Boston Herald

No, doc, rapists like Chapman are monsters

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Hey, Joe Plaud, this one’s for you. Joe is the psychologi­st you read about in yesterday’s Herald, the one who gave us all a good scolding for not looking the other way while he does all he can to free the infamous Wayne W. Chapman, a child rapist.

Incarcerat­ed for two rapes while possibly molesting up to “50-100” more, records state, the 70-yearold Chapman was categorize­d as a Level 3 sex offender which, even in this bleeding heart of Massachuse­tts, is an acknowledg­ment that the risk of re-offending is high and the degree of dangerousn­ess to the public is substantia­l.

That’s why many of us feel this savage should remain behind bars, where his behavior can be controlled.

Then again, can it?

While Plaud and Chapman’s attorney, Eric Tennen, were strategizi­ng how to spring him, Chapman was recently accused of exposing himself and masturbati­ng in full view of the prison’s nursing staff, suggesting his rehabilita­tion is highly questionab­le.

This is not complicate­d.

You don’t have to be the father of a young boy, or the grandfathe­r of a young boy, to be viscerally enraged by the thought of someone you love crossing paths with someone like Chapman, nor did you have to know his young victims to weep for them.

But that kind of talk irritates Plaud.

Lashing out at what he called “needless fear-mongering,” he lectured a small media gathering to “put down any pitchforks and tiki torches!” What insufferab­le gall.

“I bump into (sex offenders) on the Red Line,” he told them. “These are not monsters running around the streets!”

Joe, please, must you insult us, too?

Of course these barbarians don’t hunt their prey on the Red Line; they lure them into secluded areas where they’re most helpless and vulnerable. Or is that more fearmonger­ing? This commonweal­th has a shameful history of freeing sickos.

Remember Daniel Tavares Jr., who killed his mother with a carving knife, then mailed death threats to his father until he was released from a Massachuse­tts prison?

Tavares was next heard from in a suburb of Seattle where he murdered a newlywed couple.

“There was no reason for this,” a spokesman for the sheriff out there lamented. “If you’d looked at him the wrong way he’d probably kill you, yet they turned him loose after 15 years.”

Joe, who should we have blamed for that?

And who would we blame if Chapman walks and another young boy is brutalized?

We have a big problem with public safety here in Massachuse­tts, and people like you, Joe, are a very big part of that problem.

 ?? STAFF PHOTO BY NANCY LANE ?? TEAMING UP: Eric Tennen, attorney for Wayne W. Chapman, and Joseph Plaud, clinical and forensic psychology meet in Boston.
STAFF PHOTO BY NANCY LANE TEAMING UP: Eric Tennen, attorney for Wayne W. Chapman, and Joseph Plaud, clinical and forensic psychology meet in Boston.
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