DA Geoffrey Rushlau “Lax on Sex Crimes”

Candidate says DA’s office lax on sex crimes

By Jay Davis | Sep 29, 2006

BELFAST — Twenty people charged with sex crimes in Waldo and Knox counties in the past three years are out on the street because of ineffective or absent prosecution, District Attorney candidate Joe Baiungo charged this week.

“These are the worst crimes you can commit against someone,” he said. Yet too often, he continued, “[the DA’s office] takes the easy way out. They’ve lost so many cases they’re afraid to try them.”

Baiungo said the 20 he is referring to were charged by police with crimes that would require them to be on the sex offender registry if they were found guilty. Some were tried and found innocent because of ineffective prosecution, he said. Others had their cases dismissed. He said others have not been charged by the DA, even though allegations against them are well known to the prosecutors.

In one instance, he said, a mother wrote a letter to the Waldo Independent earlier this year protesting the DA’s refusal to prosecute a man who she claimed raped her daughter.

DA Geoff Rushlau, who is seeking re-election in November, said Tuesday the rape case wasn’t prosecuted because of a name on the witness list that was presented just before the trial by the defense.

“We then developed information that that individual case could not be successfully prosecuted,” he said.

He said his office goes “to trial on cases of that kind more than a lot of prosecutors. We don’t [plea bargain] them on a regular basis, so it’s entirely possible that we get more not-guilty verdicts, though I don’t keep track.”

Baiungo also said, “It’s my understanding that cases came out of the [Robert] Osborne trial, with the victim mentioning other perpetrators, and the DA won’t prosecute.”

Osborne, who at one time was a prominent businessman and public official in the county, was tried in March on five charges of gross sexual misconduct involving a young male. He was found guilty by a jury and sentenced to 12 years in prison, all but three years suspended, this summer.

During his trial, Osborne said a Belfast man brought the victim to his home on Swan Lake and both men had sex with him. That man, who has not been charged, is mentioned many times in transcribed interviews involving Osborne and Waldo County Sheriff’s Detective Greg Stearns that were obtained by VillageSoup from a non-police source. The man is also a figure in a current child custody case in Waldo County Probate Court.

The custody case involves a child of the victim in the Osborne case. The victim’s petition to terminate the guardianship arrangement for his daughter is based primarily on a family relationship between the guardian and the uncharged man.

Baiungo was reluctant to discuss details of the case because it is still being investigated. But he said, “I’d hope there was a better reason for not bringing him to trial than there’s no confession.” Osborne confessed to having sex with the underage boy, and law enforcement officials were able to pinpoint several of the encounters that were within the statute of limitations for the crimes.

“Even if law enforcers feel there is enough evidence [to bring a good case], they aren’t being prosecuted,” Baiungo said. He said the victim in the Osborne case “was compelling and credible. It’s my understanding that others are willing to testify as well and that police believe they have a very strong case.”

Rushlau responded, “We’ve had strong cases with reliable witnesses and no apparent bias and still not gotten a conviction.” But that hasn’t stopped prosecutors from trying cases, he said.

He said he was reluctant to discuss cases that might be brought from the Osborne trial because they are being actively investigated.

Baiungo, who is listed as unenrolled on the November ballot, is challenging Republican Rushlau in the four-county district that encompasses Waldo, Knox, Lincoln and Sagadahoc counties.

He said prosecutors “decide who they will charge [with crimes]. They have a moral responsibility to take care of the community.” He said he did not know if any of the 20 on his list has committed other crimes.

A reason for that is “the way the courts keep records, it’s hard to say what cases aren’t being prosecuted. It could be more than 20; that’s my conservative number.”

Rushlau asked for specifics of the cases mentioned by Baiungo. “If he has 19 more cases, I’d love to know what they are and will respond to each,” he said.

Both Baiungo and Rushlau agreed sex cases can be difficult to prosecute because often there are but two witnesses and sometimes there is no physical evidence. Some cases involving minors can be too difficult for the victim, leading to a dismissal, Baiungo said.

Rushlau said, “in any criminal case we have no choice but to use direct testimony (from the victim). We can’t have other people saying what happened; that’s hearsay. In many of these cases we get only one chance. If by waiting, more evidence comes forward, often that’s a very good thing to do.”

But Baiungo said not trying sex cases unless there is a confession is the wrong approach. “I hear from people in law enforcement that (the DA’s office) is afraid to try cases because they’re afraid of losing. It’s one thing to lose, it’s another thing to give up because you’re losing,” he said.

“I think they’ve lost their edge in all areas,” he continued, “and sex is the most egregious to me. I deal with the DA’s office on a regular basis. I hear from other defense lawyers, police and people who work in the courts. We have an adversarial system supposedly, so when opposite sides say the same things about a public institution, there’s a real problem.”

Rushlau has been a prosecutor for 26 years and the DA for 13. His attorneys in Belfast, Leane Zainea and Eric Walker, have 30 years of experience between them. “We try lots of cases in this jurisdiction, and that gives us ongoing experience with what to expect from a jury,” he said.

“If we find evidence for a case isn’t strong, we’re obliged to re-evaluate our position. That’s the ethical way to behave,” he said. Until he knows the details of the cases cited by Baiungo, he’ll rest his case that the district has been well-served by his administration.