Jul 6, 2007 9:00 am US/Pacific
Video Of Ex-Priest Prison Murder Leaks To YouTube
BOSTON (CBS) ―
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, reports CBS station WBZ-TV in Boston.
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 last month.
The video on YouTube was brought to the attention of the Boston Herald, apparently by Joseph Druce, the man convicted of killing Geoghan inside a cell at Souza-Baranowski maximum security prison in August 2003.
"The truth about officer involvement in John Geogan's (sic) death," a handwritten note sent to the Herald and signed "Joseph Lee Druce" says.
The note then has the YouTube address, followed by "The truth about officers allowing J.G. to die through their neglect. Let the truth be know (sic)."
The video shows up to five guards at a time tugging at the door Druce had wedged shut with a paperback, while other guards stand at the ready to enter the cell as soon as it's opened.
Portions of the surveillance tape were played in court and released during Druce's trial in January 2006.
Inmates do not have access to the Internet and state Department of Correction officials are investigating how the video made it to the Web, department spokeswoman Diane Wiffin said.
"We have no idea where he got it from. We don't know where the tape came from or how it got on the Internet," Wiffin told the Herald on Thursday night. "It is under investigation."
The president of the guards union said the state should "immediately use any legal remedy available" to get the video off the Web.
"We are deeply concerned that an internal security video was posted by an inmate or an inmate's family," said Steve Kenneway, president of the Massachusetts Correction Officers Federated Union. "It's absolutely a public safety issue, posting emergency response actions of correction officers on the Web."
Druce was already serving a life sentence for murder when he killed Geoghan, 68, a central figure in Boston's clergy sex abuse scandal. Geoghan was serving a nine- to 10-year sentence for groping a 10-year-old boy, but had been accused of molesting as many as 150 boys.
Druce claimed he was chosen by God to kill pedophiles and unsuccessfully used an insanity defense at his trial.
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