Rapist seeks early release from prison
Lifer pushing for medical parole based on terminal claim
GARDNER — A convicted rapist who says he has terminal liver cancer and has less than four months to live wants to be released from a Massachusetts prison.
Court documents show a judge ordered the North Central Correctional Institution superintendent to submit a medical parole plan for 55-year-old Benjamin LaGuer by tomorrow.
If the superintendent does not submit a plan by that date, she will be required to appear for a show cause hearing Thursday.
LaGuer was convicted in 1984 of beating, robbing and sexually assaulting his 59-year-old neighbor in Leominster. He was sentenced to life in prison.
LaGuer maintains his innocence, and in the past has had high-profile supporters, including former Gov. Deval Patrick.
His appeals have been denied, as well as his initial request for medical parole.
In December 2016, the Supreme Judicial Court denied an appeal by LaGuer. The state’s Appeals Court, in January 2016, upheld LaGuer’s conviction, ruling he failed to support his bid for a new trial with “credible evidence or a basis in law.”
LaGuer represented himself in his appeal to the SJC.
LaGuer was convicted of unarmed robbery, breaking and entering in the nighttime with intent to commit a felony, assault and battery, and aggravated rape on Jan. 30, 1984.
The SJC initially upheld LaGuer’s conviction in a 2007 written opinion.
LaGuer’s case made headlines after it was discovered that Patrick had supported him and helped pay for DNA tests well before he ran for the Corner Office. The results of the DNA test further implicated LaGuer.
LaGuer also made multiple unsuccessful bids for parole during his time behind bars.
At a hearing in 2010, the board recounted an incident in which LaGuer posed as a priest and called his victim, who was at the time in a nursing home.
“I want to say now that maybe wasn’t appropriate,” LaGuer said at the time.
He was also faulted for throwing a brick at an inmate.
The Parole Board also advised LaGuer to attend sex offender treatment behind bars, but during a 2015 hearing LaGuer said he refused because it requires participants to admit their guilt.
“I am never going to say I committed a crime I did not commit,” LaGuer said at the time.