By Jessica Van Sack
Boston Herald [Boston MA]
February 28, 2007
http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=185428
Fifteen lawmakers outraged over the sentence given to a confessed sicko who ignored the cries of a little girl being raped have filed a bill to vastly stiffen the penalty for child endangerment.
Under the proposed legislation, child endangerment would become a felony with a 10-year maximum jail term. The crime is now a misdemeanor and prison time can't exceed 2 1/2 years.
The chief sponsor of the bill, Assistant Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr (R-Gloucester), said he was moved upon learning from the Herald earlier this month of the one-year jail sentence handed to a Salem man who pleaded guilty to child endangerment and witness intimidation after having sex with two women as a crying 9-year-old was raped repeatedly in the bed beside him. Patrick Doyle, 42, is eligible for parole in six months.
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| Assistant Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr (R-Gloucester). Photo courtesy of mass.gov |
In 2002, Sen. Marian Walsh (D-West Roxbury) pressed for the crime to become a felony as she led the charge to institute the current child endangerment law amid the Archdiocese of Boston's sexual abuse scandal. Lawmakers who associated the crime with the church refused to support the felony law, she said.
"Sometimes, it takes a tragedy like this," said Walsh, adding that the proposal is an example of "how good ideas become better."
Deborah Savoia of North Andover, co-founder of the victims' rights group Community Voices, called Doyle's sentence "absolutely disgusting" and said the bill is a first step toward preventing future injustices.
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