Ben LaGuer
P.O. Box 466
Gardner, MA 01440
BenLaguer@hotmail.com
www.BenLaguer.org
Permit me to begin by apologizing for not writing sooner, and ask that you understand how much more I am struggling on a daily basis to keep a sense of optimism and motivation. I know that everything I do is part of my unfolding destiny.
I am reaching out because a parole hearing has been scheduled for Thursday 22 April 2010 at 10AM. It is a public hearing, so anyone can attend. An earlier hearing was postponed based on two July 2007 letters from the Executive Office of Public Safety indicating that the State Police crime lab had undertaken a review of allegations of impropriety regarding the DNA analysis. We are still awaiting the report of that review. Judge Issac Borenstein (retired) will be presenting my case to the Parole Board. Expect him to say that I have served 27 years in prison, 24 years more than had I plead guilty in 1983. In the past, the board had denied me because I refuse to admit responsibility. I would like to point out to any new board members that parolee Gerald Amirault of the Fell Acres child molestation case was granted parole despite his rightful claim of innocence. There is no difference in our cases except for our skin color. I cannot urge you more strongly to attend. You should expect to hear a glimpse of our upcoming motion for a new trial. Judge Borenstein and attorney Elizabeth Billowitz, following up on legal and forensic opinions by attorneys James C. Renquist and Earle C. Cooley, argue that the crime lab reported a DNA test result that was based on erroneous assumptions and incorrect biological samples. Expect nothing less than a heart sinking feeling that you had been right in your nagging doubts. Judge Borenstein has recently retired as a trial judge after twenty years service. He has forty plus years experience as a lawyer and professor of law. Perhaps Borenstein will be able to undo the awesome lasso of former district attorney John Conte.
In other news Dr. Benjamin Smith of Lemuel Shattuck hospital reported that an area of my liver has a lesion “highly worrisome for hepatocellular carcinoma given the size of the lesion and in light of the patient’s history of elevated alpha-fetoprotein.” (2/3/10) I am concerned that if I am released from prison needing treatments, I’ll no longer enjoy the healthcare that the prison currently affords me.
This is no conventional parole story. There is no shortage of friends and family who have offered me a home. Judge Isaac Borenstein has generously offered me employment in his law practice. Probable acceptance in the MFA Creative Writing graduate program at Boston University is assured by it’s director Leslie Epstein.
Stacy Amaral, a retired Worcester teacher whom Governor Deval Patrick marked in his 2007 inaugural speech as a shining symbol of his campaign, has asked both the Governor and Parole Board members for a favorable parole outcome. Expected distinguished guests in attendance will be Boston University President Emeritus Dr. John Silber, novelist Leslie Epstein, journalist Christopher Lydon, Noam Chomsky, Minister Donald Muhammad, broadcast journalist Jimmy Myers, north shore philanthropist John C. Archer, State Representative for the Third Hampshire District Ellen Story, ex-Congressman John Harrington, among others.
The friends that I had in advance of any setback with the DNA fiasco are evidently still very supportive. I never felt as if I lost a single healthy friendship. In the upcoming days and weeks more details will be posted on the website.
Whatever happens I will remain true to myself and to those who have helped me to be heard. The playwright August Wilson wrote, “You have to live right to die right.” I wish only to live long enough for my life to be right. I hope for us to meet as freed peoples and also wish to hear from you, if only a short note. I am counting on you to stand up along side others who are already standing. Be well.
“We are, all of us, molded and remolded by those who have loved us, and though that love may pass, we remain none the less their work-a work that very likely they do not recognize, and which is never exactly what they intended.” -Francois Mauriac, The Desert of Love
Eternally,
Ben
The LaGuer case has been discussed on BMG in some depth. Good starting places are here and here.
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p>Previously, LaGuer’s supporters, primarily John Hosty-Grinnell, have argued that the evidence did point, or at least might have pointed, to another man, Gomez, and that LaGuer was actually innocent of the crime (see here or here, for examples). In this post, which John posted on behalf of LaGuer, we read that the parole hearing should give “a glimpse of our upcoming motion for a new trial.” My guess is that, for reasons given here, is that LaGuer’s lawyers will want to argue, at least in a motion for a new trial, that there was no rape at all. Perhaps they will argue that LaGuer’s trial lawyers were ineffective for failing to call as a witness a woman, DeMartino, who could have called the victim’s credibility into question. But I assume that won’t be their pitch at the parole hearing, as I cannot think of a strategy less likely to win the sympathy of the parole board members than denying that the victim was raped, no matter what LaGuer’s lawyers think they know about the victim’s mental state at the time of the trial.
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