Jail-cell struggle appears on Net
A video shows guards trying to enter a cell where a pedophile priest was being killed.
BOSTON - A prison security video showing guards struggling to enter a cell where a convicted killer was strangling a defrocked pedophile priest has turned up on the Internet.
State prison officials were investigating how the 10-minute video, shot from outside former Roman Catholic priest John Geoghan's cell during his slaying, made it onto YouTube.
The video was posted last month and was brought to the Boston Herald's attention, possibly by Joseph Druce, who was convicted in January of killing Geoghan at the Souza-Baranowski maximum-security prison in August 2003.
"The truth about officer involvement in John Geogan's death," a handwritten note sent to the Herald and signed "Joseph Lee Druce" says. The note gives a link to the video and the message "The truth about officers allowing J.G. to die through their neglect. Let the truth be know."
The video shows up to five guards at a time tugging at the door Druce had wedged shut with a book, while other guards stand ready to enter the cell. About halfway through, guards pry the door open, and several rush into the cell before emerging seconds later dragging someone out, presumably Druce, and pinning him to the floor. What appears to be medical personnel then rush into the cell.
Viewers can neither see the slaying nor Geoghan's body.
Worcester County District Attorney Joseph Early Jr. said yesterday that several copies of the video were distributed after Geoghan's death, including to the District Attorney's Office and to Druce's lawyer. Early said he was not sure whether the video was the same one shown during Druce's trial.
"We don't know at this point where it came from," he said, "and we're looking into how we can get it removed from the site. It was a horrific crime, and this desensitizes and glorifies that violence."
Inmates do not have access to the Internet, and state Department of Correction officials were investigating how Druce may have obtained it, a department spokeswoman said.
"We don't know where the tape came from or how it got on the Internet," she said.
The president of the guards union said the state should "immediately use any legal remedy available" to get the video off the Web. It did not appear to be accessible late yesterday.
Geoghan, 68, was serving a nine-to-10-year sentence for groping a 10-year-old boy, but he had been accused of molesting as many as 150 boys.