$25,000 Bail Set For Serial Child Rapist Wayne Chapman
BOSTON (CBS/AP) – A judge denied prosecutors' request to hold a dangerousness hearing for serial child rapist Wayne Chapman following lewdness charges related to recent incidents in prison.
Chapman is facing charges of open and gross lewdness and lewd, wanton and lascivious acts at MCI Shirley on June 3 and 4. The 70-year-old appeared in Middlesex Superior Court on Monday, pleading not guilty.
Legal Analyst: No Guarantee New Charges Will Keep Serial Rapist Behind Bars
Prosecutors allege that Chapman exposed and touched himself in front of prison nurses on multiple occasions.
On Wednesday, a judge ordered Chapman held on $25,000 bail. His defense attorney said Chapman has no means of income to post bail. If he did, Chapman would be eligible to be released after having spent 40 years behind bars.
According to his attorney, Chapman has a "Parkinson's-like disease" that impacts his ability to speak, dress, and complete basic tasks. Prosecutors, meanwhile, say Chapman "continues to engage in sexually based criminal activity."
Prosecutors had asked for Chapman to be subject of a dangerousness hearing. But the judge ruled there was no reason for one.
Chapman had been on the verge of being released from MCI-Shirley, where he's been held since 1977. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison for raping two boys from Lawrence. When Chapman finished his sentence in 2007, prosecutors fought for a civil commitment to keep him locked up as "a sexually dangerous person." Court filings show he has admitted to molesting as many as 100 boys.
Chapman's attorney was asked if it was possible that someone else could pay his bail, allowing him to walk free.
"I suppose that's theoretically a possibility. I don't know of anybody right now," she said.
(© Copyright 2018 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
