By DENISE LAVOIE
Associated Press Writer
WORCESTER, Mass.- The man accused in the jailhouse killing of defrocked priest John Geoghan said Thursday that a correction officer allowed him into the pedophile’s cell so he could kill him, and that administrators are trying to cover it up.
“This ain’t about the correction officers,” Joseph Druce said at a pretrial hearing. “This is about the administration of the Department of Correction.”
He said top administrators helped cover up the agency’s role in Geoghan’s killing in his cell in August 2003 at a correctional center in Shirley.
Department of Correction spokeswoman Kelly Nantel declined to comment Thursday on Druce’s allegations.
After the hearing, Druce attorney John LaChance told reporters he does not have any evidence to support Druce’s claim that a correction officer allowed him in the cell for the purpose of killing Geoghan.
The defense plans to use an insanity defense for Druce.
Druce is seeking to have the murder charge dismissed, claiming he’s been harassed and denied access to his attorney by prison officials retaliating against him for exposing lax security.
Geoghan was serving a 9- to 10-year sentence for molesting a 10-year-old boy. He had also been accused of sexual abuse by more than 130 people in lawsuits filed against the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston. Druce was serving a life sentence for murder in a 1988 killing.
Investigators say Druce jammed shut the door of Geoghan’s cell so no one could enter, then beat and strangled the 68-year-old.
LaChance also asked at the hearing for a copy of a videotape described in a Boston Herald report this week that purportedly shows Druce re-enacting Geoghan’s killing. The defense maintains the tape was released by the Department of Correction to sabotage Druce’s chances for a fair trial.
State correction officials said they never had a copy of the tape and are investigating who made it.