Bennett's Uncle May Face Death Penalty

Prosecutors File Kidnapping Charges Against Michael Jacques As A Vermont Town Mourns Brooke Bennett's Death

(AP)  Prosecutors say the Vermont man charged with kidnapping his 12-year-old niece - who was found dead near his home - could face the death penalty.

State and federal prosecutors spoke in Burlington Thursday as 42-year-old Michael Jacques was formally charged with kidnapping Brooke Bennett. Bennett was missing for a week before her body was found Wednesday in Randolph.

Authorities cannot even say yet how the girl died. But the federal charges against Jacques provide for the death penalty in kidnappings resulting in a child's death.

In court papers, authorities accused Jacques of carefully orchestrating events and e-mails to make it look like Bennett had gone to see someone she had met online.

Instead of gathering at a vigil to offer prayers for the safe return of Bennett, residents found themselves mourning the news that her body had been found.

Police unearthed her body Wednesday from a makeshift grave about a mile from her uncle's house, ending a weeklong search for the subject of Vermont's first Amber Alert.

"Brooke Marie, I love you so much," her mother, Cassandra Gagnon, said at the gathering later in the picturesque town of a little more than 5,000. "I just ask that justice be done for the person who took my baby away," she said, sobbing.

The girl's father, James Bennett, added, "I know Brooke knows that we love her and will always love her."

As state police announced the grim news Wednesday evening, they said Michael Jacques, the girl's 42-year-old uncle and a convicted sex offender, will face federal kidnapping charges.

Bennett, who had just finished seventh grade at Randolph Union High School, disappeared on June 25 after being seen at a convenience store with Jacques.

Jacques has been in custody since Sunday on charges of aggravated sexual assault against a different underage girl. He has pleaded not guilty. Jacques, who is married to the sister of Brooke's mother, has 1993 convictions for kidnapping and aggravated sexual assault.

After searching in and around his home across town for days, police said they found Brooke's body in a spot where the earth had been disturbed.

"The painful discovery of Brooke's body today is tragic and heartbreaking," State Police Director Col. James Baker said. He called the death "clearly suspicious" but declined to give details before a planned briefing Thursday morning.

In an affidavit unsealed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Burlington, the FBI said an unidentified 14-year-old girl told investigators she was present on June 25 when Jacques tricked Bennett into thinking she was going to a party and took her to his Randolph home to be initiated into a sex ring.

The teenager said she was led to believe Bennett "would have sex with adult males" during the initiation. The 14-year-old said she herself had been having sex with Jacques since she was 9, as part of the sex ring.

The teen, who is related to Jacques, said she and Bennett watched television for a while before Jacques told her to leave and took his niece upstairs. The witness said she left the house with her boyfriend and didn't see Bennett again.

In another blow to the family, Bennett's former stepfather, Raymond Gagnon, was formally charged Wednesday with obstructing justice in the case.

He entered no plea at the federal hearing and was denied bail pending another hearing on Monday. The 40-year-old Gagnon, who lives in Texas, was on a regular visit to Vermont when he was arrested.

According to the affidavit, Gagnon told police he accessed his former stepdaughter's MySpace page from a computer at his San Antonio home after getting login information from Jacques.

Police said they have evidence that postings to the account were altered to make it appear that the 12-year-old had discussed a secret rendezvous shortly before she disappeared.

On that day, Jacques dropped Bennett off at a convenience store, and surveillance video shows they left in separate directions. She had told family members she was going to meet a friend and visit a hospitalized relative of the friend.

At the vigil for Bennett in Randolph - a site that still featured big banners reading "Come Home, Brooke, We Love You!!" - Gary Finch, Bennett's homeroom and math teacher last year, said she was an energetic and enthusiastic learner whom he loved having in class.

"She was always volunteering, always with a smile on her face. Smart, creative. It's a tragedy. It's unbelievable. It's hard to comprehend. I didn't think anything like this would happen to such a great kid," said Finch, one of about 300 people who attended.

Finch said that when school started last fall, Bennett was nervous about transferring from her small elementary school to the high school.

"She conquered that," he said. "She didn't conquer this."

[tae9800]

There should be due process, but trust me it will be a long and drawn out process. This Michael Jacques will be treated much more fairly than he ever treated his victims and any little thing that is not labeled right or tagged properly will free this man. That is how this system works. The now fourteen year old that came forward will be grilled like she is the scum of the earth and Brooke Bennett will be trashed by his defense. It''s called the "JUSTICE SYSTEM" - Go figure.

[swwils]

Might face the death penalty,the Media should not print that only when they say "Uncle was executed at 12:01" that is news I want to read!

[hamiltongrad]

This MAN should be hung, forthwith.

[whiskyrocker]

Is he still alive? He should have been skinned alive and had gasoline poured on him and set a fire by now.

[mercyme884]

You know the saddest part of this crime is that the children must have assumed that it was alright to have *** with these older men or they wouldn''t have been where they were in the first place. Yes I know that the U.S. turns on the axis of *** it is everywhere you look
and yet here are all of you wondering why this happened Look around people you live in a country that accepts *** as a way of life and its all right for children to have *** as long as they are paid enough money.

[bdrlnt4rl]

hang em by the balls until death

[kattyclayz]

It would be great if everyone obeyed the law and we didn''t need the death penalty, but that''s just not realistic. It''s a primal instinct the be violent, and it isn''t going to be bred out any time soon. So until then, I say, If they did it and a court finds them guilty, give them an express trip to the chair. Molesters should have their appendages cut off or sewed shut, depending on the *** of the offender and then after about 90 days of feeling the pain from that, then they go for death. I never understood why we treat killers so carefully and do our best to make sure that they feel no pain when they sure didn''t give their victims that same thought. Why not just enact that the killers die the same way that their victims did, that should cut down on costs.

[whiskyrocker]

flreason:

In a perfect world. Wake up this is not a perfect world. Respect for the law. Riigghht!

[berniepeders]

Americans don''t need to commit murder to have effective law enforcement. What we need is more respect for the laws by all members of the society--individuals, businesses, and government/politicians alike.

Posted by flreason

It is only YOUR OPINION that carrying out a court-ordered, jury-decided execution of a convicted felon is murder. But, you''re right, let''s all sit around a campfire and hold hands and sing Cumbayah, then everyone will obey the laws and no one will ever be bad again. You talk like a man with a paper a$$.

[dragonfli198]

Right is Right wrong is wrong and the nicest thing I can come up with for this future jail *** is take 1 inch PVC pipe 2 feet barb wire put it where it needs to go and pull the PVC pipe out and then he can try the barb wire NOW THATS TORTURE he deserves to get it done a few times.

[runningralph]

I don''t understand why anyone would want Michael Jacques kept around. Murdering maniacs should be studied, analyzed and euthanized. Get rid of them. The whole process, appeals and analysis, should take no more than a year. He should be executed for threatening to cut the nine year old girl''s throat and raping her.

[whiskyrocker]

These people are like cockroaches. We need to stomp them all out.

[tmittelstaed]

At this point we don''t know that Jacques killed her. It could have been one of the other men in the *** ring. Her mother''s prior husband''s (raymond''s) "regular visits" were probably to the "*** ring" and he altered her Myspace. Her mother''s sister certainly knew about her own husband''s prior child *** convictions. Her mother likely suspected her former husband of having deviant ***, and certainly knew about her sister''s husband''s *** convictions. Yet, she allowed her daughter to have contact with her sister''s husband anyway. When her mother split up with her first husband, the girl''s father, it is a shame the father wasn''t granted full custody. Undoubtedly the court awarded the mother custody and child support, and the second husband and mother were living off the child support checks before they split up. The mother sounds like complete and utter trailer trash.
I would bet that both the mother and her sister were themselves raised by a child abuser, for them to tolerate this kind of behavior. And for the sister to not know about her husband''s involvement with multiple other men in a child *** ring is impossible to believe. For all we know she participated, she could even have been the one who killed the girl.

[emperorlotku]

The sad part of the death penalty is that it takes too long to enforce. Years go by where the perp gets to cheat justice with retrials and court pleas. What we need to do is have a thorough review of death penalty cases to make sure the judicial system did the job correctly during the trial and then swiftly deliver justice within weeks. The criminals of the world would think twice if they knew justice came quickly, not years later. Besides why should taxpayers pay for the incarceration of those who should be gone from the face of the earth.

[kowtipper]

First of all even though the evidence points toward this guy he hasn''t been convicted yet. The media are so quick to convict and sheeple so easily follow.
AND...yhy are people so quick to attack the opinions of others in these forums? You attackers are sub-human!!

If the uncle is guilty...he''ll get the best treatment in prison, right? So, which is the cruel and unusual punishment? Sending a child-killer to prison or to the cemetery where the tax payers don''t have to worry about him anymore?? Either way, the guilty party will get what''s coming. ;)

[hissteps4u]

hamiltonGRAD I seriously doubt you graduated High school much less Matriculated forf 4 years to get a degree in stupidity. Your comments reak of ignorance and injustice. indeed there may be a better way than an eye for an eye Yet in OUR Justice system the presumption of Innocense still prevails even if tainted as it is by the jury pool selection adversial system we curently have. This Young Man will have His day in court and if found guilty I would hope for a slow and painful death for his crimes. Islamic Law would deal with such swiftly and he would loose his head. He may just rot in Jail who knows. i know this after working in the Federal corrections system he will have to waych his back every secopnd of every day for he will be marked for death by the inmates at any facility he enters and staff know it. He likely will serve time in a segrated facility for those who commit crimes against children for they seperate them from the main facility for security reasons.

If you love Europe so much Move there and stay we would be better off with out your tripe and truly ignorant moral makeup you seem to wish to impose upon others. If Ignoranxe were Bliss you would be a Blister on the Butt of Society.

[tlfaett]

I''m willing to bet that the 14yr old is Jacques own daughter. She says that she had sexual contact with three men, including him. When will they arrest the third man? Gagnon was one of them. Is the 3rd man another uncle? What about Jacques wife? Where was she? I read somewhere that she found a pink adult toy in her daughter''s room and that she accepted the explanation that she was holding it for a friend. We hear more an more about this kind of thing, the sexual abuse I mean, but really, it has always happened. It happened to me, and when I told I was the one that had to keep quiet so no one else would know...that was 30 years ago when everyone turned a blind eye to spousal abuse, let alone child abuse. Sometimes I wish he had killed me instead. Poor Brooke. She must have been so frightened. I wonder how many girls that Angel saved from the same fate? Poor, poor, baby.

[mrshyatt]

occams_taser - Would you feel the same way if it was your daughter. I hope your not on this guys jury! I can promise one thing, if it was my daughter he would not ever make to the court room.

[occams_taser]

It seems from reading these comments that death penalty "fans" get off on ideas of killing and torture as much as this guy allegedly gets off on having *** with and killing young girls.

[hotrod2008-2009]

It is a shame that some people, who have no personal relationship with the victim, and no personal excuse to seek vengence, seek to exploit the crime and tragedy as an excuse to gratify their own depraved fantasies about carrying out violent torture and murder.

They are really the same type of sick people who commit such crimes.

Posted by CBS_Oliver at 02:42 PM : Jul 03, 2008

You know, I was thinking the same thing but didn''t have the courage to say so, because I would be attacked erroneously as being sympathetic to the pervo. Which I am not. Despite the hideousness of the crime, I believe a humane death penalty is appropriate. I do not believe in lowering oneself to the level of these animals is the answer... nor is supporting them for life in prison. Get it over with, humanely and quickly, and rid the land of predators, without a lot of fuss and bother.