AP News, January 15th, 2008
The father of a 13-year-old altar boy murdered 36 years ago hopes his son's killer will finally be brought to justice now that thousands of pages of case file records are to be released.
"We've been in the dark for years," said Carl Croteau, whose son, Danny, died from a blow to the head on April 15, 1972. "We hope this leads to something."
The documents are expected to be released next week, unless Hampden District Attorney William Bennett appeals the ruling. Superior Court Judge John A. Agostini last week ordered Bennett to release the files.
Carl Croteau said he has only seen about 20 pages of the records, but said he hopes the release will reinvigorate the investigation.
The family's former parish priest, Richard Lavigne, has long been considered a suspect in the death. Lavigne has not been charged and has denied any involvement.
One of the documents includes a statement from a witness who claims she saw the boy's parish priest the night Danny was killed, but was threatened by the then-bishop and district attorney not to come forward, according to Agostini.
"This statement alleges a grave abuse of authority by the district attorney in 1972, and raises concerns about law enforcement authorities' relationships with the diocese and their handling of evidence incriminating Lavigne," the judge wrote.
Lavigne's attorney, Patricia Garin, said the witness "is completely incredible." Garin said she claimed to have had visions of Lavigne "in a posthypnotic dream, and that's why her statement has not been given too much credit."
Garin said the case has already been thoroughly investigated. "It's been investigated for 36 years now. The evidence that's come forward completely establishes his innocence," she said.
The Croteaus and their attorney, John Stobierski, on Monday called for a federal investigation into the killing and how the district attorney's office handled the investigation in 1972.
Lavigne was considered a suspect in Croteau's killing from the beginning, but was not named publicly as a suspect until the 1990s. In 1992, Lavigne was convicted of molesting two altar boys, and served 10 years of probation. In 2004, he was removed from the priesthood by the Vatican.
Agostini's order came in a lawsuit filed by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield against its insurance carriers, which had refused to cover sex abuse claims.
The judge rejected arguments by the state police and district attorney's office, which said releasing the documents could jeopardize the investigation.
In a statement, the diocese said allegations that diocesan officials knew about clergy sexual abuse in 1972 have already been investigated by law enforcement and have not been substantiated.
