they should have been studing @ the vatican..
Set free to prey: Released sex fiends went on to kill, rape
by Jessica Heslam and Dave Wedge
Monday, November 17, 2003
A Cape Cod priest entangled in a Falmouth murder probe was a central figure at a Bridgewater treatment center more than a decade ago during a mass exodus of hardcore criminals set free only to murder and rape again.
The Rev. Donald Turlick and a group of psychologists and counselors, some of whom are still treating and testifying today on behalf of sex offenders, paved the road to freedom for three future killers, two accused killers, at least three repeat rapists and other offenders from the center's 12-bed halfway house from 1989 to 1992, a Herald review of court documents and interviews with former employees found.
``I don't believe they should ever be released. I don't think they were rehabilitated at all,'' said Linda Kenney, whose teenage son, Jason Marble, was killed in 1991 by William Locke, a serial rapist set free in November 1989.
Some of those same therapists - including Turlick - had a hand in the release of alleged murderer Paul Nolin, who was released from the Massachusetts Treatment Center in 1995, records show.
The therapists' conclusions during those controversial years continue to have devastating ramifications, highlighted by the Sept. 20 killing of 20-year-old Jonathan Wessner, allegedly by Nolin, a convicted child rapist.
Nolin, 39, was deemed no longer sexually dangerous by five mental health professionals, including Turlick, who ran the troubled release house in the early 1990s.
``We're going to investigate at the appropriate time, top to bottom, the process that allowed this man to go free and kill,'' said Phil Tracy, an attorney and spokesman for the Wessner family. ``We're getting calls all the time that this system was, and is, a disaster.''
Turlick, 68, came to the center in 1989 as a therapist and counseled Nolin and Michael Kelley, a twice-convicted rapist who killed two Plymouth women after his 1992 release. Turlick's recommendation helped lead a judge in 1995 to find Nolin no longer sexually dangerous, allowing him to go back to prison and finish his sentence for the 1982 rape of a 10-year-old Lowell boy.
Nolin was released in 2000 and moved into an apartment in Turlick's Mashpee home. The pair were reportedly sexually involved, a claim denied by Nolin's lawyer, Robert Nolan, and Turlick's spokeswoman, attorney Kathleen English, who is Nolan's wife.
Turlick was the release team leader at the Bridgewater halfway house during a troubled time marred by questionable assessments by therapists who helped free a disturbing number of future killers - including Locke, Kelley, Ronald Leftwich and, allegedly, Nathaniel Bar-Jonah and Nolin. Several rapists freed during the same time also continued their horrific criminal ways, including Thomas Tripp and David Lord. Lord, who was counseled by Turlick, was freed in 1990 only to commit a violent sexual assault on a Fall River woman in 1996.
``He may have been a team leader, but no decisions were ever made without consultation with many people. He is a very minor player in all of this,'' English said of Turlick, a priest on leave from the Bridgeport, Conn., diocese.
A Herald review found:
Dr. Liza Brooks, Cambridge psychologist, determined that Locke and Leftwich were no longer sexually dangerous. Leftwich, a Cape Cod rapist who spent 13 years at the center, was released from Bridgewater in 1991 and wrapped up his prison sentence in 1995. The next year, he beat to death Brimfield priest Martin-Henri. Leftwich is now serving a life sentence for that crime.
Brooks' evaluation of Bar-Jonah was among those that led to the 1991 release of the Webster child predator, who kidnapped and sexually assaulted two boys and allegedly killed and cannibalized a third, all in Montana. Brooks did not return calls.
Dr. Leonard Bard also determined Locke, a serial rapist with a record dating back to 1974, was no longer sexually dangerous, and reported in 1990 that Bar-Jonah had addressed ``the issue of his sexual offenses through therapy.'' A Fall River psychologist, Bard still testifies for the courts, most recently testifying in Worcester Superior Court in May that cross-dressing child rapist Sandy Jo Battista of Millbury was no longer sexually dangerous. A jury disagreed, keeping him in the treatment center. Bard did not return several calls.
Dr. Cornelius Kiley of Milton determined Nolin was no longer sexually dangerous, saying he had made significant progress and was unlikely to reoffend. Kiley also found that Tripp was no longer sexually dangerous. Tripp, 52, was released in 1992 and four years later raped two New Bedford women on the same day.
Kiley said state examiners, including himself, rarely recommend the release of sex offenders.
``It's tough when you read about someone like Mr. Nolin. It's your worst nightmare,'' said Kiley, who still evaluates offenders.
Dr. Daniel Kriegman concluded that Nolin and Leftwich were no longer sexually dangerous and testified for Tripp's release in a failed 1989 bid for freedom. Kriegman also recently testified in favor of Battista's release.
A Newton psychologist often hired by defense attorneys, Kriegman defended his decision on Nolin. Still, he admitted predicting future behavior - especially by offenders locked up for years - is ``as good as tossing a coin.''
``Us psychologists and psychiatrists are extremely poor predictors,'' he said. ``There needs to be a different mechanism for holding people society doesn't want on the streets.''
The law requires doctors to testify that an offender remains sexually dangerous ``beyond a reasonable doubt.'' Kriegman argued that the system is flawed and should be handled through harsher sentences - not ``courtroom voodoo.''
``I don't feel good when I testify in these cases,'' he said. ``Often, when I find someone is not sexually dangerous, I'm relieved when they are still found sexually dangerous.''
Dr. Don Greif, who is now in New York but is still licensed in the Bay State, determined that Leftwich and Tripp were no longer sexually dangerous.
Greif, now a private psychoanalyst in Manhattan who sometimes testifies for New York authorities, couldn't recall specifics of the Leftwich or Tripp cases, but called sexual dangerousness evaluations ``very tricky business.''
``One thing psychologists learn is that you can't predict future behavior,'' he said.
And Dr. Theoharis Seghorn, who is deceased, found Tripp, Locke and Kelley all not sexually dangerous.
Other halfway house alumni determined to be not sexually dangerous between 1990 and 1992 who went on to reoffend are James Bradley, a rapist who got nabbed in a Martha's Vineyard drug ring; Vernon Shippee, who is in jail for assaulting a girl in Burlington, Vt.; and Ralph Houghton, who is charged with sexually assaulting a teenage girl in Lakeville.
A judge ultimately lifted the sexually dangerous person tag from each of the rapists - based on the therapists' evaluations - and they were released, some to the streets and some to prison, where they finished their sentences and were paroled. Of the 35 predators in the halfway house in 1991, at least 15 are now out, none of whom are listed publicly as sex offenders.
A recent joint investigation by the Herald and Fox 25 found that the state has lost track of one-third of the most dangerous sex offenders and that more than 8,000 aren't registered. The report sparked outcry and a vow from Gov. Mitt Romney to overhaul the Sex Offender Registry Board.
Judge Suzanne DelVecchio, head of the state's Superior Courts, said judges rely on the doctors' expertise in deciding predators' fates.
``It's not easy and it's probably some of the most difficult decision-making as judges we make, because no one has a crystal ball,'' DelVecchio said.
Turlick was laid off from the treatment center in 1992. He is now retired from the state and runs a private practice on Cape Cod, specializing in socializing ex-convicts.
Kelley's case led to the controversial release program's 1992 shutdown and prompted the DMH to cede control to the Department of Correction.
Five inmates had been living in the release house until last month's high-profile escape of John McIntyre, a rapist who was in the program under Turlick.
Kenney, Marble's mother, was Locke's supervisor at a Brockton plastic shop, where Locke worked under the center's furlough program.
``Had I known what he was in there for, I would have never had anything to do with him, most of all let my son go and stay with him,'' Kenney said.
The murder was dubbed the ``needle and thread'' killing because Locke sewed up the 18-year-old's neck wound after stabbing him in a deadly lovers' spat.
For the Wessner family, the controversy over Nolin's release and disclosure of similar cases has compounded their grief.
``That is (the family's) quest - to do whatever we have to do to make sure this never happens again,'' Tracy, the family's attorney, said. ``And that's to prevent the premature and inappropriate release of sex offenders who go out and kill.''
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