VT- Bennett case shows flaws in system

What this case shows is a flaw in thinking by folks who think someone can predict if/when a person -who is bent on recidivating- will recidivate. Longer sentences will not change the facts, at best, it puts off further into the future what the person will do if his/her mind is made up to recidiviate. The answer is getting the offender to make changes within self, and that issue is not even on the table in these talks; therapy, in this case, of a different kind.

12-19-2008 Vermont:

Jacques’ wife testifies at Senate hearing

MONTPELIER — In her first public comments since the rape and murder of Brooke Bennett, the wife of accused killer Michael Jacques told lawmakers that a broken legal system abetted her husband's alleged crimes.

Denise Jacques, a silent fixture in her husband's federal courtroom hearings, spoke out for the first time Wednesday in a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee. She said failures in the state's legal and corrections systems have inflicted torment not only on her slain niece, but on her and other members of her family, as well.

"I come before you in this letter to speak to you on the impact that the failures of the state legal system, Department of Corrections, Department of Children and Family Services, treatment programs and others have had upon my life and my families' lives," Denise Jacques wrote. "… Let me say that there are yet other victims that you have not directly heard from and those are myself, my family and my friends."

Denise Jacques offered her testimony as the Senate Judiciary Committee finishes work on a wide-ranging bill crafted in the wake of Brooke's death. The body of the 12-year-old Braintree girl was discovered in a shallow grave near the Jacques' Randolph Center home in early July, one week after the young girl's grandmother reported her missing.

A grand jury later indicted Michael Jacques, Bennett's uncle and Denise Jacques' husband, on federal charges that may carry the death penalty.

In her letter, Denise Jacques takes the state to task for failing to adequately corral her husband, a convicted sex offender with a long history of violations.

"There was a failure of the systems, policies, procedures and laws," she writes. "These failures go back many years and to this day continue."

Denise Jacques has been advised by federal prosecutors not to speak about the case. Efforts to contact her Thursday were unsuccessful.

Jacques called her husband a master of manipulation who, to this day, continues to harass and control her family.

"… Michael Jacques continues from behind bars in a jail cell to use deception and manipulation. It hasn't stopped, it continues!" she wrote. "He still pulls strings and has control over what happens in our lives from behind bars."

Denise Jacques urged a focus on prevention as lawmakers proceed with a 34-point plan aimed at curbing sex crimes against children. She also called for harsher penalties for convicted offenders and strict oversight of inmates released back into society.

The Department of Corrections' assessment of Michael Jacques as a model patient in the state's sex offender treatment program, she said, duped her and her family into believing he was no longer a threat.

"Let it be heard that I, my family, and my friends believed that we could find certainty outside in others, that the professionals knew what was best," she wrote. "… And as a result a life was taken and other lives have been shredded to pieces. Years robbed from the life of an innocent child never to be replaced."

Michael Jacques was arraigned in late June for aggravated sexual assault against a minor. That crime, which was later dismissed without explanation, was allegedly committed against a young girl other than Brooke Bennett.

Bennett's biological mother, Cassandra Gagnon, also appeared at the Judiciary Committee's hearing Wednesday. She pleaded with legislators for a statute that would toughen existing laws.

"I just don't want to be quiet anymore," Gagnon said.

She said she attended the hearing to represent her daughter. The more she learns about Jacques' handling by the state, Gagnon said, the more she wants to speak out.

"With me being here, they'll keep in mind why they're making the decisions they're making," she said.

Sen. Dick Sears, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Thursday that Denise Jacques' letter offered insight into to scope of Michael Jacques' manipulative tendencies.

"I thought it was very well written, heartfelt," he said. "I felt like she was trying to express that she was manipulated by Jacques … and what I gathered from it is that she feels in some quarters she's been misinterpreted."

Sears said he hopes to have an omnibus bill out of his committee and over to the House by mid-January. The bill imposes mandatory minimum sentences of 25 years for some sex offenders, enforces the creation of special investigation units and mandates education initiatives intended to prevent child sexual abuse.

The bill also would enhance oversight of sex offenders and require all people arraigned of a felony to submit DNA samples.

Sears said he hopes to have the bill to the governor's desk by Town Meeting Day. Asked whether the ongoing fiscal strain might hamper efforts to institute special investigative units — estimated to carry a price tag of up to $2 million — Sears said he's hopeful the proposal will be a priority for both the Legislature and the administration.

He noted that a 2006 bill directed the state to have SIUs in place across the state by the summer of 2009. Other elements of the bill, including prevention education and more stringent offender oversight, also would require new funding.

"Even in very difficult economic times there are certain functions of government that must go on, and one of those is the protection of the public," Sears said. "And from what our committee has learned, one of the most effective ways to help protect the public is the funding of the SIUs." ..News Source.. by Peter Hirschfeld Vermont Press Bureau