MA- Mom gets free legal aid in McBooted perv’s lawsuit

4-2-2008 Massachusetts:

A Tewksbury mom being sued by a Level 3 sex offender tossed from his job flipping burgers will be defended by a nationally known activist attorney - for free.

“I’m embarrassed this is going on in Massachusetts,” said attorney Wendy Murphy (of Duke Case) of the lawsuit slapped on her client, Andrea Quinn, 44.

Quinn is being sued in Middlesex Superior Court by Scott Gagnon for invasion of privacy and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Gagnon served 27 years in prison for five hitchhiker rapes he committed in Essex County in the late 1970s, a fact Quinn pointed out to his employer.

“(Quinn) didn’t do anything to this guy. All she did was call attention to the fact that he is a dangerous man. She should be citizen of the year, not be sued,” said Murphy, a professor at New England School of Law and author of “And Justice for Some.”

As the Herald reported yesterday, Gagnon, 50, is suing both Quinn and the Napoli Group, which owns the Tewksbury McDonald’s, where he worked for six months.

After Quinn found Gagnon’s work address on the Sex Offender Registry Board’s Web site last month and called McDonald’s to complain, Gagnon was fired.

Peter Napoli, whose Napoli Group owns the McDonald’s where Gagnon worked, told the Herald it’s “company policy” not to hire sex offenders.

Gagnon’s attorney, William Korman, shot back yesterday saying, “There’s a big difference between public awareness and economic vigilantism.

“Shouldn’t Mr. Gagnon receive credit also for trying to do the right thing?” Korman added. “He didn’t want to be a burden to society again.”

That Gagnon paid his debt to society is of no interest to Murphy.

“O.J. (Simpson) was acquitted. I don’t care. I wouldn’t date the guy,” she said. ..more.. by Laurel J. Sweet

See earlier story: Convicted rapist sues after McDonald's fires him