Convicted rapist back in prison after violating medical parole

Convicted rapist Benjamin LaGuer, who was serving a life sentence before he was released last month because his lawyers said he was dying of liver cancer, is back in prison after violating the terms of his medical parole, officials said.

LaGuer, 56, was taken into custody Tuesday at a regional parole office in Lawrence, officials said.

“LaGuer was returned to custody today following violations of his conditions of release,” Jake Wark, a spokesman for the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security, said in a statement Tuesday. “These violations continued despite warnings and other graduated sanctions. Parole revocation proceedings will be scheduled in the weeks to come.”

Wark did not specify how LaGuer violated his parole, but his conditions of release included electronic monitoring, batterer’s counseling and a 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew, according to Massachusetts Parole Board records.

LaGuer was 20 years old when he was convicted in 1984 of raping his 59-year-old Leominster neighbor and sentenced to life in prison.

After his lawyer filed an emergency petition for release on Jan. 24, claiming that LaGuer had terminal liver cancer and only months to live, a Worcester Superior Court judge released him on medical parole last month, reversing Department of Correction Commissioner Carol A. Micci’s decision that he remained a threat to public safety.

“I do not believe that, at this time, he will live and remain at liberty without violating the law,” Micci wrote, “and I continue to believe that his release will be incompatible with the welfare of society.”

LaGuer has long maintained his innocence and turned down a two-year plea deal that would have allowed his early release if he admitted that he was guilty.

His incarceration attracted the attention of former governor Deval Patrick, who once donated to LaGuer’s cause but later walked back that support after the release of DNA evidence.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/39mxgKo