A little over a month ago, the Boston Herald reported that Deval Patrick had sent a letter to a Parole Board urging the release of Ben LaGuer who was convicted in 1984 of tying up and viciously raping a 59-year-old Leominster woman for over 8 hours.

At the time the story didn’t get much traction and fell off the map as Patrick went on to win the Democratic primary. Last week, reporters started asking more questions and Patrick and responded with “I know who he is. He is someone on whose behalf I wrote, I think, maybe 15 years ago”. Deval Patrick’s spokesman followed up with a statement saying that the letter had been sent while he was working as a lawyer for the NAACP in the 1980’s. A statement from last Thursday stated “My sole involvement in this case was more than 10 years ago, when I wrote a letter on Mr. LaGuer’s behalf.”

The above statements have now been shown to be outright lies:

But letters obtained by the Globe indicate Patrick’s involvement was more recent and more significant than he has suggested. He wrote the Parole Board in 1998 and again in 2000. He also wrote at least twice to LaGuer himself, addressing the notes “Dear Ben.”

“I am sorry not to have written sooner,” Patrick, then a lawyer in private practice, wrote in a letter to LaGuer dated July 16, 1998. “It’s not that it wasn’t `appropriate,’ just the overwhelming press of other business. Given the significance of events in your life, I am embarrassed that I did not make the time.”

On Aug. 5, 1998, and again on April 3, 2000, Patrick asked the Parole Board to set LaGuer free.

“I have never met Mr. LaGuer in person,” wrote Patrick to the Parole Board. “But, thanks to a lively exchange of correspondence over the years, I do feel I know him. I receive a crushing volume of mail, much of it from prisoners in facilities all over this country. None of it is as thoughtful, insightful, eloquent, or humane as that I receive from Mr. LaGuer. . . . I urge you and your colleagues on the Parole Board to act favorably on his application.”

Patrick first wrote the Parole Board while he was a lawyer in private practice. The second time he contacted the board, he was working for Texaco.

***

Yesterday, when asked about the letters obtained by the Globe, Chacon modified his description of when Patrick got involved in the case.

“Deval Patrick has already said that almost 10 years ago he wrote a letter on Mr. LaGuer’s behalf,” Chacon said. “He was not alone in expressing concern about the case at the time.”

So what was Deval Patrick’s response to all this? He of course accused Kerry Healey of taking a “cheap political shot”.

Maybe it’s just me, but the fact that Deval Patrick spoke glowingly about and urged the early release of a person convicted of violently raping an elderly woman would seem to be a relevant point of discussion as regards to his judgment.

So what were his reasons for writing the Parole Board on this rapist’s behalf. He had heard that racism may have played a part in the jury’s decision. Apparently he didn’t bother to actually investigate the case or talk to the victim or her family to learn more about the case before telling the Parole Board what a upstanding citizen LaGuer was. The racial accusation was all he needed.

This lack of investigation and judgment on Deval’s part makes Tom Reilly’s Lt. Governor gaffe look like child’s play. Is this the type of man we want as Governor? No wonder the police unions are lining up behind Kerry Healey. It’s Michael Dukakis and Willie Horton all over again.

Archived in: Deval Patrick, Kerry Healey, Massachusetts, Unions