Update 4/18/07 11:11AM
Convicted Child Rapist held in a treatment facility indefinitely
A Lawrence Superior Court judge ruled today that Wayne Chapman was still sexually dangerous despite serving a 30-year prison term and ordered that the convicted child rapist remain in state custody indefinitely at a sexual abuse treatment facility.
Judge Howard Whitehead followed a provision in state law that allows people still deemed sexually dangerous to be civilly committed at a treatment facility for the rest of their lives. The ruling can be appealed annually.
__________________________________________________________________
Update: 4/3/07 10:47AM
A small update on this story:
The decision on whether Chapman will be set free is now up to Superior Court Judge Howard Whitehead, who yesterday heard testimony and closing arguments in a dangerousness hearing for Chapman.
Whitehead said he will give his decision on April 17, at 2:45 p.m. at Salem Superior Court, where he will be presiding.
Complete Article Found Here
__________________________________________________________________
Original Blog
Convicted pedophile Chapman seeks freedom; Father of missing Lawrence boy objects to releaseBy Jim Patten , Staff Writer
Eagle-Tribune
LAWRENCE – Wayne Chapman was wheeled into a courtroom yesterday looking the furthest thing from being dangerous.Clad in a gray sweater, blue jeans and sneakers, he was pushed in a wheelchair by a burly court officer. His hands shook as he was brought to the defense table.
Chapman, 59, is a convicted pedophile, who, according to testimony, has admitted to sexually assaulting 50 to 100 boys, and even fantasized about killing and cannibalizing a child.
He completed a 30-year sentence in 2004 for raping two Lawrence boys, but has remained in state custody because officials believe, if released, he is likely to reoffend.
But Chapman is now seeking his freedom. He’s pleading his case to a Lawrence Superior Court judge who will determine if he is safe or a “sexually dangerous person” who cannot be released.
Yesterday was the first day of testimony in the case. In the courtroom sat Angelo Puglisi Sr. He is the father of Angelo “Andy” Puglisi, who disappeared from the state swimming pool in South Lawrence 30 years ago at the age of 10.
Police have long suspected Chapman was involved in the boy’s disappearance, but he has never been charged. Angelo Puglisi said yesterday the system will have failed him if Chapman is freed.
“If they let this guy out, the people who made the decision are just as guilty as he is. And they can all rot in hell,” he said.
Testimony heard in the jury-waived trial yesterday was graphic. Dr. Christine Schnier-Pierce, a forensic clinical psychologist, told the court she had interviewed Chapman in 2005, after reviewing all of the records available in the cases he has been involved in.
Schnier-Pierce recited Chapman’s history of pedophilia that he told her began at an early age.
“He said his offending began at an early age, as early as age 7, when he offended with a 5-year-old boy,” Pierce said.
In 1967, he was charged with offenses against a 12-year-old boy in Pennsylvania, while he was living in New York. In that case he walked the boy into the woods. The boy escaped and called police and Chapman was convicted of assault and battery in that case, Pierce said.
His next offense was against a 10-year-old boy, also in Pennsylvania, in 1971, in which he took the boy into the woods, abused him and took nude photos of him. He was convicted in that case, Pierce said.
While living in Rhode Island from July 1974 to June 1975, he was convicted of assault and battery and unnatural acts with a child under 16 from Fall River. He told his 9-year-old victim he was looking for a dog and lured him into a wooded area where the attack took place, Pierce said.
And in August 1975 in Lawrence, Chapman drove off an exit ramp of Interstate 495 and encountered two young boys whom he told he was looking for a dog. He molested both of them in a wooded area and was ultimately convicted of sodomy, open and gross lewdness, indecent assault and battery on a child and assault with intent to rape a child, Pierce said.
It was that offense that landed him the 30-year jail term that he completed in 2004.
Dr. Robin Quinones, a clinical psychologist, also interviewed Chapman. She testified about a 1987 fantasy Chapman admitted to in which he fondled and killed a child and then cannibalized him so no one would know.
The second revelation was a 31/2-hour audiotape Chapman made as a young man in which he talks about watching young boys get off a school bus and his resulting fantasies.
The tape, with sexually graphic language, was found in 1976 in an apartment rented by Chapman, and Pierce said Chapman admitted masturbating to it.
Prosecutor A.J. Camelio played a portion of the tape in court.
Pierce said Chapman was married in his early 20s to a 19-year-old woman but the relationship lasted only six months.
Chapman only married in an attempt to blunt his sexual desire for young boys, Pierce said.
“My opinion is that Mr. Chapman meets the criteria for a sexually dangerous person,” Pierce said.
She said during their interview he admitted to sexually assaulting 50 to 100 boys.
Quinones told the court that Chapman told her during their interview that he had sexual fantasies about young boys as recently as two years ago.
She told the court that in spite of the treatment Chapman had received over the years, it is her opinion that Chapman “is likely to re-offend if he is released.”
“My conclusion is that he is a sexually dangerous person,” Quinones said.
On cross-examination, John Day, lawyer for Chapman, elicited the admission from Pierce that she had not treated a pedophile since her internship and that during her interview with him, Chapman had refused to disclose some aspects of his activities on the advice of counsel.
Under questioning by Day, Pierce agreed there had been no evidence of sexual abuse since September 1976 when Chapman was 28 years old and that most recently, Chapman had backed away from his earlier claim of abusing 50 to 100 boys.
Day also noted that in 1991, a Superior Court judge in Lawrence had ruled Chapman was no longer sexually dangerous.
The trial, which recessed until Monday, is expected to last about three days.
“Under questioning by Day, Pierce agreed there had been no evidence of sexual abuse since September 1976 when Chapman was 28 years old and that most recently, Chapman had backed away from his earlier claim of abusing 50 to 100 boys.”
I would have to say that the reason he has not abused anyone else is because he has been in prison for those 30 years, where he should remain. Let’s hope this sick man stays behind bars and away from children.
An interesting link to read that tells the complete story of Wayne Chapman as well as the disappearance of little Andy Puglisi can be found here.
Andy Puglisi of Lawrence, Mass., missing since 1976.
Colton Levi Clark 
