DNA test confirms rape conviction

Posted 8:26AM on Thursday 16th May 2002 ( 23 years ago )

BOSTON - For years, inmate No. W40280 told reporters and supporters that time, not guilt, was his only obstacle to freedom. Years of lobbying earned Benjamin LaGuer an A-list of supporters, including former Boston University Chancellor John Silber, historian Elie Wiesel and MIT professor Noam Chomsky. But long-anticipated testing of the same DNA samples that LaGuer said would prove his innocence instead linked him more closely to the rape for which he is spending his life behind bars. The results shocked many supporters who'd been convinced of his innocence by his magnetic personality and unflagging persistence. One of the aspects of LaGuer's case that has stumped some supporters is why he would argue so adamantly for tests that ultimately would tie him even tighter to the crime for which he was convicted. ``What you think is, 'Why in the world were you pursuing evidence that was going to damn you?''' asked Allen Fletcher, now editor and publisher of Worcester magazine, who wrote about the case when he reported for the Telegram & Gazette of Worcester. Fletcher said he was captivated by LaGuer's wit, humor and persistence. He became so convinced the evidence would clear LaGuer, he gave funds for tests and mailings. Instead, the results left him ``aghast.'' ``Obviously, it's pretty damning,'' he said. ``But I still like the guy, and I will continue to accept his phone calls.'' After his DNA was found to match that of evidence from the scene, LaGuer continued to call reporters, saying police planted the evidence in his neighbors apartment - ``forensic fiddling,'' he called it - and suggesting that no sperm at all was present at the scene. Within days of the match in March, he had fired off an 11-page letter to the judge overseeing his case, laying out what he called ``square proof of skullduggery.'' ``There was no con,'' LaGuer said in a telephone interview. ``We are in search of the truth, wherever that leads, and that has already led us in the right direction, until now.'' Worcester District Attorney John Conte said that LaGuer's guilt was proved beyond a reasonable doubt in 1984. This year's test ``has proved Mr. LaGuer's guilt to a mathematical certainty.'' A son-in-law of the victim also applauded the results. Attorney Barry C. Scheck, co-founder of The Innocence Project, which works to exonerate innocent convicts with DNA evidence, helped LaGuer's attorneys get the tests. He called the results ``disappointing, but no great setback for anybody.'' The reason? For every case in which DNA evidence frees a person behind bars, another's test is inconclusive or cements the person's guilt. ``People turn out to be innocent in many cases,'' Scheck said. Since his 1983 arrest, LaGuer has maintained his innocence. On July 12 of that year, a man broke into his neighbor's apartment, raped the woman inside for more than eight hours, then left her trussed with a telephone cord. The woman, who has since died, told police she had been raped by a man with dark skin, leading police to LaGuer. An all-white jury convicted LaGuer, a light skinned black Hispanic man, in February 1984. He was sentenced to life in prison. The case went in and out of court as LaGuer argued, at various times, that he was not adequately represented and that racism tainted the jury. His conviction stood each time. Over the years, he attracted a corps of authors, journalists, and intellectuals, among them the Rev. Eugene Rivers of Boston and Harvard Law professor Charles Ogletree. He's been featured on national news programs such as ``20/20.'' Boston Globe media writer Mark Jurkowitz has written about LaGuer's uncanny ability to coax reporters into covering his story through its twists and turns. ``My guess is that there are lot of journalists sitting there shellshocked by this, including myself,'' he said. ``It certainly came as a surprise to a lot of people who were following this case.'' LaGuer's attorney, David M. Siegel, said ``it's obviously a fact that makes the case a bit more complicated.'' ``I think he's consistently maintained his innocence and he still does, and that's really all there is,'' he said. ``He's ready to pursue whatever avenue of relief is available.'' Free-lance writer John Strahinich has followed LaGuer's case for 16 years. He said the DNA results left him so depressed that he couldn't get out of bed the day he found out. He said he's now ``skeptical of everything having to do with this case'' - including LaGuer himself - and is still trying to digest the meaning of the DNA report. ``There's no doubt in my mind that it was a bad investigation, a bad jury and a bad trial,'' he said. ``The irony may be that for all that it was a good result.''

http://accesswdun.com/article/2002/5/202204