The man suspected of abducting and killing his 12-year-old niece, Brooke Bennett of Braintree, in June was indicted Wednesday on federal charges that could bring the death penalty.A grand jury says convicted rapist Michael Jacques, 42, of Randolph drugged, sexually assaulted, strangled and smothered Brooke and placed a plastic bag over her head. The six-count indictment calls the killing premeditated, intentional and “especially heinous, cruel, or depraved.”
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The man suspected of abducting and killing his 12-year-old niece, Brooke Bennett of Braintree, in June was indicted Wednesday on federal charges that could bring the death penalty.
A grand jury says convicted rapist Michael Jacques, 42, of Randolph drugged, sexually assaulted, strangled and smothered Brooke and placed a plastic bag over her head. The six-count indictment calls the killing premeditated, intentional and “especially heinous, cruel, or depraved.”
• Indictment: Full PDF (360 Kb)
• Press Release: Jacques indicted: Full PDF (592 Kb)
• Press Release: Gagnon to face child pornography charges: Full PDF (922 Kb)
• Blog: Careful handling of Jacques case
• Timeline of investigation
• History of probation release
• Audio Slideshow: Bennett funeral
Community reaction to disappearance
Police discuss disappearance
Press Conference: Body found
Funeral: Saying goodbye to Brooke
Photos of Brooke Bennett
Jacques, jailed since late June, faces charges of kidnapping with death resulting, production of child pornography and possession of child pornography.
News of the indictment was first reported Wednesday by The Burlington Free Press.
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The indictment and supporting documents revealed the cause of Brooke’s death but remained silent on Jacques’ alleged motive.
Court papers say Jacques told a local girl whom he had sexually abused for years that operatives in an Internet sex ring had ordered Brooke’s murder because she was causing problems for him and making him feel suicidal. There is no evidence in the nine-page document to indicate Brooke actually was creating difficulties for Jacques.
Authorities allege Jacques fabricated the online ring, named it “Breckenridge” and masqueraded as its multiple members as a tool to manipulate and repeatedly sexually assault the other girl for five years, beginning when she was 9. Jacques was on probation at the time following his prison sentence for committing a 1992 rape.
Jacques’ three attorneys — two of whom are experts in defending clients facing execution — did not return messages seeking comment Wednesday.
Brooke’s relatives and Jacques’ wife declined interview requests.
In a joint statement, Vermont Attorney General Bill Sorrell and U.S. Attorney for Vermont Tom Anderson praised the work of law enforcement including the FBI and Vermont State Police in pursuing the months-long investigation. Anderson and Sorrell said they would offer no comment beyond the statement.
“Brooke Bennett’s death has saddened and shocked all Vermonters,” Anderson said.
• Indictment: Full PDF (360 Kb)
• Press Release: Jacques indicted: Full PDF (592 Kb)
• Press Release: Gagnon to face child pornography charges: Full PDF (922 Kb)
• Blog:Careful handling of Jacques case
Premeditation alleged
According to the indictment, Jacques dropped off Brooke on June 25 at a Randolph convenience store to make it appear they had parted ways, but then he picked her up nearby minutes later and drove her to his house.
“Jacques then drugged, sexually assaulted and murdered Brooke Bennett,” the indictment reads.
Court documents released previously say Jacques accessed Brooke’s account on the Internet social-networking site MySpace the night before she disappeared and concocted a sexually suggestive message to mislead authorities into believing she planned to rendezvous with someone in Texas.
Relatives reported her missing the night of June 25, 12 hours after she was last seen. The report triggered the state’s first Amber Alert and led to an expansive investigation that eventually stretched from central Vermont to Texas. Police found Brooke’s body July 2 in a shallow grave in Randolph, less than two miles from Jacques’ home.
The government alleges Jacques killed Brooke “in an especially heinous, cruel, or depraved manner, in that it involved serious physical abuse to the victim. ... Jacques committed the offense after substantial planning and premeditation.”
The immediate cause of Brooke’s death was “strangulation and smothering,” and the underlying cause was “plastic bag over head and around neck,” said Cindy Hooley, vital statistics information manager for the Vermont Health Department. The information came in a request Wednesday from the Chief Medical Examiner’s Office to update Brooke’s death certificate, which until now had listed the manner of death as a homicide but the cause as pending.
An arraignment for Jacques is not yet scheduled, according to records from U.S. District Court in Burlington. He is jailed without bail with other federal inmates at the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans Town.
• Audio Slideshow: Bennett funeral
Community reaction to disappearance
Police discuss disappearance
Press Conference: Body found
Funeral: Saying goodbye to Brooke
Legal maneuvering
The indictment comes after three months of investigating and legal wrangling.
Government lawyers in late July obtained a 60-day extension to rules mandating a speedy trial, which normally require a grand jury to hand up an indictment within 30 days of a suspect’s arrest. Jacques was scheduled to make an initial appearance Aug. 13 in federal court, but his newly appointed attorneys waived the proceeding, during which an FBI agent was to testify about the allegations.
Also Wednesday, federal prosecutors asked for the dismissal of related charges of obstruction of justice against Raymond Gagnon, 40, of San Antonio, Brooke’s former stepfather. The charge alleged Gagnon disposed of a laptop computer that contained child pornography and other evidence connected to Brooke’s kidnapping.
A one-paragraph motion does not explain why the government is seeking the dismissal, and Anderson declined to comment.
Gagnon is expected to be taken soon to Texas to face federal charges there alleging he produced and transported child pornography, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a news release.
The indictment
Jacques previously had been charged in a criminal complaint only with kidnapping. The actions of the grand jury, which met in Rutland, elevated that charge to the more severe allegations.
The five counts of the indictment allege:
-- Count One, kidnapping with death resulting: Beginning in 2003, Jacques “intimidated and deceived” the local girl “into believing that she had to engage in sexual acts with him or a powerful organization named ‘Breckenridge’ would kill her.”
Jacques invented characters who belonged to the group and communicated with the girl using various aliases. He gave the girl drugs prior to sexually abusing her, and he videotaped the abuse. He told her Breckenridge occasionally “terminated” girls, and the organization might require her help in planning, but not committing, a slaying.
In May, Jacques told the girl that Brooke “had been designated for termination” because she had become a problem, and he enlisted the girl’s assistance. Between June 20 and 25, Jacques “unlawfully seized, confined, inveigled, decoyed, kidnapped, abducted, and carried away Brooke Bennett” through cell-phone text messages, e-mails and postings on MySpace.
The count essentially alleges that Jacques, through his own actions and those of the girl he coerced, spent those days manipulating and deceiving Brooke to make her more susceptible to the kidnapping that was to come. On June 24, for instance, Jacques and the girl “lured” Brooke to his home by convincing her she was going to be a guest at a pool party the next day.
Jacques took Brooke to a Cumberland Farms convenience store at about 9 a.m. June 25, where surveillance cameras appeared to capture uncle and niece parting company, but Jacques and the girl picked up Brooke nearby and took her back to the house, where Jacques told the other girl to leave.
The killing occurred “during the commission of a kidnapping.” Jacques “intentionally inflicted serious bodily injury” and “intentionally participated in an act, contemplating that the life of a person would be taken or intending that lethal force would be used.”
-- Counts Two through Five, production of child pornography: Jacques created sexually explicit videotapes involving the local girl around Christmas 2003, between 2004 and 2008, and twice in 2005.
-- Count Six, possession of child pornography: The indictment provides little information about this charge, saying only that Jacques on June 25 possessed “matter” that showed a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct.
The U.S. Attorney General will decide whether to seek the death penalty. Prosecutors said they are expecting that determination within several months.
Contact Adam Silverman at 660-1854 or asilverm@bfp.burlingtonfreepress.com
The indictment and supporting documents revealed the cause of Brooke’s death but remained silent on Jacques’ alleged motive.
Court papers say Jacques told a local girl whom he had sexually abused for years that operatives in an Internet sex ring had ordered Brooke’s murder because she was causing problems for him and making him feel suicidal. There is no evidence in the nine-page document to indicate Brooke actually was creating difficulties for Jacques.
Authorities allege Jacques fabricated the online ring, named it “Breckenridge” and masqueraded as its multiple members as a tool to manipulate and repeatedly sexually assault the other girl for five years, beginning when she was 9. Jacques was on probation at the time following his prison sentence for committing a 1992 rape.
Jacques’ three attorneys — two of whom are experts in defending clients facing execution — did not return messages seeking comment Wednesday.
Brooke’s relatives and Jacques’ wife declined interview requests.
In a joint statement, Vermont Attorney General Bill Sorrell and U.S. Attorney for Vermont Tom Anderson praised the work of law enforcement including the FBI and Vermont State Police in pursuing the months-long investigation. Anderson and Sorrell said they would offer no comment beyond the statement.
“Brooke Bennett’s death has saddened and shocked all Vermonters,” Anderson said.
Premeditation alleged
According to the indictment, Jacques dropped off Brooke on June 25 at a Randolph convenience store to make it appear they had parted ways, but then he picked her up nearby minutes later and drove her to his house.
“Jacques then drugged, sexually assaulted and murdered Brooke Bennett,” the indictment reads.
Court documents released previously say Jacques accessed Brooke’s account on the Internet social-networking site MySpace the night before she disappeared and concocted a sexually suggestive message to mislead authorities into believing she planned to rendezvous with someone in Texas.
Relatives reported her missing the night of June 25, 12 hours after she was last seen. The report triggered the state’s first Amber Alert and led to an expansive investigation that eventually stretched from central Vermont to Texas. Police found Brooke’s body July 2 in a shallow grave in Randolph, less than two miles from Jacques’ home.
The government alleges Jacques killed Brooke “in an especially heinous, cruel, or depraved manner, in that it involved serious physical abuse to the victim. ... Jacques committed the offense after substantial planning and premeditation.”
The immediate cause of Brooke’s death was “strangulation and smothering,” and the underlying cause was “plastic bag over head and around neck,” said Cindy Hooley, vital statistics information manager for the Vermont Health Department. The information came in a request Wednesday from the Chief Medical Examiner’s Office to update Brooke’s death certificate, which until now had listed the manner of death as a homicide but the cause as pending.
An arraignment for Jacques is not yet scheduled, according to records from U.S. District Court in Burlington. He is jailed without bail with other federal inmates at the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans Town.
Legal maneuvering
The indictment comes after three months of investigating and legal wrangling.
Government lawyers in late July obtained a 60-day extension to rules mandating a speedy trial, which normally require a grand jury to hand up an indictment within 30 days of a suspect’s arrest. Jacques was scheduled to make an initial appearance Aug. 13 in federal court, but his newly appointed attorneys waived the proceeding, during which an FBI agent was to testify about the allegations.
Also Wednesday, federal prosecutors asked for the dismissal of related charges of obstruction of justice against Raymond Gagnon, 40, of San Antonio, Brooke’s former stepfather. The charge alleged Gagnon disposed of a laptop computer that contained child pornography and other evidence connected to Brooke’s kidnapping.
A one-paragraph motion does not explain why the government is seeking the dismissal, and Anderson declined to comment.
Gagnon is expected to be taken soon to Texas to face federal charges there alleging he produced and transported child pornography, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a news release.
The indictment
Jacques previously had been charged in a criminal complaint only with kidnapping. The actions of the grand jury, which met in Rutland, elevated that charge to the more severe allegations.
The five counts of the indictment allege:
-- Count One, kidnapping with death resulting: Beginning in 2003, Jacques “intimidated and deceived” the local girl “into believing that she had to engage in sexual acts with him or a powerful organization named ‘Breckenridge’ would kill her.”
Jacques invented characters who belonged to the group and communicated with the girl using various aliases. He gave the girl drugs prior to sexually abusing her, and he videotaped the abuse. He told her Breckenridge occasionally “terminated” girls, and the organization might require her help in planning, but not committing, a slaying.
In May, Jacques told the girl that Brooke “had been designated for termination” because she had become a problem, and he enlisted the girl’s assistance. Between June 20 and 25, Jacques “unlawfully seized, confined, inveigled, decoyed, kidnapped, abducted, and carried away Brooke Bennett” through cell-phone text messages, e-mails and postings on MySpace.
The count essentially alleges that Jacques, through his own actions and those of the girl he coerced, spent those days manipulating and deceiving Brooke to make her more susceptible to the kidnapping that was to come. On June 24, for instance, Jacques and the girl “lured” Brooke to his home by convincing her she was going to be a guest at a pool party the next day.
Jacques took Brooke to a Cumberland Farms convenience store at about 9 a.m. June 25, where surveillance cameras appeared to capture uncle and niece parting company, but Jacques and the girl picked up Brooke nearby and took her back to the house, where Jacques told the other girl to leave.
The killing occurred “during the commission of a kidnapping.” Jacques “intentionally inflicted serious bodily injury” and “intentionally participated in an act, contemplating that the life of a person would be taken or intending that lethal force would be used.”
-- Counts Two through Five, production of child pornography: Jacques created sexually explicit videotapes involving the local girl around Christmas 2003, between 2004 and 2008, and twice in 2005.
-- Count Six, possession of child pornography: The indictment provides little information about this charge, saying only that Jacques on June 25 possessed “matter” that showed a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct.
The U.S. Attorney General will decide whether to seek the death penalty. Prosecutors said they are expecting that determination within several months.
Source : burlingtonfreepress
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