Chapman’s actions in jail ‘disturbing’
Nurses detail troubling behavior
Prison staff testifying at Day 2 of the lewdness trial of convicted child rapist Wayne Chapman said his actions behind bars were “disturbing.”
Chapman, 71, who has spent more than three decades behind bars for the assault and rape of multiple boys across New England, is charged with open and gross lewdness and wanton and lascivious conduct after allegedly exposing and touching himself in separate incidents in front of prison hospital staff on June 3 and June 4, 2018.
Prosecutor Emily Jackson showed surveillance clips from the prison that showed witnesses telling Chapman to clothe or cover himself. The clips — which totaled an hour and a half of footage — showed Chapman sit down on the bed, attempt to make his bed and lay on the bed facing the Plexiglass while naked from the waist down.
One male officer said the situation was “inappropriate to the female staff.”
A CNA said she was initially not disturbed, “But once he was laying on the bed, it was like he was posing. I was disgusted.”
Called by the defense, Dr. Lee Cranberg from the Cambridge Health Alliance testified that patients with Parkinson’s disease such as Chapman can have difficulty with their mobility due to a degeneration of brain cells.
Through questioning, the defense suggested that mobility issues were the reason why Chapman couldn’t put on his pants or cover himself.
Chapman was previously convicted of assaulting and raping boys in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Pennsylvania from 1967 to 1976. He has also been a long-time suspect in the 1976 disappearance of Angelo “Andy” Puglisi, 10, of Lawrence.
Chapman has been held on civil commitment since the state deemed him too dangerous to release after he finished his prison sentence in 2004 for raping two boys in Lawrence, the Herald previously reported. He was at the center of a controversy last year when two psychiatrists recommended an end to his civil commitment, saying he is no longer dangerous. That decision was recently upheld by the state’s Supreme Judicial Court.
The trial is expected to last another two days.