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Cops ‘shocked’ perv was free; Judges failed to lock up alleged MGH attacker
Cops ‘shocked’ perv was free
Judges failed to lock up alleged MGH attacker
By O’Ryan Johnson and Marie Szanislo | Saturday, October 24, 2009 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Local Coverage
The serial sex fiend charged with mercilessly beating a woman during an attempted rape has been left free for years by judges who refused prosecutors’ pleas to lock him up as a sexually dangerous person.
David C. Flavell was first arrested for public lewdness in 1996, and has been racking up charges since. Yesterday, cops in two states said they are not surprised Flavell has escalated to a charge of violently assaulting and attempting to rape a woman who, beaten and blood-soaked, clawed her way out of a Massachusetts General Hospital bathroom Thursday. The cops who arrested him before can’t believe he was still on the street.
“We all thought he was done after the last one,” in 2008, said Salem, N.H., police Capt. Shawn Patten, whose officers locked up Flavell four times from 1996 to 2003. “We thought he was going to jail and would be there for a long time, given the charges against him. We were shocked to say the least to learn he was let out.”
Flavell, 40, who is homeless, was ordered held without bail after he pleaded not guilty to assault with intent to rape and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon yesterday in Boston Municipal Court.
He is accused of following the 27-year-old woman into an MGH restroom, grabbing her throat, slamming her to the ground, banging her head into the floor and repeatedly punching her in the face. He tore her jeans trying to rip them off, police said.
At the time of Thursday’s attack, Flavell was free on pretrial probation pending trial on a 2007 charge of making harassing phone calls in Boston. He has been arrested for sex crimes 14 times in eight communities in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, most recently in January 2008 in Braintree for a scenario that mirrors Thursday’s attack, records show. There, Flavell was convicted of accosting a woman in a Borders bathroom, authorities said. Braintree police deputy superintendent Russell Jenkins said in that case, Flavell’s would-be victim screamed so loudly that he was forced to flee.
“He didn’t get to finish what he intended to do, which is to rape the woman,” Jenkins said. “He was outside that ladies room pretending to be on a pay phone for an hour while he waited. Then he follows the woman in.”
In 2008, Flavell served the maximum six months in jail for accosting in the Braintree case. Earlier this year, Norfolk District Attorney William Keating’s office tried to get him civilly committed as a sexually dangerous person, but failed. Bristol County prosecutors tried the same in 2005, but Judge Richard Moses ruled against them. This year, Keating said, with Flavell’s rap sheet and an escalation of his crimes, he felt confident.
But Superior Court Judge Janet Sanders ruled Flavell was “not a sexually dangerous person,” but rather an “exhibitionist.”
“While frightening, the 2008 incident in the Borders bookstore bathroom did not involve any attempt to touch the woman,” she wrote in a decision signed 43 days before Thursday’s attack. “Indeed, none of the defense experts regarded this most recent incident as a ‘ratcheting up’ of Flavell’s behavior but simply a change in his modus operandi, which is generally to shock and surprise but not to hurt or to make any physical contact.”
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1206961
Judges failed to lock up alleged MGH attacker
By O’Ryan Johnson and Marie Szanislo | Saturday, October 24, 2009 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Local Coverage
The serial sex fiend charged with mercilessly beating a woman during an attempted rape has been left free for years by judges who refused prosecutors’ pleas to lock him up as a sexually dangerous person.
David C. Flavell was first arrested for public lewdness in 1996, and has been racking up charges since. Yesterday, cops in two states said they are not surprised Flavell has escalated to a charge of violently assaulting and attempting to rape a woman who, beaten and blood-soaked, clawed her way out of a Massachusetts General Hospital bathroom Thursday. The cops who arrested him before can’t believe he was still on the street.
“We all thought he was done after the last one,” in 2008, said Salem, N.H., police Capt. Shawn Patten, whose officers locked up Flavell four times from 1996 to 2003. “We thought he was going to jail and would be there for a long time, given the charges against him. We were shocked to say the least to learn he was let out.”
Flavell, 40, who is homeless, was ordered held without bail after he pleaded not guilty to assault with intent to rape and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon yesterday in Boston Municipal Court.
He is accused of following the 27-year-old woman into an MGH restroom, grabbing her throat, slamming her to the ground, banging her head into the floor and repeatedly punching her in the face. He tore her jeans trying to rip them off, police said.
At the time of Thursday’s attack, Flavell was free on pretrial probation pending trial on a 2007 charge of making harassing phone calls in Boston. He has been arrested for sex crimes 14 times in eight communities in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, most recently in January 2008 in Braintree for a scenario that mirrors Thursday’s attack, records show. There, Flavell was convicted of accosting a woman in a Borders bathroom, authorities said. Braintree police deputy superintendent Russell Jenkins said in that case, Flavell’s would-be victim screamed so loudly that he was forced to flee.
“He didn’t get to finish what he intended to do, which is to rape the woman,” Jenkins said. “He was outside that ladies room pretending to be on a pay phone for an hour while he waited. Then he follows the woman in.”
In 2008, Flavell served the maximum six months in jail for accosting in the Braintree case. Earlier this year, Norfolk District Attorney William Keating’s office tried to get him civilly committed as a sexually dangerous person, but failed. Bristol County prosecutors tried the same in 2005, but Judge Richard Moses ruled against them. This year, Keating said, with Flavell’s rap sheet and an escalation of his crimes, he felt confident.
But Superior Court Judge Janet Sanders ruled Flavell was “not a sexually dangerous person,” but rather an “exhibitionist.”
“While frightening, the 2008 incident in the Borders bookstore bathroom did not involve any attempt to touch the woman,” she wrote in a decision signed 43 days before Thursday’s attack. “Indeed, none of the defense experts regarded this most recent incident as a ‘ratcheting up’ of Flavell’s behavior but simply a change in his modus operandi, which is generally to shock and surprise but not to hurt or to make any physical contact.”
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1206961
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