Probe of missing girl now focuses on uncle
Investigation uncovers Internet sex ring that involved uncle
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Michael Stephen Jacques, 42, of Randolph Center appears in Chelsea District Court Monday where he was arraigned for aggravated sexual assault on a minor. Police have named Jacques a person of interest in the investigation into the disappearance of his niece, Brooke Bennett, 12, of Braintree. Below right, a helicopter searches the backyard of Michael Jacques house in Randolph Center. Left, Col. James Baker, director of the Vermont State Police, points to a reporter as he takes questions at a press conference held in Bethel. |
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By Peter Hirschfeld Vermont Press Bureau - Published: July 1, 2008
RANDOLPH CENTER – A man named Monday as a "person of interest" in the disappearance of a 12-year-old Braintree girl has been linked by police to an alleged Internet ring used to lure underage girls into sex.
Michael Stephen Jacques, 42, of Randolph Center, was charged Monday with sexually assaulting a young girl in an unrelated case. But police are investigating the possibility that Jacques had the intention of also targeting his niece, Brooke Bennett, who went missing Wednesday morning. The girl disappeared after Jacques dropped her off at a Randolph convenience store.
"At this time Michael Jacques is a person of interest," Col. James Baker, director of the Vermont State Police, said during a press conference late Monday afternoon. "This is not the only avenue we continue to pursue … With that said, I will reconfirm my statement from before that this case is about social networking on the Internet."
Police focused their search for Bennett Monday on Jacques' property in Randolph Center, where authorities spent the day combing through his home and yard.
Jacques, who is married and is an operations manager at a West Lebanon, N.H., company, pleaded not guilty to aggravated sexual assault against a minor Monday afternoon and was ordered held for lack of $250,000 bail. In court papers released following the arraignment, police described a "program" allegedly used by Jacques to coerce the young victim into having sex.
In interviews with police, the victim, a relative of Jacques', said that she had been recruited into the "Breckenridge program" when she was 8 or 9 years old. Jacques, she told police, had been assigned by the program's "president" as her "trainer."
Jacques allegedly forced the girl to perform sexual acts weekly over the course of several years. She said the acts, which ended only a few weeks ago, were intended to improve her rating in the "Breckenridge program." She said she received phone calls and electronic messages from figures inside the program detailing which acts she was to perform on Jacques.
The victim told police that she has "met" three men from the program, and identified one of them as Jacques. She also said she had been enrolled in the "program" with three other young girls.
"Anyone who might have been in contact with Michael Jacques who is a teenager or a child, it's imperative they reach out and talk to us as soon as possible," Baker said.
Baker said it was "too early" to determine whether Brooke Bennett was also in the alleged sex program, but said investigators are pursuing that possibility. Police say they're looking for other men that may have been involved, but Baker declined to say whether they had identified possible suspects.
Baker also said police are investigating whether the program is an actual sex ring, or a ploy created by Jacques to intimidate the girl into having sex.
Jacques has a history of sexual violence in Orange County, where he was convicted of aggravated sexual assault and kidnapping in July of 1993. He was sentenced to 6 to 20 years in prison for those crimes and now appears on the Vermont Sex Offender Registry.
Baker would not disclose Monday what role Internet social networking played in the Breckenridge program or in Bennett's disappearance. He did say, however, that police zeroed in on Jacques after combing through computer evidence.
"Late Saturday and into early Sunday morning, information was developed as a result of forensic examination of computers that helped us change the direction of the investigation," Baker said.
Jacques was led into Vermont District Court in Chelsea by an armed sheriff at about 1:30 p.m. Monday. Family members of the alleged victim looked on as Orange County State Attorney William Porter asked that Jacques be held without bail.
"Were he to be released, he would pose a threat of violence to this particular juvenile complainant," Porter said.
The victim had in fact told police that Jacques threatened to "cut the throat" of any "Breckenridge" member who did not comply with orders. According to an affidavit, she told police that she "did not know how she was alive."
District Court Judge Theresa DiMauro ruled though that the state's evidence against Jacques was not ample enough to hold him without bail. She cited weaknesses in corroborating testimony from the victim's mother and set bail at $250,000.
Brooke Bennett was last seen Wednesday morning outside the Cumberland Farms in Randolph. According to police, Jacques dropped her off there after she said she wanted to meet a friend and go visit the friend's sick relative at a hospital.
Police have since raised doubts that such a rendezvous was planned and have been focusing their investigation on contacts the girl is believed to have made through the MySpace social networking Web site.
Police would not say Monday whether Jacques was the source of that story.
The investigation turned dramatically Sunday when police announced Jacques' arrest and have since narrowed their efforts onto Jacques' Route 66 Randolph property.
On Monday afternoon, a helicopter buzzed overhead, circling around the home and yard. Dozens of state police cruisers arrived and departed the scene over the course of the day as canine crews led at least two dogs around the area.
State police officers wearing booties and white latex gloves were seen entering and leaving the home. A trooper stationed near the front of the driveway restricted access to the property.
Several neighbors walked by as television cameras, photographers and reporters positioned themselves across the street. The case has drawn national media attention and at the 4 p.m. press conference, held in the cafeteria of Whitcomb High School in Bethel, satellite trucks fed live feeds for national broadcasts.
The investigation initially centered in Brookfield, where items of clothing belonging to Brooke Bennett were found near the side of Route 65 Thursday. Police confirmed Monday that it was Jacques who discovered the clothes.
Brooke Bennett, who just finished seventh grade at Randolph High School, lives with her mother, Cassandra Gagnon, in Braintree.