EVERYBODY HATES RAYMOND
Relax...not that Raymond. Of course, everyone loves Ray Romano and his TV sitcom family. This is a different Raymond. Nothing at all like the other Ray. This little story is about Raymond Guay Jr., 60, who was just released from a California prison after serving some 35 years. It was a crooked trail that led him to California, but it was a beeline that led him back to Manchester, New Hampshire just days ago
Back in 1973 Ray was living in Nashua. It was winter when he abducted 12 year-old John Lindovski of Hollis, NH, just a few towns over from me. A shy young man, with a kind heart, John had been missing for a month when his body was found in a snowbank. He was wearing only underwear, a wristwatch and glasses. He had been sexually assaulted and shot point blank through the eye. Guay was arrested after a relatively brief investigation and even at that time, had a prior sex-related offense on his record involving a minor. Imagine the pain that this family endured and the horror that spread across the community. I was a Sophomore in High School and remember the story. Not the type of thing that happened too often around here.
Though it may not seem like long ago, in 1973 the Courts were loathe to highlight the sexual aspect of any crime, especially involving children, hoping to spare the families of victims further distress. Guay, therefore, took the murder charge and was sentenced to 25 years to life. Not surprisingly, his time in prison did not go well. First, he escaped from the Concord State Prison in the 1980's and kidnapped an elderly Concord couple after breaking into their home. He was re-captured and sentenced to an additional ten years. A constant threat while in prison, he eventually violently assaulted another inmate with "the intent to kill", and received another fourteen years.
When word broke about a month ago that his release was impending, his mother, living in Colorado, contacted press everywhere, including our local paper, imploring authorities to intervene. This caught the eye of The Union Leader, our statewide paper, and got some national attention as well. Raymond had been serving his remaining time in California, as he had been shuffled from prison to prison, apparently to loathsome an individual for even inmates to tolerate. At this point, one could see the crack that he would eventually fall through, beginning to open. You could almost hear it creak and crack. The still-heartbroken mother of John Lindovski, who, as she pointed out, "would never be released", ever ratcheting up her pleas to authorities.
Then it was announced that Guay was planning to relocate to Washington, NH, where he had a brother. This "plan" was quickly squashed, as the press surrounding that announcement made his return there a highly impractical plan. NH Attorney General Kelley Ayotte announced shortly thereafter that there was nothing the State could do, or the Federal authorities for that matter. Guay had served his time, had answered his prescribed debt to society. Ayotte lamented that because he had not been charged with rape, or any sexual crime, that he could not be held under civil-commitment. She called him the "poster-boy" for civil-commitment, part of a new law just passed in New Hampshire that says that a sexual predator who has served their time, if still deemed a risk to society, can be involuntarily held in a secure psychiatric unit, indefinitely. This is the law that was meant to fill that crack that we just heard creaking open. Sadly, it did not apply here.
The story kind of quieted for a week or so. Then, last week, Guay showed up in Manchester. A "religious organization" had reached out to him and offered him a place to stay. Right next to the St. Joseph Regional High School. Bear in mind that this is the only place in the country, literally, that wanted him. California would not allow him to stay in their state. Their Director-of-Prisons had deemed him "too serious a threat to public safety". According to Dante Garcia, California's U.S. Probation Officer, "the release plan of the BOP(Bureau of Prisons) is to escort Mr. Guay by commercial airline to John Wayne Airport, Orange County, and release him with no residence or means of support, as our office has exhausted all option within our district.Mr. Guay will be transient upon arrival and we will be unable to provide close supervision." Well, thank you. All of this happening as part of "due-process", and probably only gaining any attention because of a mother who was paying attention, and undoubtedly, dreading this day.
Everybody hates Raymond. He has been in Manchester only a few days and already authorities there are demanding that he be removed from the city. Police Chief David Mara told the press "we have 300 registered sex offenders here and over 2,500 people who are on state probation and parole. I think we have enough sexual and social deviants without adding one more. I think Manchester has done it's part absorbing people back into society." Yes, Chief, I would tend to agree. Indeed, I think the country has done more than it's share.
What this case demonstrates is the glaring need for some kind of over-riding "Common-Sense Law", or maybe the "No-Crack-To-Fall-Through Law". How crazy is it that a civilized society, at the end of the day,can't just say, "look...somehow or other our thousands of law books failed to consider this eventuality, but common-sense dictates that this person should not be anywhere other than behind bars.." No, that could never happen. The ACLU would sue. What could happen, however, and indeed what may very well happen, is that Raymond Guay will rob the planet of another good soul. We will all wring our hands and point at the legal system and be angry, but all the while the writing was right there on the wall for all to see. And if that isn't unsettling enough, imagine all the other "Raymonds" that have already fallen through that crack and we never heard a thing about it.
Karl From New Hampshire