The Baffling, frustrating Lavigne case
In my 60 years at the Gazette, I've covered a lot of crime and justice cases -- but only one has touched my own family. I think a tragic mistake occurred in Putnam County's controversial Joe Lavigne case. I think he was wrongly convicted of a hideous rape he didn't commit, then temporarily cleared after 15 years in prison, but now he's back in a cell. I think the case against him was so flimsy it never should have been filed.
The baffling, frustrating Lavigne case
by James A. Haught
December 7, 2012
Charlestown Gazette
In my 60 years at the Gazette, I've covered a lot of crime and justice cases -- but only one has touched my own family.
I think a tragic mistake occurred in Putnam County's controversial Joe Lavigne case. I think he was wrongly convicted of a hideous rape he didn't commit, then temporarily cleared after 15 years in prison, but now he's back in a cell. I think the case against him was so flimsy it never should have been filed.
Journalism ethics say I shouldn't write these things, because Lavigne is my son's brother-in-law, and I'm not supposed to discuss my relatives. But no other writer knows the story as personally -- so here goes:
On a February night in 1996, Lavigne's 5-year-old daughter Katie was taken from their Hurricane home and brutally raped on a church lawn across the street. The attacker took her clothing, which never was found. The little girl returned to the family bathroom and tried to cope with her bleeding. The father woke at dawn, found her, and yelled for his wife.
