - according to what an 8 year old girl told police - had put his hands down her pants while he was working as a tutor in a classroom at her Brockton elementary school.

When the grand jury declined to indict Treseler, prosecutors moved immediately this week to dismiss all charges against him, as reported by the Milford Daily News.

"We will make sure this young victim has access to the services she needs," said Bridget Norton Middleton, a spokesman for Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy J. Cruz. "But without further information, the investigation is closed."

Given the medical evidence of injuries to the girl's body, it is clear the child was abused, but it's not clear by whom, said Jetta Bernier, executive director of the Massachusetts Citizens for Children, a children's advocacy organization.

"Children very rarely lie about sexual abuse," said Bernier. "On the other hand, you can imagine a scenario of a child who has, in fact, been raped, but not by this person."

Treseler's lawyer, Michael P. Doolin, told the media the district attorney's move not to prosecute his client was welcomed by Treseler and his family.

"He's a beautiful kid, he really is, and I'm happy for him and his family," said Doolin.

Hampshire Superior Court Judge Bertha Josephson has issued an arrest warrant for founder of the famed Riverside (NY) Church basketball program, who failed to appear last week for his arraignment in a Massachusetts court on sex abuse charges. The man's lawyer, Frederick Cohn, said the two-count indictment handed down earlier in October is flawed and that he will fight extradition for Ernest Lorch because the two-page indictment is too vague - it says the assault took place between March 1977 and April 1978.

Lorch was scheduled to enter a plea on charges of indecent assault and battery and attempted rape in Hampshire Superior Court in Northampton on Tuesday. When he failed to appear in court, the arrest warrant issued, according to the NY Daily News.

Cohn told the News that the Northwestern District Attorney's office is "linking itself" to a shakedown of his client, who is in his late 70s and in failing health. "I've got a guy who is old and sick and in a wheelchair, and they want to drag him up to Massachusetts to face a guy who has been trying to extort him for years," Cohn said. "It's all about money," he added.

Lorch filed a lawsuit in state court in White Plains last year that accuses the alleged victim and other men of threatening to go public with sex abuse claims unless the basketball powerbroker paid them off.

Cohn said Lorch used a paddle to discipline the teenager during the Massachusetts trip, which resulted in the assault and battery allegation more than 30 years later.

"I don't see it as sexual assault," Cohn said. "I see it as bad judgment."

Jane Mulqueen, the chief of the child abuse division of the Northwestern DA's office, did not return Daily News calls for comment.

The maximum penalty for each count is five years.

Although the indictment marks the first time Lorch has faced criminal charges, several alleged victims have accused the attorney, who was a deacon at Riverside Church for many years, of sexual abuse.

A renowned former New York City youth basketball coach has been indicted on charges he sexually assaulted a player during a team trip to Western Massachusetts between March 1977 and April 1978. Ernest Lorch was indicted by a grand jury Tuesday on charges of attempted rape and indecent assault and battery on a person 14 or over, according to comments made by Assistant Northwestern District Attorney Jane Mulqueen to the Associated Press.

Lorch, who is in his late 70s, is accused of abusing the player, then 17, during a trip to the University of Massachusetts Amherst for a basketball tournament, Mulqueen said. Lorch founded and coached the Riverside Church basketball program in Manhattan, whose alumni include dozens of National Basketball Association players.