Boston Sexual Abuse Lawyer Blog

The Boston Globe reports that a Burlington woman has filed a civil lawsuit against her uncle, alleging that he raped her repeatedly as a child and subjected her to sexual abuse from 10 other men, before her family coerced her into signing an agreement absolving him from responsibility.

Rosanne Sliney, 48, filed a civil complaint in Middlesex Superior Court accusing Domenic A. Previte Jr., 70, of Waltham, of abuse and stating that he confessed to it years later in a signed letter to his niece. The Globe (and this blog) does not identify alleged victims of sexual abuse but the Globe used Sliney's name because she has chosen to go public with her allegations and she included her own name in the complaint.

"You were like a flower in springtime,'' Previte wrote in the letter, according to a copy included in Sliney's complaint. "I admired and respected you and loved you as my own daughter. . . . Somehow things got twisted. . . . I had confused my love for you with sex.''

The abuse at the hands of Previte occurred at locations including his home in Waltham, his car wash business in Cambridge, and a movie theater in Woburn, the complaint states.

Sliney contends the abuse began when she was 5 and lasted until she was about 14. Her family pressured her to sign an agreement in 1991 releasing Previte from any responsibility in exchange for a payment from him of $26,500, according to the complaint.

She alleges in the complaint that she did not understand the nature of the agreement that she signed in her late 20s, because of her damaged mental state after the abuse.

Though Sliney was told that Previte would take care of her for the rest of her life, the complaint states, her uncle has refused to pay thousands of dollars in medical bills related to mental health problems stemming from the abuse.

Sliney also asserts that she has begun during the last year to recall Previte forcing her to engage in sex acts with 10 other men, who are listed as codefendants in the lawsuit, but who are not identified by name.

The state corporations database lists Previte as the president of Previte Real Estate and Investments Inc. in Waltham, a business specializing in car wash purchases and sales.

Sexual assault charges have been leveled against the New Jersey man accused of repeatedly raping a missing Massachusetts girl who was found at his home in November.

Jorge Luis Garzon, 45, of Jersey City was charged with aggravated sexual assault, child endangerment and child abuse according to Hudson County Prosecutor Edward DeFazio, as quoted by NJ.com.

Garzon, a divorced father of two, was arrested after Jersey City police and the New York City Police Department's Missing Persons Squad arrived at parent's his Winfield Avenue home to look for the missing 13-year-old girl, according to The Jersey Journal.

The girl had been missing from Wayland, Mass. since Nov. 4, when she apparently boarded a Peter Pan bus in Boston. She was last seen on New York Port Authority security tape getting off the bus in New York City around 11 p.m. that night.
Her family said they believed she ran away due to boredom with life in the small town of just over 12,000 residents about 20 miles west of Boston.

The missing girl met Garzon over the Internet, according to a NJ.com source close to the investigation who was not authorized to discuss the case.

The investigation, headed by Sgt. Jamie Berger and Det. Ruth Backman of the Wayland Police Department, led the duo to travel to New York City after receiving a tip that the girl may have ran away to Brooklyn since her father once lived there.

According to published reports, the Hudson County Prosecutor's Office has not provided any details about how long the girl was in New Jersey or what led police to Garzon's home.

I thought this story from Bakersfield, CA was incredible. Great police and investigative work. Kudos.

A Pawtucket man has been arrested after a Massachusetts teen told her guidance counselor that he arranged for another man to repeatedly rape her when she was 11.

The Providence Journal reports that John Rainey, a relative of the alleged victim, was arrested and charged with three counts of conspiracy to commit child molestation.

The alleged assailant, Warren Prescott of North Attleboro, Mass., was ordered held without bail on charges including three counts of first-degree child molestation.

Pawtucket police say the alleged victim, now 17, told her counselor in May, and police obtained an arrest warrant for Rainey in August.

Police say that Rainey would tell the girl she had to come with him and bring her to Prescott.

The Boston Globe reports that a Dorchester man kidnapped a 15-year-old girl from an area street on May 7 and held her captive while forcing her to work as a prostitute in motels in Quincy, Danvers, and Dorchester.

The girl escaped last weel when the suspect left her alone at the Best Western Adams Inn in Quincy. She ran from the hotel room and went to the lobby, where she reached out to relatives through Facebook and pleaded for their help, Assistant Norfolk District Attorney Erin Murphy said in court.

Norman S. Barnes, 29, pleaded not guilty in Quincy District Court to charges of kidnapping and enticing a minor into prostitution.

Authorities said at least two relatives arrived at the motel at the same time Barnes returned there Thursday. A relative of the girl summoned a state trooper working a paid detail on the Neponset River Bridge reconstruction project. The trooper arrested Barnes and helped rescue the girl. Barnes also had $19,000 in cash on him.

The Globe reported that the burly Barnes appeared in court with his jacket pulled over his face and his hands cuffed in front of him.

The case illustrates why Massachusetts needs to enact legislation against human trafficking. Massachusetts is one of four states that do not have a specific law against sex slavery; prosecutors back a bill proposed by Attorney General Martha Coakley.

A Framingham High School student has been accused of raping a classmate on a school bus.

The 15-year-old boy was arrested last Thursday at the school and charged with rape of a child and indecent assault and battery on a child 14 or younger, according to Wicked Local.

The victim -- a 14-year-old girl -- was assaulted on the bus last Wednesday, police said.
Parents said they were concerned that they were not notified about the alleged assault.
The superintendent's office did not comment on the case.

A 54-year-old Massachusetts man was arrested after he traveled to Michigan to have sex with a 13-year-old girl whom he "married" in an online role-playing game, according to authorities, as reported by the NY Daily News.

John Phillips, of Fitchburg, faces a slew of charges, including sexual assault, child sexually abusive activity and accosting a child for immoral purposes, police said during a press conference earlier this week.

Phillips met the Detroit teen last year while playing the multiplayer RuneScape game. The two had a fictitious marriage in the game, said Wayne County Sheriff's Cpl. Ray Johnson.

"Maybe he thought that was legitimate in real life," Johnson told The Boston Globe. "It's not."

Police said the man drove from his home to meet his online bride in Detroit, where he had sex with her and gave her a cell phone so they could talk.

The teen's mother contacted police after catching the girl with the cell phone.

An investigation led to the discovery of at least three sexual encounters between the two over several months, one in a hotel, one in a van and one in the girl's home.

Wayne County Sheriff Benny Napoleon said Phillips was arrested in upstate New York, while visiting his father. Phillips had tried to disguise himself by dyeing his hair and growing his beard.

If convicted, Phillips will face four to 20 years behind bars.

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.

Plea negotiations have broken down for former Holyoke teacher Lisa M. Lavoie, who is accused of running off with a 15-year-old student, scuttling a change of plea hearing scheduled for this week, according to the Springfield Republican.

Lavoie, 25, of Ludlow, was scheduled to plead guilty in Hampden Superior Court before Judge Cornelius J. Moriarty to some charges related to her multi-state flight with an eight-grader at the Maurice A. Donahue Elementary School in 2009.

Assistant District Attorney Patrick S. Sabbs told the judge that sentencing discussions between Lavoie's lawyer and his office broke off during the weekend, leaving the outcome of the case uncertain.

"I think we will be able to work something out by the end of the year," Sabbs said, referring to the end of William M. Bennett's tenure as district attorney.

Lavoie's lawyer, David P. Hoose, of Northampton, who was awaiting a jury verdict in a federal court case, could not be reached for comment. At Saab's request, Moriarty set a January 20 trial date in case no plea deal could be arranged.

The former teacher at the Maurice A. Donahue Elementary School has been free on $25,000 cash bail since pleading innocent in March 2009 to six counts of statutory rape and one of enticement of a child under the age of 16 in a case involving a then-eighth-grader.

Investigators said a relationship developed between Lavoie and her student in fall 2008, and the two began texting and e-mailing before having sex.

In February 2009, the pair fled Western Massachusetts after learning their relationship had been discovered. They were found a week later in a motel room in Morgantown, W.Va.

Prosecutors have said that Lavoie and the teen drove through Vermont, New Hampshire, Delaware, New York and Pennsylvania as authorities pursued them.

The six statutory rape counts include three of aggravated statutory rape, a charge established under a bill known as "Jessica's Law" that was signed into law a year ago, prosecutors have said. Those charges carry a 10-year mandatory minimum prison sentence.

The aggravated rape charges were issued because, as a teacher, Lavoie was a so-called mandatory reporter responsible for reporting any suspected physical or sexual abuse of her students. The teen was placed in foster care after his return to Massachusetts, officials said in previous court proceedings.

Interesting piece in the Springfield paper about statutory rape as it related to the tragic Phoebe Prince suicide case. Should prosecutors be going after teenagers who have sex with other teenagers, even a year younger, or is the law intended to target the situations where there is more of an age discrepancy?