Lawyer: Chapman ‘not wandering the streets’
Concerns voiced over convicted child rapist
The lawyer for serial rapist Wayne Chapman — released from prison Friday after a jury found him not guilty on a lewdness charge — said his client is “not wandering the streets,” despite having claimed on his sex offender registration form to be “Homeless … On the Street” in Boston.
“He’s not wandering the streets,” attorney Eric Tennen told the Herald Tuesday of Chapman, a Level 3 sex offender. Tennen wouldn’t say where Chapman is being held, but said the ailing 71-year-old is somewhere where “he’s being cared for.”
Attorney Wendy Murphy, who represents some of his victims, questioned whether Chapman’s “On the Street” claim is legitimate if he is living in a home or a facility under someone’s care.
“There are so many loopholes in the system or gaps that allow mischievous — to put it mildly — things to happen once you register yourself as homeless,” Murphy said.
Chapman has 10 days to notify Boston police — or the Sex Offender Registry Board — of any move. He also must check in with police every 30 days, as all homeless sex offenders living on the streets of Boston must do.
“For a guy like Wayne Chapman, that’s 10 days where he is some place that the public doesn’t know and that’s 10 days of danger to the public, to public safety,” Murphy said.
Tennen plans to hold a press conference at 3:30 p.m. today to address questions raised about Chapman’s release last Friday.
“Clearly, Wayne Chapman should not be listed as homeless if he is not actually homeless,” said Bostonbased attorney Mitchell Garabedian, who has represented victims in clergy sexual abuse cases. “Wayne Chapman is a convicted and dangerous pedophile who should constantly be supervised while out of jail and living in society.”
Two state-appointed examiners last year said Chapman, who had been held on a civil commitment since 2004 when his prison sentence for raping two Lawrence boys expired, was too old and ill to be a danger, so the state could no longer hold him under civil commitment. The Supreme Judicial Court upheld that process.
Chapman, who’s admitted to sexually assaulting up to 100 boys, was freed last Friday after a jury acquitted him of separate lewdness charges, which were filed last June while he was behind bars.