Court reinstates child rape charges against former Milton Academy teacher

By Joe Difazio
Patriot Ledger
March 26, 2020

https://www.patriotledger.com/news/20200326/court-reinstates-child-rape-charges-against-former-milton-academy-teacher

Former Milton Academy teacher Reynold J. Buono, accused of child rape, attends a status hearing at Norfolk Superior Court, in Dedham, Wednesday, Jan. 2, 2019.

Former Milton Academy teacher Reynold Buono, 72, faces child rape charges in Dedham Superior Court on Wednesday, June 27, 2018.

BOSTON — The state Supreme Judicial Court has reinstated four child rape indictments against former Milton Academy teacher Reynold Buono.

The state’s highest court on Thursday partially reversed a decision by Norfolk County Superior Court Judge Thomas Connors, who last year dismissed six rape charges against Buono, who is accused of sexually assaulting a student in the 1980s.

The dismissal hinged on questions of whether prosecutors had presented enough corroborating evidence to a grand jury, evidence required by law because the alleged child rape happened more than 27 years ago, and whether, because Buono had moved to Thailand, that 27-year requirement had paused when he left.

Buono’s alleged victim, 53-year-old Jamie Forbes, who now lives in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, said he was pleased by the decision.

“The SJC’s ruling that the grand jury had sufficient evidence to indict Reynold Buono now allows us to move forward in the prosecution and to seek justice for his alleged victim. A sexual assault victim’s courage in coming forward should not be defeated by a technicality,” Morrissey said in a statement Thursday.

“When the Legislature resumes its normal proceedings, we will work with legislators to clarify the language that caused some of this confusion – making clear that in all instances, moving out of the commonwealth stops the clock from ticking on the statute of limitations for sex crimes. Leaving our jurisdiction should not create a strategic advantage to alleged perpetrators.”

The Supreme Judicial Court ruled that the prosecutors had met their burden and presented enough corroborating evidence to a grand jury to secure four of the six indictments. Though there isn’t technically a statute of limitations on child rape charges, the law requires a certain level of corroborating evidence, admissible in court, for charges brought more than 27 years after the alleged crimes.

By moving out of Massachusetts, time accrued toward the statute of limitations on a crime is paused by law, but the clock continues to run on the requirement for corroborating evidence, the highest court ruled.

Eric MacLeish, a Lexington-based lawyer who represents six other Milton Academy students who say they were assaulted by Buono, said it was “joyous day for them.”

“Reynold Buono was a wrecking ball that tore his way through Milton Academy. ... I’ve been doing this for 25 years, and Reynold Buono stands out as one of the worst predators,” said MacLeish, who has represented victims of sexual assault by Catholic priests, when reached by phone Thursday. “Shame on the Milton Academy administration at the time. ... The carnage he inflicted is just horrible.”

In a statement, Milton Academy said it supported the Supreme Judicial Court’s decision, calling it “a positive step toward offering survivors the justice they deserve.”

Buono had been extradited from Thailand to face the charges in 2018 and has been required to stay at his home with a curfew since posting $50,000 cash bail.

Buono, who ran the school’s theater program and taught students at the academy’s upper school between 1973 and 1987, was indicted on the charges in November 2017, 35 years after the alleged crimes. The indictments were kept under seal until Buono was apprehended in Thailand and brought back to Massachusetts by federal authorities.

All the charges involve Forbes, a student at the prestigious prep school from 1978 until 1985.

Buono first targeted Forbes when he was 15 years old during a 1981 bicycle trip in Italy that Buono coordinated and chaperoned, according to prosecutors. Forbes told police Buono allowed students to drink alcohol and said the teacher arranged for them to share a bed. Forbes said after a night of drinking, Buono rolled over and grabbed his genitals.

The indictments focus on behavior in Massachusetts, where prosecutors said Buono continued to sexually assault Forbes during tutoring sessions at the teacher’s on-campus apartment between the fall of 1981 and the middle of 1982.

In the spring of 1982, Forbes’ family and the parents of a friend whom Forbes had confided in about the alleged assaults contacted Milton Academy to report Buono’s abuse, according to the indictment.

“Administration discussed the allegations with (Buono). (Buono) did not deny touching students but told the administrator that he always stopped when asked,” the indictment said.

At some point in 1982, the friend said, Buono told him “to know that it wasn’t gonna happen again,” according to court records.

Buono was removed from on-campus housing and put on probation, but wasn’t fired for another five years, in 1987, when the headmaster learned he had been accused of sexually assaulting a different 15-year-old freshman student. Buono left the country soon after.

The alleged sexual abuse at Milton Academy came to light in 2016 following an investigation by a private company hired by the school, T&M Protection Resources, which said as many as 18 students were abused by Buono. The investigation was prompted by a Boston Globe report on abuse at private schools.

Three other former faculty members had also engaged in sexual abuse or misconduct, according to T&M, one of whom was fired.

The Norfolk County district attorney’s office has said prosecution of those other cases is not possible because they are either beyond the statute of limitations or the assaults happened outside Norfolk County.

Connors’ decision to dismiss the case was based on a ruling by the state’s highest court three years ago that said prosecutors needed independent corroborating evidence to secure a conviction in child sexual assault cases based on crimes that exceed the state’s 27-year statute of limitations. The case at issue in the decision, against a defendant named Robert E. White, was tossed because the Supreme Judicial Court said the corroborating evidence presented by prosecutors was related to crimes that White hadn’t been charged with.

In Buono’s case, the Supreme Judicial Court ruled that his alleged 1982 statement to the Forbes’ friend that “it wasn’t gonna happen again,” presented to the grand jury, constituted corroborating evidence.

“Viewing this evidence in the light most favorable to the commonwealth, we conclude that it was reasonable for the grand jury to infer that the ‘it’ in the defendant’s statement referred to the alleged oral rapes for which the defendant was charged, therefore providing the required corroborating evidence,” wrote Superior Court Justice Elspeth Cypher in the opinion released Thursday.

The initial six indictments concerned three separate instances of alleged sexual assault by Buono, but the Supreme Judicial Court ruled that prosecutors had only presented enough evidence to the grand jury for two instances, so it affirmed Connor’s dismissal of two of the counts.

Buono’s lawyer, Inga Bernstein, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.