Michael Jacques - kidnapping/poss murder B. Bennet - Date TB
Death penalty possible in Vermont sex-kidnap By DAVE GRAM, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 47 minutes ago BURLINGTON, Vt. - Federal prosecutors have filed kidnapping charges that carry the death penalty against a Vermont man whose 12-year-old niece was found dead near his home. Authorities accused Michael Jacques, 42, of carefully orchestrating events and e-mails to make it appear that Brooke Bennett had gone on June 25 to see someone she had met online, according to an affidavit accompanying the charges. Citing statements from another underage girl, prosecutors claim that Jacques tricked Brooke into thinking she was going to a party and instead took her to his home to initiate her into a child sex ring. Michael Desautels, the federal public defender representing Jacques, did not return calls Thursday morning. E-mails quoted in an affidavit released Thursday accuse Jacques of coercing or enlisting the second girl to participate. The girl wrote, "yes. I will help," one e-mail said. Jacques is charged under a federal law that provides for the death penalty in a kidnapping resulting in a child's death. Jacques has 1993 convictions for kidnapping and aggravated sexual assault. With autopsy results still pending, prosecutors said they could not say that Brooke was murdered. If she was, U.S. Attorney Tom Anderson was asked if he would seek the death penalty. "That determination would be made after the investigation is completed, after the case is presented to a grand jury and, ultimately, that decision is made by the attorney general of the United States of America," Anderson said. Meantime, state charges alleging that Jacques sexually assaulted a different girl over a five-year period were dropped, but could be refiled. Vermont Attorney General William Sorrell said there is plenty of work ahead "both in terms of investigation and prosecution." In the affidavits, authorities accused Jacques of making a MySpace posting, purportedly from Brooke, indicating that she planned a rendezvous on June 25 with someone she had met online. He also is charged with planting evidence, including some of Brooke's clothing and a plastic bag containing semen, to make it appear someone else had abducted the girl. Brooke, who had just finished seventh grade at Randolph Union High School, disappeared on June 25 after being seen at a convenience store with Jacques. After searching in and around his home across town for days, police said they found the girl's body in a spot where the earth had been disturbed. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080703/ap_on_re_us/missing_girl

Posted on Fri, Jul. 04, 2008 Prosecutors: Deception ran deep in Vt. kidnapping By DAVE GRAM Associated Press Writer BURLINGTON, Vt. -- A Vermont man whose 12-year-old niece was found dead near his home carefully orchestrated events and e-mails to make it appear she had gone to see someone she met online, prosecutors said Thursday as they charged him with kidnapping. Michael Jacques, 42, could face the death penalty under federal law if convicted in the disappearance of Brooke Bennett. An autopsy has not confirmed whether the girl was killed. Citing statements from another girl, prosecutors claim in an affidavit that Jacques tricked Brooke into thinking she was going to a party and instead took her to his Randolph home to initiate her into a child sex ring on June 25, the day she disappeared. The girl's body was found Wednesday in a shallow grave near Jacques' house. But no new evidence of a wider child sex ring has been found, beyond the claims of the 14-year-old that were released Wednesday in another affidavit unsealed in U.S. District Court in Burlington, officials said. "There's nothing from this investigation that's been turned up, nor otherwise are federal and state authorities aware of, any ongoing efforts to recruit young girls or boys here in Vermont to have sex with adults," Vermont Attorney General William Sorrell said at a news conference Thursday. Authorities said they still weren't sure if there was a sex ring or whether there was a ruse Jacques might have used to intimidate the girls. Michael Desautels, the federal public defender representing Jacques, didn't return calls Thursday. Authorities say Jacques faked and altered postings to Brooke's MySpace pages in an effort to persuade investigators she planned to run off with someone she met through the social networking site. The tampering was discovered by the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, housed at the Burlington Police Department. Jacques is charged under a federal law that provides for the death penalty in a kidnapping resulting in a child's death. In 1993, he was sentenced to six to 20 years in prison after being convicted of kidnapping and raping an 18-year-old woman he supervised at a Rutland restaurant, court records show. He successfully completed the state's sex offender treatment program in 2000 and was released from probation in 2006. With autopsy results still pending, prosecutors said they could not say that Bennett was killed. If she was, U.S. Attorney Tom Anderson was asked whether he would seek the death penalty. "That determination would be made after the investigation is completed, after the case is presented to a grand jury and, ultimately, that decision is made by the attorney general of the United States of America," Anderson said. The FBI affidavits support the charges against Jacques and against Bennett's former stepfather, Raymond Gagnon, who is charged with obstructing justice. Allegations in the affidavits include a claim by a 14-year-old that, at age 9, she was initiated into a "program for sex" called "Breckenridge" and that a male relative was to be her trainer. The girl told police that she was told she would be killed if she didn't cooperate. The teenager told authorities that Brooke was to be inducted into the sex ring the day she disappeared. http://www.star-telegram.com/190/story/740192.html

Dead Vt. Girl’s Former Stepfather Due In Court Ray Gagnon Facing Obstruction Of Justice Charge POSTED: 2:29 pm EDT July 6, 2008 UPDATED: 2:39 pm EDT July 6, 2008 MONTPELIER, Vt. -- Brooke Bennett's former stepfather is due in federal court Monday to face allegations that he hindered the investigation into the 12-year-old Randolph girl's kidnapping and death. Ray Gagnon, 40, of San Antonio, is alleged to have had his Texas roommate throw away his laptop computer that Gagnon told the FBI contained images of child pornography. He has not yet entered a plea to the obstruction of justice charge. Bennett's uncle Michael Jacques, 42, of Randolph, Vt., is facing federal kidnapping charges. Court documents said he was the last person known publicly to have been seen with Bennett. Court documents alleged that hours after Jacques dropped Bennett off in downtown Randolph on the morning of June 25, he picked her up again and took her to his home. A key witness in the case told investigators she felt Bennett was to be initiated that day into "a program for sex." The witness said she last saw Bennett going upstairs in the home with Jacques. Bennett's body was discovered July 2 in a shallow grave in Randolph. No cause of death has been released and law enforcement officials have not publicly classified her death as a homicide. There's no word on when Jacques will appear in federal court to answer the kidnapping charge. Jacques was charged last week in state court with aggravated sexual assault on charges he had repeated sexual contact over the last five years with a now-14-year-old girl. He pleaded innocent to the state charges. Federal prosecutors said they could seek the death penalty against Jacques on the federal kidnapping with death resulting charge. Gagnon is being held at the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans. Jacques is being held at the Southern State Correctional Facility in Springfield. Meanwhile, a wake is set for Tuesday evening for Bennett at Randolph Union High School with a funeral set for Wednesday morning at the same location. Gagnon is due in federal court in Burlington at 1:30 p.m. http://www.thebostonchannel.com/news/16803521/detail.html?rss=bos&psp=news

Parole Officer Recommended Release of Vermont Girl's Sex Offender Uncle Friday, July 11, 2008 MONTPELIER, Vt. — Reversing what it said last week, the state Department of Corrections now says it recommended the release from probation of a convicted sex offender accused of kidnapping 12-year-old Brooke Bennett. Michael Jacques, 42, was released from probation in 2006, after serving more than four years in prison and being supervised for eight years for kidnapping and sexually assaulting an 18-year-old woman in 1992. Gov. Jim Douglas said Thursday that the Corrections Department's recommendation was a mistake. "That's why I've asked the corrections commissioner to look at the procedure for making these determinations, making sure there's adequate oversight, and that it's not just one or two people in the department making the recommendation on such an important manner," he said. Corrections Commissioner Rob Hofmann said that a probation officer had recommended in 2004 that Jacques be discharged from probation, after not supporting a release request the year before. "Mr. Jacques has satisfied and fulfilled all case specific conditions of probation put in place to reduce his risk of re-offense," wrote probation officer Richard Kearney. In 2004, with Kearney's recommendation, Judge Amy Davenport ruled that Jacques' probation end in 2006, as long as no violations occurred and despite strong objections from prosecutors. "According to Mr. Jacques' probation officer, he is a 'probation success story,"' Davenport wrote in her order. "He is married and has a child. He and his wife own a home in which they reside. He has been very successful in his employment and is now in a position which entails significant responsibility." Last week Jacques was charged with orchestrating the abduction of his niece Brooke, who disappeared June 25 and was found dead a week later. Her body was discovered in a shallow grave about a mile from his home. In the earlier case, the state urged that Jacques be supervised for the maximum of 20 years given the brutality of the crime. Corrections Commissioner Rob Hofmann said the duration of Jacques' probation was indeterminate. According to a police affidavit, in the 1992 case Jacques abducted the high school senior after she left a Barre bar, handcuffed her, put a rope around her neck and cloth in her mouth and forced her to engage in sex acts. He told her he had killed a girl in Arizona seven years earlier and at one point held a knife to the woman's throat, the affidavit said. Davenport agreed with the state's assessment of the brutality involved, but disagreed with the state that he should spend another eight years on probation. Jacques had completed a sex offender treatment program in 2000. "The primary purpose of the probationary portion of the defendant's sentence was to ensure that defendant received appropriate rehabilitative treatment and to monitor him to ensure that he did not relapse and once again pose a threat to others," she wrote. At his weekly news conference earlier in the day, the governor said Brooke's case warranted a serious discussion about the appropriate penalties for certain heinous crimes. Jessica's Law, a tougher sex offender registry law and civil confinement, which would keep certain sexually violent inmates beyond their maximum prison terms should be on the table, he said. Death penalty for sexual assault on a minor with death resulting, which Douglas said a number of people are calling for, and chemical castration for violent sexual predators, also should be part of the discussion, he said. Jessica's Law is named after a 9-year-old Florida girl who was kidnapped, raped and murdered by a convicted sex offender in 2005. It requires a mandatory minimum sentence of 25 years and electronic surveillance of sex offenders who prey on children under 12. But Douglas stopped short of calling a special session of the Legislature, saying based on previous actions on his sex offender proposals he did not have confidence that the Legislature would be effective. "I'm not going to call the Legislature back unless and until there's complete agreement on a package so it can be handled expeditiously," he said. Senate President Pro Tem Peter Shumlin said he would be open to a special session but said none of the governor's suggestions would have helped in this case. He said he plans to ask the Senate Judiciary Committee to meet up to six times between now and Nov. 15 to examine why Jacques was released from probation; if sex offender laws passed since his 1993 conviction would have changed the alleged outcome; and what else can be done to make Vermont more safe. Senate Judiciary Chairman Richard Sears, D-Bennington, said the question to be asked is: "How do we keep kids safe from people they should be able to trust ... I don't think you do that in a two-day special session." http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,380541,00.html

Prosecutor: Vermont Girl's Death Was Homicide; Uncle Held Without Bail Monday, July 07, 2008 BURLINGTON, Vt. — A 12-year-old girl found dead last week in a shallow grave near her uncle's home was killed, a federal prosecutor said Monday at an initial appearance for the uncle on charges of kidnapping the girl. Michael Jacques, who is accused of abducting his niece, Brooke Bennett, was ordered held until his trial on a federal kidnapping charge. His attorney, Michael Desautels, did not ask U.S. Magistrate-Judge Jerome Niedermeier to release Jacques. "(Jacques) has a very serious criminal history demonstrating an extreme danger to the community," Assistant U.S. Attorney Craig Nolan said. Nolan said Brooke's death was a homicide, but he didn't say how she was killed. No one has been charged with her death. State police say it could take eight weeks before autopsy results are available. Jacques could face the death penalty if convicted under federal law of kidnapping resulting in Brooke's death. Prosecutors say Jacques, 42, abducted Brooke on June 25. After a weeklong search, she was found buried about a mile from his home in Randolph, about 50 miles southeast of Burlington. Jacques is a registered sex offender. He was convicted in 1993 of kidnapping and raping a woman he supervised at a fast food restaurant. Citing statements from another underage girl, prosecutors claim in an affidavit that Jacques tricked Brooke into thinking she was going to a party and instead took her to his Randolph home to initiate her into a child sex ring on the day she disappeared. At a hearing in the same court earlier Monday, Brooke's former stepfather, Raymond Gagnon, did not contest his continued detention on obstruction of justice charges related to the case. Gagnon, of San Antonio, is accused of having someone throw out his laptop computer a week ago while authorities were searching for Brooke. Gagnon married Brooke's mother in 2000, but they later divorced. During Gagnon's hearing, federal prosecutors in Alabama charged the 40-year-old with possessing child pornography at his former home in Cullman, Ala. In affidavits filed in Vermont, the FBI said Jacques changed a posting to Brooke's MySpace account the night she was reported missing. Gagnon also accessed the account that night, but denied changing the posting, according to the affidavit. In announcing the pornography charge, federal prosecutors in Birmingham, Ala., said Gagnon acknowledged trying to access the account again from a public computer in the Cullman library "on or about" June 26, the next day. The complaint in Alabama said Gagnon flew from San Antonio to Cullman that day and on to Burlington on June 27. Neither Jacques nor Gagnon has entered a plea. Both defense attorneys left the courthouse without speaking to reporters. Preliminary hearings on evidence against both Gagnon and Jacques were scheduled for July 17. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,377281,00.html

Jacques to plead not guilty By Sam Hemingway • Free Press Staff Writer • October 8, 2008 Michael Jacques will enter a not guilty plea today in connection with charges he kidnapped, sexually assaulted and killed his niece, 12-year-old Brooke Bennett of Braintree. Jacques' not guilty plea was contained in a motion filed at federal court in Burlington on Tuesday indicating he was waiving his right to appear at his arraignment today before Judge William Sessions III. U.S. Attorney Tom Anderson said Jacques' decision not to appear at his arraignment was an unusual move but said the proceeding will still be held in order to discuss how the case will go forward. "It's not that common," Anderson said of the appearance waiver. "It's usually used when the people being arraigned are from out of state." Jacques, 42, of Randolph, has been in federal custody since his arrest in late June after Brooke went missing. Michael Desautels, one of Jacques' appointed public defenders, did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday. Jacques was indicted last week on six counts related to Brooke's slaying. The most serious charge is kidnapping with death resulting. The other charges are related to child pornography. According to police affidavits, Jacques drugged and then raped Brooke on or about June 25 after driving her to his house on the pretense that she was going to a pool party. Jacques then fatally choked and smothered Brooke, police said. Her body was found July 2 near a sugar house a mile from his home. Prosecutors might seek the death penalty in the case, Anderson has said. Brooke was reported missing the night of June 25 by Jacques and a cousin of Brooke's. Her disappearance triggered a massive police search and the first use in Vermont of the Amber Alert system for reporting abducted children. Police said Jacques' alleged killing of Brooke was premeditated. Police contend he devised a scheme to throw police off the trail by planting clothes of hers near a Brookfield pond and by manipulating a MySpace account on the Internet to make it look like Brooke had left the state to rendezvous with someone in Texas. He also persuaded another young girl whom he had sexually assaulted in the past to help him abduct Brooke by telling the girl that an Internet sex ring called Breckenridge had ordered Brooke's murder because she had been causing trouble for Jacques, police said. Police have determined that the Breckenridge sex ring did not exist and was fabricated by Jacques. Contact Sam Hemingway at 660-1850 or e-mail at shemingway@bfp.burlingtonfreepress.com. http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081008/NEWS/810080311

Open question: Death penalty for Jacques? By Peter Hirschfeld Vermont Press Bureau - Published: December 24, 2008 BURLINGTON – U.S. Attorney Thomas Anderson said Tuesday that he has not yet decided whether to recommend the death penalty in the federal case against accused killer Michael Jacques. "I have not made any decision at this point," Anderson said following an afternoon hearing in U.S. District Court in Burlington. The hearing marked the latest developments the federal prosecution of Jacques, charged earlier this year in the rape and murder of his 12-year-old niece, Brooke Bennett. Lawyers for Jacques had sought to delay Anderson's recommendation on capital punishment until April. David Ruhnke, part of a New Jersey death penalty team representing Jacques, said the defense needed more time to examine the reams of government evidence against his client. "All we're seeking is what we think is a reasonable amount of time to do this," Ruhnke said via speaker phone during the hearing. "… We're not sure what the haste is here." Ruhnke said mitigating evidence uncovered during that examination could inform Anderson's decision one way or the other. Anderson countered in a written motion that the government opposes any "court intervention in its charging deliberations." U.S. Judge William Sessions sided with the prosecution, saying Tuesday that the court was not in a position to postpone Anderson's decision. "The threshold question is whether a judge should get involved in the deliberative process of a co-equal branch of government," Sessions said. "Except in extraordinary cir-cumstances, I think they should be free to schedule that process in a way they deem appropriate." Jacques' lawyers now have until Jan. 1 to present mitigating evidence against their client. Lawyers for Jacques spent an entire day last week at the Vermont State Police's Royalton barracks examining documents and physical evidence against Jacques, according to Ruhnke. He said investigators told him that much of the evidence against Jacques continues to undergo forensic examination crime labs. Ruhnke said it will take time to analyze the thousands of documents and hundreds of items of physical evidence that comprise the case against Jacques. "A mitigation specialist has been retained," Ruhnke said in a written motion seeking the extension. "… (W)hile certain information and documents have been collected by the defense, the mitigation investigation is at its beginning stages and much remains to be accomplished." Ruhnke said in the motion that the mitigation investigation was part of "an effort to convince the U.S. Attorney not to seek the death penalty." Anderson said, however, that defense lawyers would be free to present mitigating evidence long after he made a recommendation on whether to pursue capital punishment for Jacques. "Judge Sessions made it pretty clear they can present that mitigating evidence at any time basically between now and when we pick a jury for the case," Anderson said. Anderson will issue a recommendation on the death penalty to the U.S. Department of Justice. The U.S. Attorney General, under the Obama administration, will review the case and decide whether to uphold that recommendation, a process that generally takes about three months. In the vast majority of federal death penalty cases, the attorney general approves the prosecutor's recommendation. Prosecutors say Jacques' lured his young niece to his Randolph Center home on June 25 under the premise she would be attending a pool party. Instead, police say he drugged, raped and then killed her before concealing her body in a shallow grave about a mile from his home. Jacques has been jailed since he was arrested shortly after Bennett disappeared. http://www.timesargus.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081224/NEWS01/812240365/

Feds want death penalty for slain Vt. girl's uncle By WILSON RING • The Associated Press • August 25, 2009 MONTPELIER, Vt. - Federal prosecutors announced Tuesday they'll seek the death penalty for a convicted sex offender charged with luring his 12-year-old niece to his home with the promise of a pool party before molesting and strangling her. Advertisement Michael Jacques is accused of kidnapping and intentionally killing seventh-grader Brooke Bennett, whose body was found buried in a shallow grave near his home in July 2008 a week after she went missing. Prosecutor say Jacques, 43, had drugged Brooke before killing her and disposing of her body in Randolph, the small town where he lived just south of Montpelier and about a five-minute drive from her home in Braintree. The documents filed Tuesday list five findings that prosecutors contend make Jacques eligible for the death penalty under federal law and 19 aggravating factors, including that he killed Brooke after "substantial planning and premeditation." The decision to seek the death penalty was made Aug. 14 by U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, prosecutors said. On Tuesday the required notice of intent to seek the death penalty was filed in federal court in Burlington. Vermont U.S. Attorney Tristram Coffin, who took office last week, declined further comment. Brooke's father, Jim Bennett, said Tuesday the family was told about the decision to seek the death penalty before it was released. Jacques pleaded not guilty last fall to a variety of charges, including kidnapping with death resulting. His attorneys did not return telephone calls seeking comment Tuesday. Vermont does not have a state death penalty, but Jacques is being charged under federal law. If the case goes to trial it would be the third capital case tried in federal court in Vermont in the last decade. In 2005, Donald Fell was sentenced to death for the 2000 murder of a North Clarendon woman who was kidnapped from her job at a Rutland supermarket and was beaten to death in Pawling, N.Y. Fell, who admitted everything in great detail but claimed he was the victim of a horrible childhood, is on the federal death row in Terre Haute, Ind. In 2000, an Indiana man, Chris Dean, was charged with sending a bomb that killed a Fair Haven teenager in 1998. He agreed to plead guilty and was sentenced to life in prison. When Brooke disappeared in June 2008, investigators thought she had been abducted by someone she met online. But investigators said they soon determined that Jacques had created the cyberspace trail to throw them off. Jacques' indictment, handed down last October, alleges he used a 14-year-old girl to lure Brooke to his home by getting her to believe she would be a guest at a pool party there. The indictment and supporting affidavits make it clear prosecutors believe the 14-year-old left the home and Jacques drugged, sexually assaulted and then strangled Brooke. The 14-year-old told police she believed Brooke was destined for a child sex club the teen had been in since she was 9. Brooke was found buried about a mile from Jacques' house. Her death prompted the Vermont Legislature to revamp the state's sex offender laws. Jacques had been sentenced in 1993 to six to 20 years in prison for kidnapping and raping a teenager he supervised at a Rutland restaurant, court records show. He completed the state's sex offender treatment program in 2000 and was released from probation in 2006. http://www.jconline.com/article/20090825/NEWS03/90825026