Sunday, July 26, 2009

Online vigilante arrested for rape charge

This story reminds me of Pee-J's early days, where Xavier Von Erck intimidated a man with a baseball bat during their early set-ups. I wouldn't doubt he was an ex-PJer.

http://www.telegram.com/article/20090724/NEWS/907240364/1101/LOCAL

Robber arraigned in child rape case

By Alexandra Tilsley SPECIAL TO THE TELEGRAM & GAZETTE
3 comments | Add a comment

One of the men was robbed when he went to a park for what he thought was a meeting with the girl, while the other had his house burglarized.

GARDNER — A Gardner man previously convicted for orchestrating a burglary and a robbery through a social networking Web site was arraigned in early July on rape charges at Winchendon District Court.

Lawrence M. Lafrennie, 26, of 7 Glazier St. is charged with four counts of statutory rape of a child and one count of selling or delivering alcohol to a minor, according to court records. The number of victims is unclear from the record.

Mr. Lafrennie’s bail was set at $5,000 cash after the July 9 arraignment. As a condition of his bail, Mr. Lafrennie was ordered to have no contact with the alleged victims.

A notice of violation of probation also was also filed, according to court records. Mr. Lafrennie was on probation after pleading guilty in January 2008 to charges of armed robbery, unarmed burglary, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, larceny from a building, conspiracy to commit armed robbery and conspiracy to commit unarmed burglary.

Mr. Lafrennie, two of his siblings and a friend had posed as a teenage girl on the Web site MySpace.com and arranged meetings with two men, Assistant District Attorney Christopher P. Hodgens said at the time of the 2008 incident. One of the men was robbed when he went to a park for what he thought was a meeting with the girl, while the other had his house burglarized while he was out at a prearranged meeting.

After pleading guilty, Mr. Lafrennie was sentenced to two years in the House of Correction with one year to be served. Judge John S. McCann suspended the balance of the jail sentence for five years with probation.

1 comment:

Ty said...

I'm not certain I'd call this vigilantism, it's outright luring. With the outright criminal intent it's hard to believe their focus was actually on enforcing any kind of justice rather than taking advantage of a desperate romantic.