BROOKE BENNETT - 12 yo (2008) - Randolph VT

Federal prosecutors will seek the death penalty for a Vermont man charged in the 2008 sex-related slaying of 12-year-old Brooke Bennett, The Associated Press reports.


Michael Jacques, who is also the girl's uncle, is charged with kidnapping resulting in death. The 43-year-old convicted sex offender allegedly drugged, sexually assaulted and strangled the Bennett sometime after her disappearance on June 25, 2008.
Her body was found a week later in a shallow grave.
Bennett's shocking disappearance led to the state of Vermont's first Amber Alert.
Federal officials said Tuesday that Jacques' alleged rape and murder of
his young niece was "especially heinous, cruel [and] depraved" and that
the 43-year-old suspect has shown no remorse for his alleged crime,
according to the Rutland Herald.
The 2008 murder resulted in allegations of horrific child sex abuse in which young girls were intimidated and assaulted.
According to the indictment handed up Oct. 2, 2008, Jacques
allegedly persuaded another girl, identified only as Juvenile 1, to
submit to various sex acts and to help in Brooke's abduction by telling
her that a powerful organization named Breckenridge would kill her.
The juvenile told state police investigators that she had been involved
in sex with Jacques since 2003, when she was 9 years old, when she got
a phone call and received a note under her pillow that Jacques would be
her "trainer" in a sex program called Breckenridge. To graduate, she
told investigators, according to the complaint, she had to achieve a
specific "success" rate.
Jacques allegedly told the girl that the fake organization sometimes "terminated" girls,
the indictment says. He allegedly used her fear of Breckenridge to
coerce her into allowing Jacques to videotape her while she was being
sexually abused.
In
May 2008, Jacques allegedly told the girl that his niece Brooke had
been selected for "termination" and that she was "causing significant
difficulties for J1's father, resulting in him being suicidal," the
indictment says.
The girl, now 14, confessed to helping Jacques bring Brooke to
Jacques' home, according to federal criminal complaints released in
July 2008.
The pair allegedly lured Brooke to Jacques' house in June 2008 by telling her she would be a guest at a pool party.
In documents released earlier in the case, federal prosecutors allege that Jacques used a pair of online identities to manipulate Juvenile 1 into thinking she was working with several men who were planning to initiate Brooke into Breckenridge.
Juvenile 1 admitted to police that she knew Brooke beforehand
and that Brooke was going to be initiated into the sex ring that day
and would be having "sex with adult males," according to the federal
complaints.
Once at Jacques' home, prosecutors say, the two girls watched
television together before Jacques asked Brooke to go upstairs with
him. That was the last time the unidentified girl saw Brooke, she told
investigators.
Prosecutors have also dropped obstruction of justice charges related to Brooke's disappearance against her former stepfather Raymond Gagnon.


Gagnon pleaded to transportation of child pornography in April,
admitting to collecting hundreds of images and video files of children
engaged in sexual acts with adults, the AP reports.
Gagnon
had married Brooke's mother, Cassandra, in 2000. The couple separated
in 2004, and Brooke, her sister and mother returned to Vermont.

Federal prosecutors announced Tuesday they'll seek the death penalty
for a convicted sex offender charged with luring his 12-year-old niece
to his home with the promise of a pool party before molesting and
strangling her.Michael Jacques is accused of kidnapping and
intentionally killing seventh-grader Brooke Bennett, whose body was
found buried in a shallow grave near his home in July 2008 a week after
she went missing.Prosecutor say Jacques, 43, had drugged Brooke
before killing her and disposing of her body in Randolph, the small
town where he lived just south of Montpelier and about a five-minute
drive from her home in Braintree.The documents filed Tuesday
list five findings that prosecutors contend make Jacques eligible for
the death penalty under federal law and 19 aggravating factors,
including that he killed Brooke after "substantial planning and
premeditation."The decision to seek the death penalty was made
Aug. 14 by U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, prosecutors said. On
Tuesday the required notice of intent to seek the death penalty was
filed in federal court in Burlington.Vermont U.S. Attorney Tristram Coffin, who took office last week, declined further comment.Brooke's
father, Jim Bennett, said Tuesday the family was told about the
decision to seek the death penalty before it was released.Jacques
pleaded not guilty last fall to a variety of charges, including
kidnapping with death resulting. His attorneys did not return telephone
calls seeking comment Tuesday.Vermont does not have a state
death penalty, but Jacques is being charged under federal law. If the
case goes to trial it would be the third capital case tried in federal
court in Vermont in the last decade.In 2005, Donald Fell was
sentenced to death for the 2000 murder of a North Clarendon woman who
was kidnapped from her job at a Rutland supermarket and was beaten to
death in Pawling, N.Y. Fell, who admitted everything in great detail
but claimed he was the victim of a horrible childhood, is on the
federal death row in Terre Haute, Ind.In 2000, an Indiana man,
Chris Dean, was charged with sending a bomb that killed a Fair Haven
teenager in 1998. He agreed to plead guilty and was sentenced to life
in prison.When Brooke disappeared in June 2008, investigators
thought she had been abducted by someone she met online. But
investigators said they soon determined that Jacques had created the
cyberspace trail to throw them off.Jacques' indictment, handed
down last October, alleges he used a 14-year-old girl to lure Brooke to
his home by getting her to believe she would be a guest at a pool party
there. The indictment and supporting affidavits make it clear
prosecutors believe the 14-year-old left the home and Jacques drugged,
sexually assaulted and then strangled Brooke.The 14-year-old told police she believed Brooke was destined for a child sex club the teen had been in since she was 9.Brooke
was found buried about a mile from Jacques' house. Her death prompted
the Vermont Legislature to revamp the state's sex offender laws.Jacques
had been sentenced in 1993 to six to 20 years in prison for kidnapping
and raping a teenager he supervised at a Rutland restaurant, court
records show. He completed the state's sex offender treatment program
in 2000 and was released from probation in 2006.

The former stepfather of a murdered 12-year-old Vermont girl was sentenced Friday to more than 16 years in prison on child pornography charges.
U.S. District Judge Xavier Rodriguez sentenced Raymond Gagnon in San Antonio to 16 years and eight months in federal prison.
Gagnon expressed grief and remorse in accepting the sentence.
The FBI found child pornography while searching Gagnon's San Antonio home
after his former stepdaughter, Brooke Bennett, disappeared in Vermont
last summer.

Gagnon had been married to Brooke's mother for four years before the couple separated in 2004.
Brooke's uncle, Michael Jacques, is accused of molesting and strangling Brooke in July 2008.
Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty. Jacques pleaded not guilty last fall to
a variety of charges, including kidnapping with death resulting.

BURLINGTON, Vt. — The Randolph man
charged with kidnapping and murdering his 12-year-old niece is asking a
federal judge to hold his trial in another state.
Attorneys for Michael Jacques argued in
documents filed in U.S. District Court in Burlington that pretrial
publicity surrounding the June 2008 disappearance and death of Brooke
Bennett make it impossible for Jacques to get a fair trial in Vermont.
The 43-year-old Jacques is facing the federal death penalty for
charges stemming from the kidnapping, sexual assault and murder of his
niece.Brooke was missing for a week before her body was found in a shallow grave not far from Jacques’ home.

Sports journalist plans book on Vt. murder suspect

A nationally-recognized sports journalist is now writing about a Vermont murder suspect.

Buster Olney covered the New York Yankees and Giants for the New York Times and often appears as a baseball analyst on ESPN. He grew up in Randolph near Michael Jacques. Jacques is charged with raping and killing his own niece, 12-year-old Brooke Bennett.

Olney has not seen Jacques since the mid-1980s but says he'll spend the next 18 months to 2 years writing a book about him.

"Mike Jacques and I were childhood friends," Olney explained. "His dad was my little league coach, we played little league together, we played whiffle ball together, we made maple syrup at the sugarhouse right up the road from our dairy farm. So I'm writing about his case and the layers of how silence can be so devastating in sexual abuse."

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http://www.wcax.com/Global/story.asp?S=13907396

Vt SupCo hears civil case in Brooke Bennett murder

Middlebury, Vermont - October 18, 2011

An unusual case before the Supreme Court Tuesday. The father of 12-year-old Brooke Bennett says the little girl's aunt is partially responsible for Brooke's death, and he wants her insurance company to pay.

Brooke Bennett's father, James, says Woodward acted negligently for allowing the little girl around Woodward's former husband, Michael Jacques. Jacques is awaiting trial for the alleged kidnapping, sexual assault and murder of 12-year-old Brooke. James Bennett wants Woodward's insurance company to cover the bodily injury and his suffering. Tuesday, his attorney took the case to the Vermont Supreme Court.

"The allegation is that she failed to exercise reasonable care in the protection of her niece, that she was negligent," said Paul Perkins, James Bennett's attorney.

The case made it to Vermont's top judges after it worked its way through the trial court. That court ruled that Woodward's policy does not cover the little girl's alleged kidnapping, sexual assault and murder for three reasons:

First the incident was an intentional act and not an accident. Second, the act was an intentional act by the insured. And third, there was no "bodily injury" because the harm resulted from "sexual molestation of a person."

Robin Cooley, the attorney for the Co-operative Insurance Company, told the justices, "Bodily injury per our definition does not mean harm or death that arises out of the actual alleged or threatened sexual molestation of a person."

James Bennett's attorney told the court that the homeowner's insurance policy covers Woodward and Jacques as individuals, arguing Woodward's alleged negligence is independent of Jacques' alleged behavior.

"The purpose of the clause is to ensure that each of the insured are treated separately in the determination of coverage and the application of exclusion," Perkins said.

It could take 90 days before the Supreme Court issues a ruling in this case.

Woodward and Bennett were not in the courtroom Tuesday. We did not reach the insurance company's lawyer for comment. Bennett's lawyer declined our request for an interview.

http://www.wcax.com/story/15721497/vt-supco-hears-civil-case-in-brooke-bennett-murder

Appeals court sends Jacques case back to Vermont for trial
7:17 PM, Sep 10, 2012 |

Free Press Staff Writer

The full 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York City, without further review, has sent the potential death-penalty case of Michael Jacques of East Randolph back to Vermont for trial — but the proceeding in Burlington remains at least a year away.

Jacques, 46, is accused of kidnapping and later killing his 12-year-old niece, Brooke Bennett of Braintree, more than four years ago. Her body was found covered over with dirt a mile from Jacques’ home a week after she went missing in late June 2008.

He has pleaded not guilty. Conviction on the federal charges carry the death penalty or life in prison.

Lawyers for Jacques had hoped to persuade the full slate of appellate judges to reconsider a July ruling by a three-judge panel that said federal prosecutors could tell jurors about an attempt by Jacques, while in jail after his arrest, to shift blame for the killing from himself to a fake sex ring he called “Breckenridge.”

The panel’s ruling was a setback for Jacques, because it reversed a portion of a pretrial decision by Judge William K. Sessions III that forbid prosecutors from using the information at trial because it was gleaned from an informant while Jacques was in custody. Jacques’ lawyers had argued that conduct violated his right to have a lawyer present while speaking to the informant.

Late last month, the appellate court turned down the reconsideration request and last week remanded the case to U.S. District Court in Burlington for trial.

Sessions in June set a Sept. 3, 2013, start date for the trial after being told by David Ruhnke, Jacques’ lead attorney, that Ruhnke likely would to be engaged in other capital-case trials next spring. Sessions, who said he had hoped to have the trial begin in February, has estimated the trial could last as long as four months.

Vermont U.S. Attorney Tristram Coffin said he expects the Jacques case will now enter a phase where lawyers for the two sides will continue preparing for trial, but not much will happen in open court.

“It’ll be a quiet time,” Coffin said.

Ruhnke and his law partner, Jean deSales Barrett, did not responded to a request for comment Monday.

Vermont has no death penalty statute. The case is being tried in federal court because of a law that allows federal prosecution of cases involving a charge of kidnapping with death resulting and proof that elements of interstate commerce, including cellphone or Internet usage, played a role in the alleged commission of the crime.

http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/article/20120910/NEWS/309100017/Appeals-court-sends-Jacques-case-back-Vermont-trial?nclick_check=1

Vt. Man Pleads Guilty to Kidnapping, Killing Niece


BURLINGTON, Vt. August 27, 2013 (AP)
By LISA RATHKE Associated Press




A Vermont man pleaded guilty Tuesday to kidnapping, sexually assaulting and killing his 12-year-old niece in an elaborate ruse involving a fake pool party and phony evidence to manipulate authorities into thinking she was killed by someone she met online.
Michael Jacques' plea allows him to avoid a federal death penalty trial for the 2008 slaying of Brooke Bennett.

When the judge asked him if all of the allegations were true, Jacques replied, "I'm afraid it is, sir."

Jacques, 47, of Randolph, will be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole as part of an agreement with federal prosecutors. They had been planning to seek the death penalty against Jacques, whose trial was scheduled to start after Labor Day.

Prosecutors say Jacques, a convicted sex offender, used a 14-year-old girl he had been sexually abusing since she was 9 to lure Brooke to his home for a pool party by having the girl send Brooke a text message purporting to be from a boy she was interested in. They say Jacques drugged, sexually assaulted and ultimately suffocated Brooke with a plastic bag after she disappeared from a convenience store in Randolph on June 25, 2008.

Prosecutors said Jacques then created an online trail making it look like Brooke was the victim of someone she'd met on the Internet and left her underwear on the side of a dirt road with another male's DNA.

Brooke's body was found buried in a shallow grave off a logging road near Jacques' home after a weeklong search.
After Brooke disappeared, authorities soon uncovered a series of horrifying schemes they say Jacques used for his own sexual gratification.

The other girl told police she thought Brooke was destined for a child sex club the teen believed she had been in herself since she was 9, although prosecutors say it was another ruse created by Jacques.

The teen believed her family would be killed if she didn't engage in sexual acts with Jacques — a threat she believed in part because he went so far as to stab himself in the leg and blame agents of the so-called club, Assistant U.S. Attorney Craig Nolan said.

The lie was so convincing it took much time and effort to persuade the girl the club was a fiction, Nolan said.
During their investigation, authorities said they found four video cassettes in a swamp behind Jacques' house with images of the girl engaged in sexual conduct with Jacques.

Jacques, who was married to the sister of Brooke's mother, initially pleaded not guilty in the fall of 2008. Earlier this month prosecutors announced he had agreed to plead guilty to charges of kidnapping with death resulting, four counts of production of child pornography and one count of possession of child pornography.

"We just think this was a fair and enlightened way to resolve this case," his attorney, David Ruhnke, said afterward.
Brooke's parents and grandmother declined to comment to reporters as they solemnly left the court.

When Brooke's parents, Jim Bennett and Cassandra Adam, first heard about the plea agreement, they said they were disappointed.

Jim Bennett, Brooke's father, said he had seen the suspect's name on Vermont's sex-offender registry in the mid-2000s when he had been training as a town constable and tried to discourage the girl from visiting his home. He said he wonders if he had pushed harder to keep his daughter away from Jacques if she might still be alive.

"It's one of those things that's in the back of my mind all the time," Bennett told the Burlington Free Press last week.

Jacques' name was added to the registry after a 1993 conviction for kidnapping and sexually assaulting a female coworker at a West Rutland business. He was sentenced to six to 20 years and completed the sex offender treatment program in 2006 and was released from probation in 2006.

Brooke's death prompted the Vermont Legislature to beef up the state's sex offender laws.

Vermont has no state death penalty, but Jacques was to be tried under federal law.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/vt-man-pleads-guilty-kidnapping-killing-niece-20081035