RSSThe State of Vermont is Responsible for the Death of Brook Bennett … Lax Laws on Sex Offenders
The State of Vermont, its law makes, judges and the media should be all ashamed of themselves. They have all been complicit in the lack of laws against convicted sex offenders. YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR BROOKE’S DEATH!!!
The result of Vermont’s lack of laws, Vermont’s caring to protect children or any real understanding of child predators … Brooke Bennett is dead and never had a chance. Disturbing details emerge in the Brooke Bennett case; however, this is not the first time we have heard such heinous stories out of Vermont when it comes to child exploitation and sexual assault. In the case of Brooke Bennett, all of the above and include her murder.
As it turns out, the death and sexual abuse of Brooke was not an isolated case, but a sex ring. One created by a individual, Michael Jacques, who was a convicted sex offender and on Vermont’s Sex Registry. All the while, he was sexually assaulting girls.
This is not the first time that child rapists have been given a light or little to no sentence when it has come to the sexual assault of minors. When confronted with the lack of laws protecting children in Vermont in the past, what did the media do? They attacked those that would make the point public and protected the pedophiles.
Remember the well documented case of Vermont Judge Edward Cashman.
“You may be looking at the worst judge in the USA.” And several Vermont Republican lawmakers have demanded he resign or be impeached.
The reason: Cashman sentenced a child molester to just 60 days of jail time — a sentence he said was designed to ensure the man got prompt sex-offender treatment but critics say was too soft.
“As far as we’re concerned, Cashman’s district can hereby be considered a predator’s sanctuary,” wrote the Caledonian Record newspaper of St. Johnsbury. “As long as judges like Ed Cashman are allowed to sit on Vermont benches, children cannot be considered safe.”
Posted July 3, 2008 by Scared Monkeys Bizarre, Brooke Bennett, Child Welfare, Deceased, Government, Sex Offender, WTF | 11 comments |
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11 Responses to “The State of Vermont is Responsible for the Death of Brook Bennett … Lax Laws on Sex Offenders”
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I was living in Vermont at the time of Cashman’s infamous decision, and well remember the fury it provoked. His basic thinking seemed to be that the state’s laws at the time denied “treatment” to sex offenders until they were near the end of their term.
I said then, and say now, “So what? When did sentencing become ‘offender-centric,’ worrying primarily about the offender?”
And Cashman’s sentence apparently included the provision that the scum, who had for YEARS abused a child, faced a life term if he failed to keep up with his “treatment.”
Again, I said, and say, “So what? The pervert is out there in public … who is facing the risk? Would it be consolation to future victims if the state said, ‘Oops, you didn’t keep going with your treatment, so back to prison’? In my thinking, there is no reason to putting children at risk.”
And, of course, the “treatment” is probably some BS idea of someone with an axe to grind.
Last summer, I interviewed Noreen Gosch, mother of Johnny Gosch. He’s the paperboy who was abducted in 1982. Through Noreen’s efforts, he became one of the first kids to feature in those milk carton ads. (Another sign of ‘progress’ in our society, I gather … people can take note of missing children over their corn flakes.)
Anyway, looking at the Website of the Johnny Gosch Foundation will raise the hackles.
I mention this because the testimony of “Juvenile 1″ says that she, a teen girl, since age 9 was a victim of Brooke’s former stepfather, Gagnon. And the intention was to subject Brooke to the assaults of a sex gang.
If this is indeed the case, then it seems that this girl knows one hell of a lot about what was going on. Gagnon’s affidavit, accessible at the Web site of the Burlington Free Press (a Vermont paper), says that she helped the uncle, Jacques, take Brooke to his house.
Will the courts find her testimony plausible?
Apparently Jacques faces a possible federal death sentence. It won’t be the Vermont courts that decide this.
I think more revelations are likely in coming days.
I guess what I’m trying to get at is … does this ‘Breckenridge’ thing really exist? That it COULD exist, I have no doubt … but is it some sick fantasy of these pieces of (dung)? Is it an idea that they dreamed up to intimidate the young girls they targeted? Is it yet another online gang of animals that share child porn?
I don’t know. I hope that it is thoroughly investigated.
Couldn’t resist posting this article from today’s Houston Chronicle. Boy, those guys in Texas … who do they think they are? In Vermont, this guy would NEVER have been denied bail, and would have gotten a light sentence for ‘rehabilitation.’
Maybe this helps explain why Gagnon went from Texas to Vermont, rather than the other way round.
A Houston attorney facing a nine-count indictment involving child pornography was ordered held without bond Wednesday by U.S. Magistrate Calvin Botley, who found that he is “a danger to society.”
Warren Reid Williamson, a former attorney for Conoco, was arrested in 1999 on felony charges of endangering a child and aggravated sexual assault against a 7-year-old child who lived in his River Oaks neighborhood.
Williamson later was ordered to pay $4.75 million in damages in a lawsuit filed by the victim’s family.
According to court records, Williamson pleaded “no contest” to misdemeanor charge in the assault case, with the approval of the victim’s family. The family indicated it wanted to spare her the trauma of a lengthy criminal trial.
In 2002, the victim’s mother won $4.75 million in actual and exemplary damages in a lawsuit she filed against Williamson.
Williamson, 56, and the father of three, moved out of his River Oaks home in 2000. He and his wife divorced in 2001.
For a time, he was “occasionally” involved with Boy Scout Troop 55 at St. John the Divine Episcopal Church, where one of his sons earned the rank of Eagle Scout, according to a local Scout leader.
The attorney received deferred adjudication is currently serving a one-year probated sentence on a charge of “criminal mischief involving domestic violence,” stemming from an April, 2007 arrest.
Williamson will remain in federal custody pending the outcome of his trial on federal charges of child pornography. His trial is scheduled to start August 18, before U.S. District Judge Sim Lake.
“All I can say to you is that he did present a danger to the community, and under federal law he is held in federal custody,” said Executive Assistant U.S. Attorney Nancy Herrrera. “Our charges are that he received child pornography, and we are set for trial in August.”
Williamson has been licensed to practice law in Texas for 25 years. He is currently is self-employed as a personal injury attorney.
Because he has never been convicted of a felony, Williamson was not required by Texas law to register as a sex offender.
Williamson had been living at 10011 Cedarhurst Drive, which is -his 85-year-old mother’s home in Meyerland.
His brother, who also lives at that home, declined to comment about the case Wednesday.
Williamson was arrested last Friday by Harris County law enforcement officers and agents from the Immigration, Customs and Enforcement division of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security who had staked out the Meyerland home.
A county constable’s deputy stopped him on a traffic infraction on South Post Oak Boulevard, and ICE agents moved in with federal warrants.
A federal grand jury returned a nine-count indictment against Williamson on June 25.
The indictment accuses Williamson of attempting to receive images of child pornography between Dec. 16, 2005 and Feb. 7, 2007.
The indictment accuses Williamson of receiving images of child pornography on six different dates in July and August 2007. It also alleges possession of child pornography images on a computer in November 2007.
The ninth count accuses Williamson of destroying or altering records with intent to obstruct a federal investigation.
The charges against Williamson are the result of an investigation conducted by members of the Child Predator/Cybercrime square in the Houston office of ICE. That squad was created to track child pornography “because the Internet has no boundaries,” said Greg Palmore, a spokesman for the agency.
Details about Williamson’s previous arrests came out during the federal detention hearing Wednesday.
In December, 1999, Williamson was charged with indecency with a child and aggravated sexual assault. The charges stemmed from two incidents when a 7-year-old neighbor was visiting his daughter. According to court records, Williamson forced the girl to perform oral sex during one visit, and he also fondled the girl while bathing her and his daughter.
Under the 2001 plea agreement, Williamson paid a $1,000 fine and was required to remain under “community supervision” for two years. Williamson also was ordered to stay away from his victim.
According to court records, the mother of the victim complained Williamson appeared in front of her home on several occasions “and often made intimidating faces in an attempt to frighten her.”
In September 2007, the First Court of Appeals upheld the trial court’s award of $4.75 million in damages to the victim’s family. The trial court had also issued a summary judgment dismissing a request for damages against Williamson’s ex-wife.
That judgment was upheld by the Texas Supreme Court in March.
she was 12 years old, a child. and yet our US Supreme Court rules 5-4 that child rapists cannot be executed because the punishent is cruel and unusual and unconstitiutiional. to a child, rape is one the most cruel things that can happen to them. then to be murdered after being raped……..just the thought of what that child must have gone through makes me sick. for gods sake, ammend the constitution. put these child rapists and murderers under the jail pushing up daisies. they don’t deserve to draw another single breath of life. i would not call that cruel or unusual, i would call it fitting.
If they can’t be executed, could we apply the 2 brick justice? We put balls on one and apply the other with great force.
Well that 14 year old girl that helped kill her is going to have alot on her concience for the rest of her life.
Seems like maybe she was old enough to have known better then getting a friend raped. Maybe she needs to be prosectued as an adult.
Thier seem to be ALOT of people at fault here, the mom doesnt seem to care, and its all family involved. Sick people poor girl.
Update from today’s Burlington Free Press … the uncle was involved for a month in arranging for the kidnap and assault on Brooke Bennett.
The whole MySpace tale appears to have been a calculated deceit to mislead authorities.
And apparently, if I read the article correctly, he was engaging the teen girl, also a victim, known as “Juvenile1.” Read this: it’s beyond belief.
Why Vermont is dropping the charge is inexplicable to me; however, maybe they feel it’s a (pun intended) dead certainty that the feds will have the goods on this animal.
But I’m VERY CONCERNED at this talk that the Breckenridge sex ring is “no longer” a threat to children. How do they know? It seems to me that at least Gagnon’s landlord, in San Antonio, must have known something. He threw out the safe that he said he thought contained child pornography.
Isn’t that in itself a criminal action?
And note: Gagnon also assaulted a boy.
I don’t know about you … but when I read horror such as this article contains, my mind goes back to Aruba and Natalee Holloway. And my doubts grow about Aruba’s reasons for perpetuating the cover-up from day one.
Uncle plotted girl’s abduction
Burlington Free Press
July 4, 2008
Investigators looking into the death of 12-year-old Brooke Bennett say her uncle used two fabricated identities to create the illusion of an Internet sex ring and began plotting his niece’s abduction nearly a month before she disappeared.
The disclosures Thursday were contained in an FBI agent’s 17-page affidavit filed in U.S. District Court in Burlington as federal and state prosecutors announced plans to charge the uncle, Michael Jacques, 42, of Randolph, with kidnapping Brooke, with death resulting.
Brooke’s body was found Wednesday buried near a sugarhouse less than two miles from Jacques’ home. Jacques has admitted he dropped the Braintree girl off at a convenience store the morning of June 25.
Police now say he later picked her back up and drove her to his home.
Police have not said how or when Brooke died or if Jacques killed her, but he could face the death penalty if he is convicted of the pending federal kidnapping charge.
“That determination will be made after the investigation is completed, after the case is presented to a grand jury,” U.S. Attorney Tom Anderson told a packed news conference at his offices Thursday morning. “Ultimately, that decision is made by the attorney general of the United States.”
Vermont Attorney General William Sorrell, who also spoke at the news conference, said the state had decided to drop a charge of aggravated sexual assault of a minor filed against Jacques on Monday in Vermont District Court in Chelsea.
“For the immediate and foreseeable future, he will be facing charges only in the federal court,” Sorrell said.
Both prosecutors said they believe the alleged Internet sex ring named the “Breckenridge” program no longer poses a risk to children, but the investigation into the program and the existence of other victims and sexual predators is ongoing.
“This is the type of investigation where we are following every single lead,” Anderson said. “Wherever it takes us, wherever the facts take us, is where we will go.”
Investigators conducting a forensic examination of two computers in Jacques’ home found a series of e-mails detailing plans to abduct Brooke, injure her and possibly subject her to sexual acts.
The e-mails were sent between an underage girl who was involved in regular sexual activity with Jacques and two fictitious people — identified as Raueldom and Chvy_21. The affidavit said police were able to determine both characters were created by Jacques and made to appear to be members of the Breckenridge program.
“Please come up with a plan that makes it so that nobody knows where she is,” the Raueldom identity writes to the underage girl, referred to in court documents as “Juvenile 1.”
The e-mails contain a back-and-forth discussion about how Juvenile 1 should lure Brooke into going along with her by telling Brooke she was about to meet some boys at a party.
“Please call Brooke and let her know you have forwarded texts to her from Sam,” a June 20 e-mail from the Chvy_21 identity says. “You should let her know when you talk to her tonight that he has been bugging you all day — because he REALLY wants to spend the day with her.” The identity of “Sam” is not explained in the FBI affidavit.
Also on June 20, Raueldom asks Juvenile 1 if she would help with the “take down and tie up” of Brooke the following Wednesday, June 25 — the day Brooke was last seen alive in public.
“I suppose I could just have him tase her and knock her down then do it himself, but that is a little more traumatic than I wanted her to experience that early in the morning,” the message to Juvenile 1 says. “She will have enough of that later.”
The e-mails also detail how Jacques — through his fictitious characters — plotted to plant evidence to make it look as though Brooke was running away to be with someone she met on the Internet and had a sexual liaison with someone after she disappeared.
Those arrangements included instructing Juvenile 1 to engage in a sex act with her boyfriend in order to collect semen to put on an article of Brooke’s clothing that Jacques later told police he had discovered near Sunset Lake in Brookfield during a search for her.
“Text me when it’s done and simply say ‘It’s done,’” a June 23 message from Chvy_21 to Juvenile 1 says. “Very important, thanks.”
The e-mails do not indicate why Jacques allegedly wanted to harm Brooke. Brooke was friends with at least one of Jacques’ children, according to her father, James Bennett.
Anderson and Sorrell would not say whether they knew if Brooke might have become aware of Jacques’ conduct or in some way posed a problem for him.
“I can’t provide additional comment,” Anderson said.
Sorrell said officials are reluctant to reveal more details about what the investigation has found until the work is done.
“This is not done to hide information from the public, but rather so as not to prejudice any further investigation left to be done, or court proceedings,” he said.
Jacques is expected to appear in federal court next week to face the kidnapping charge. Ray Gagnon, Brooke’s former stepfather, is scheduled for a Monday detention hearing in the same court on his obstruction-of-justice charge.
Gagnon, 40, of San Antonio is accused of destroying evidence related to the investigation into Brooke’s disappearance, as well as a collection of child pornography including photos of Juvenile 1 engaging in sex acts with an underage boy.
So what was Jacques plans….if Brooke thought she was going to a party but instead it was adult gang rape, why would Jacques think she wouldn’t tell…so maybe the original plan was to gang rape her, video it and then kill her….
And why would she believe there was a party at her uncle’s house told to her by her friends, when she just rode with him to the convenient store and was seen going the opposite direction…pieces missing to this story…
In regard to that article from Houston, that was my 7 year old daughter and the story is much more complex. I was conned by the DA who was a chickensh**. I have been wanting to form some sort of group to change these laws, that ruin thousands of children’s lives, since I was conned by the justice system.
I’m so saddened to see what happened to Brooke.
If you are her Mom and want to change laws as I do, please contact me.
Vermont, deal with your chester problem! Call in some Texas exterminators!