Brooke Bennett, 12 yrs. old Randolph, VT #10

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For anyone who thinks RG is probably not a serial child molester because it's reported he just had sex with AR once, I disagree. Although this article is about screening for sexual predators, it has interesting information.

When you read this, think about all the gifts RG lavished on the children even after he and Cassandra were divorced. All the times he visited and did they visit him?

If these organizations with trained personnel to detect these perverts has these guys still sneak in, how does the average citizen stand a chance? I guess it's just up to each individual to use their own gut instinct AND common sense when it comes to protecting their children from this type of situation. Better to err on the side of caution than to have something like this case happening to your own.

JMHO
fran



http://www.merrillassociates.net/topic/2005/01/screening-sexual-predators

This article is designed to increase awareness of the sexual predators who infiltrate youth-serving organizations. Since 97% of these predators have no criminal history, and virtually all of them maintain "trophy testimonials" to offer as references, ordinary screening methods are grossly ineffective. Worse, the customary reference-checking methods are mistaken for "screening" and further fail to elicit red flag information, which would suggest risks. Readers who screen volunteers will find a low-cost way to plug some of these screening loopholes if they are willing to devote extra time themselves to the incredibly important task of increasing the protection of the children. Policy-makers will find an opportunity to appreciate the enormous difference between risk-of-loss and risk-of-harm; to consider means of reducing both risks instead of just one; and to explore the effectiveness of current screening practices, such as criminal history, reference checks, and interviews.

WHO INFILTRATES AND WHY ARE THEY HARD TO DETECT?

Of specific focus in this article are the prolific serial, preferential predators described by Kenneth Lanning so well in his free book from the National Center on Missing & Exploited Children, www.missingkids.org. The Able & Harlow studies (1987) and others reveal that this type of predator averages from dozens to hundreds of victims, operating undetected for whole lifetimes because they are expert at deception, expert at terrorizing children into lifetimes of silence, expert at impersonating "the perfect volunteer" and because 97% of them will never have a criminal history or fingerprints-on-file. While they comprise a minority of predator types, they are responsible for the majority of sexually abused children outside the home. They can only generate such high victim-counts by infiltrating youth-serving organizations. Youth programs are prime targets for these predators as grounds for selecting and grooming the victims, not as venues for performing the sexual acts themselves. Thus it can sometimes be technically true that "It cannot happen here" because those cherishing that myth define "it" as the sexual abuse itself. In this sense it does not "happen here" because the abuse occurs elsewhere, in private, once sufficient trust and authority have been built up via the predator's grooming activity. What program administrators tragically misunderstand is that their youth serving organization provides the relationship and the opportunity for the abuse to occur by placing such predators in positions of trust in the first place. That the abuse may not actually take place on site does not in any way reduce the organization�s responsibility for the safety of the relationship it creates.

Facing these dismal facts allows us to critique the typical insurance-inspired policy or volunteer screening criteria, which center on the criminal history background check, the reference-check, and the interview. To understand the weakness in these traditional cornerstones of screening processes, it helps to divide child sexual predators into two groups: the Caught-Befores and the Never-Caughts. The Caught-Befores have criminal histories available to non-police inquiries, and the Never-Caughts don't.
 
Cassandra Gagnon says she's offended by those who criticize her for letting Brooke stay with Jacques-- a registered sex offender.

She's offended, I am so sorry! NOT :rolleyes:

She is offended....unbelievable. She knowingly left her child with a known sex offender, probably many times. If that doesn't scream bad parenting I don't know what does.
 
Fran, thank you for that link. It is very informative.
 
You know, anyone who knew the creep was a sexual predator yet allowed Brooke around him should be a branded the town idiots and arrested. It doesn't matter if a sexual predator is a relative, a banker or the preacher...they can't be rehabilitated.
How can people be so stupid?
 
With all of my heart, I want to thank the 3 of you for your post.:blowkiss::blowkiss::blowkiss:

March 4, 1999, my cousin's daughter succumed to shaken baby syndrome, she lived and suffered in a hospital bed awaiting death.
Alexis's mother had been in and out of jail and put men, money and drugs above her own dear Angel. Even after all the years that have passed, I am having a hard time typing out this post.
I posted about that here on WS and it is very heartbreaking.
Not only was Alexis let down by her mother, she was let down by human services.

So much Love and Respect,
dark_shadows
DS,

You probably already know of this link, but I wanted to share it with you just in case.

http://www.myspace.com/voicesofinnocense

Rachel, who created this Myspace, lost her baby girl to SBS (her baby was in the care of a registered child care provider). She works very hard to provide support and raise awareness of SBS. I've met her personally (she's helping us with the Denise Amber Lee Foundation), and she's just wonderful. I think you might find some interesting stuff on her page.

And I know this has nothing at all to do with Brooke, but just wanted to share the link with DS. I hope that's ok.
 
Where is her outrage that her former husband raped AR and covered up the murder of her daughter, his step-daughter he helped raise?! Where is her outrage that MJ had been raping his own step-daughter/ her niece since she was 9 yo or long before?!

Yep exactly, and she said she always knows were her children are at, well apparently not, her child is dead.
 
I was going to make a post to the affect that Cassandra did say she blamed herself, blah blah blah.

But Fran, when a parent has lost a child because there is a relative who is a "known" sex offender and then says afterwards" "Both parents say they'll likely never forgive Jacques"

LIKELY, LIKELY????? What the heck, there is no LIKELY!!!

Littledeer:

Those are the words from the reporter. They may NOT have said 'likely.' I think sometimes we take each word too literally.

These are parents who lost a child to murder. They lost a child, because of poor decisions. They lost a child because of poor judgment.

I don't think anything I could say could make them feel any worse than they already do. Whenever anything like this happens, the 'what ifs' are endless.

I think people should put their energy in being angry with the pervs, the pervs and the system that let this guy loose. They let him loose at the same time he WAS molesting his own step-daughter. It just shows how broken that part of the system is. The unfortunate thing is, poor Brooke had to pay for it with her life.

I can't help it. I feel sorry for her. She made a stupid, stupid decision that cost her daughter her life. How anyone could be so uneducated about the workings of sexual predators is beyond me. But even having said that, I'm sure that not ONE of those that knew him ever would have dreamed he could have been in something so depraved and then on top of that, commit murder, and murder of his own niece no less.

I would like to think that nothing like this could happen to me or anyone I know. But that's just it, these things go on behind closed doors. Now IF Denise had say, told Cassandra what she told LE, coming home with her daughter in a towel and finding those sex type items, Cassandra MAY have figured it out. But I'm willing to bet Denise never told anyone. She probably didn't tell anyone because she was in denial, IMO. Denise is the one who was in a position to see the signs and turned a blind eye.

I have known families where molestation went on for five or more years and the mother had NO clue. She worked and came home and took care of the kids etc. When she went to bed at night, she went to sleep because she had to get up early for work. She didn't think anything of leaving the kids with hubby for awhile when she went shopping or whatever. Who would.

I don't think Denise can feign that type of innocence. Because she saw the signs. THAT and he was already a registered sex offender. Denise should have LOOKED for the signs. But why, she saw them and still turned her back.
IMO, Denise is the one everyone should be angry with. Denise held the key but tucked it away until all he!! broke loose.

We aren't sure what the 'rules' were from Cassandra as far as Brooke going to her cousin's house. Cassandra said something about 'other adults' being there. Heaven only knows why she would think that would prevent him from finding a way around it, is beyond most of us here's comprehension. But it appears she did trust her sister that she would do the right thing. Well, he found a way around it, he didn't go to work like he was supposed to and the rest is history.

This is just a very sad case and there will be no winners here. Everyone is guilty of something. I don't feel like contributing to this family's heartache. I'm not going to throw stones at this poor family when they've already had their world crash in around them. They deserve, at least my, sympathy. I pray they have strength to make it through the next week and months while more details and heartache come from this mess.

:(

JMHO
fran
 
Fran, thank you for that link. It is very informative.

Y/W SuziQ.

Here's another link. Although it's a brochure of a 'Parent's Guide to Protecting Children Against Sexual Abuse,' if you read through it, one will kind of get an idea of what AR has been going through and what lies ahead for her. She can be saved, IMO, it's just going to take a very long time.

JMHO
fran

http://www.wcasa.org/docs/saam/A Parent's guide to csa.pdf
 
I wish everyone was as well informed as we all are here, it sure would make things alot safer for the kids out there in the world.
 
I thought we weren't getting into this discussion:)
I thought we weren't getting into this discussion:)


We aren't. I hijacked your post in order to present my own ideas. :rolleyes:

Once upon a time, I argued that all *advertiser censored* should be covered under the First Amendment. I wasn't prepared to begin the 'slippery slope' argument about what was and was not obscene, considering that in history much revered art has been considered obscene at one time or other. Who was going to decide? Some people think Sex and City is obscene....Oscar Wilde...James Joyce...
not so long ago, oral sex was illegal, and in fact it still technically is in some states.


Then, I changed my mind. I believe that there exists now enough scientific evidence that links repeated viewing of hard core *advertiser censored*, most especially violent *advertiser censored* that eroticizes violence with negative beliefs and actions. I am prepared to surrender that corner of Free Speech for the greater good. The wholesale liberalization and elimination of society's historic role in setting boundaries on social behavior has brought with it many unintended consequences. There are certain types of currently legal *advertiser censored* that probably 90% of non-lawyers would agree is obscene and destructive. I'm good with that. It has no redeeming qualities whatsoever.
Would it at all surprise you if I said that I agree with you on the stuff that depicts non-consensual acts?


But I still maintain that most *advertiser censored* isn't of that sort and shouldn't be grouped under that heading with the rest.

I'm not saying that the sex industry is a nice place- I know people who have been a part of it and can say that it isn't. Still, mainstream *advertiser censored* has its own rules and regs to keep things safe. Beyond that zone, things get considerably iffier.


The setting of boundaries by society, while I'd say it has it place (though I find it sad that we have to regulate proper conduct, and that some people only behave for fear of punishment), still has its problems. Mere centuries ago, it was illegal to follow any religions other than the state's, allegedly for the good of the individuals and the society itself. Where exactly do we draw the line and who would we trust making the rules?

(rhetorical question- no desire to open this door again...)


Similarly, I once argued against the death penalty as inappropriate for a civilized society...it was wrong for 'the state' to sanction murder for any reason. Today, I would flip the switch gleefully on any number of death row inmates without a second thought.

and I'd also like to add that I've personally never opposed the death penalty.
 
I also think that RG was very much a part of the plan as well. Reading over the affidavit was very confusing for me. I still wonder why he offered up the "I have *advertiser censored* in my safe" back home in Texas. I think LE has been grilling him about his part in the "take down". We have already surmised that he had knowledge and that just adds to his troubles...but I think that LE is trying to establish whether or not he was around when Brooke actually died. If you're to believe AR's statements to police, she believed there were to be MEN particpants. JMO, but I think LE is looking at Gagnon real closely...they're trying to tie him to being there.

Oh...and just to add, I think that's why we haven't heard about the autopsy that was performed LAST Tuesday.
Ok, did I miss something here? Brooke wasn't even found until Wednesday (and it was late in the day when it was announced), how could they have done an autopsy on Tuesday?
 
I agree with you 100%!

I know this won't be a popular thought on this board but I think if Jim and Janet knew about MJ being a sex offender, they should have done something to keep her away from him. They could have gone to court, they could have called child services. (They may have done these things, I just haven't heard them say.) So IMO, they let Brooke down too. From what we have learned about Cassandra's family, we know they appear to be messed up. Jim and Janet appear to be "normal", they were probably Brooke's only hope.
 
Agreed Dante, certainly nothing new.

Back 70+ years ago there were the "Tijuana Bibles" with drawn descriptions of all kinds of acts.


Oh, I didn't mean that recently. The cited example goes back at least to the beginnings of recorded history and therefore goes back even further.

(nice example, tho- not many people seem to know what Tijuana Bibles are)

We haven't changed much as a species, no matter what we like to think. Things are better documented now and we have more of a population to do stuff so it looks like we have more going on but looking at historical records, we still have the same problems.
 
Reading the affadavit - MJ reminded me of David Brown. DB convinced his 14 year old daughter to kill her stepmother, Linda.

I hadn't thought of that, but you're right. Cinnamon Brown was put in the same type of situation, convinced that someone was going to hurt her father, and killed her stepmother to "protect" him. When all David Brown wanted was insurance money and his wife's younger sister.
 
Excellent point, VB! Why didn't she come forward immediately? You would think since she knew first hand his proclivity towards young females, she would be rushing to LE to fill them in on his past history with her. Then again, if she was raped by Jacques (only going on rumor here)...she may have left it far behind and buried it. I am sure now those old wounds are open and she will have to relive them all again.

It is still so unbelievable how this man's evil can span a lifetime before anyone put a stop to him. It is no wonder he was under the assumption he could get away with this. His whole past is one slap on the hand after another.

If she is available, I suspect she has been interviewed...
 
PS....FWIW, I don't think we know even 1/2 of what was going on out there in that little Vermont town.:eek:


Spooky, especially as I live in the Upper Valley region, I work right next door to Thermadyne and the place I work for has a branch in Randolph.

What got me sucked in to this was the mention of the Breckinridge group- one is bad enough but the possibility of a society of them in my area? :eek: :furious:
 
I simply cannot imagine how Jim and Janet are going to ever deal with the facts coming out about this case. It is one thing to have a child murdered, but if what it looks like could have taken place before she was killed did in fact happen...how does a parent survive it?

I am not going to fault the Bennetts for not going up against Cassandra for custody as we don't know the situation Jim was in with that. To think that Cassandra could have taken her away from her bio father for good if he had tried is still in the back of my mind here. Could Jim and Janet have done more? Probably. Yet I can't hold them responsible. This rests squarely upon Cassandra, her lack of supervision, and alertness in having Brooke and her other children around a known violent sex offender.
 
IMO, the LE and the FBI believe there is more than what they have so far on him. They need more investigation and verifiable facts. I think they think he is just as culpable as MJ in Brooke's death.

Also, MJ's charges were filed before RG's.

Hey I'm not a SS. Just giving my amaeturish opinion. :)
...and very much appreciated.
 
SS posted this as part of:

Timeline
Details in police's case reveal chilling, devious planning by victim's uncle

June 24:

11:40 p.m.: Jacques logs onto Bennett's MySpace profile and posts a message making it appear that she has run away to meet a boyfriend. He edits the entry again at 11:52 p.m.

According to police, Bennett spent the night at Jacques' home.


With all the depraved information that has come out about MJ since LE found Brooke, and SS's timeline above that says "according to police, Bennett spent the night at Jacques' home:

Has there been any confirmed sightings and/or articles that have said anything about if MJ was seen anywhere on June 24th in the evening? If not, then I can't believe that MJ could/would just sit back and do nothing with Brooke and AR in his house all alone that night??

Anyone else also wonder about this?
Hey, I wonder about pretty much everything...like how does a step-father sit in church praying for his missing step-daughter?
 
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