Delay in Notifying FBI May Have Slowed Search
By Dan De Leo, Worcester Telegram & Gazette Staff Writer
Originally published in the Worcester Telegram & Gazette, June 8, 2001
NORTHBRIDGE — Peter M. Gagnon, the ex-Marine accused of drugging, raping and videotaping his teen-age daughter's friends at sleepover parties, has been on the run for three weeks.
But a federal warrant for the arrest of the 48-year-old Whitinsville man, which would trigger a more extensive nationwide search involving federal law enforcement agencies, was not issued until Tuesday, 17 days after police believe he fled the state.
According to FBI spokeswoman Gail Marcinkiewicz, a federal warrant charging Mr. Gagnon with unlawful flight to avoid prosecution was issued June 5.
Not until then, she said, did the FBI's offices across the country receive official "notification that this person is being looked for. The FBI doesn't automatically get involved."
The responsibility for making the request to the U.S. Attorney's office for a UFAP warrant falls largely on the local district attorney, in this case, Worcester District Attorney John J. Conte Jr.
Before the U.S. Attorney will approve the request for a federal warrant, the local district attorney must agree to extradite and prosecute the individual once he is apprehended, Agent Marcinkiewicz said.
It is not clear why Mr. Conte did not seek the federal warrant sooner, she said. Mr. Conte did not return numerous phone calls to his office and home. The U.S. Attorney's office would neither confirm nor deny when or if a federal warrant had been issued against Mr. Gagnon, or say who might have made such a request.
The U.S. Marshal's Service also confirmed yesterday that it is working on the investigation with state police.
Unlawful flight to avoid prosecution warrants are frequently used in cases in which a suspect is believed to have fled the state.
Northbridge police said they believed Mr. Gagnon fled—once their investigation into his alleged activities began May 19. That day, Mr. Gagnon's daughter arrived at the Northbridge Police Department with videotapes of her father allegedly sexually assaulting her teen-age friends as they slept.
Mr. Gagnon faces 38 counts of rape and indecent assault and battery.
Northbridge Police Chief Thomas J. Melia said he informally asked the FBI for assistance about a week ago. Only then was he made aware of the need for a UFAP warrant for the FBI to become officially engaged in the investigation. He said the FBI then contacted Mr. Conte's office.
"We got a call from the DA's office asking whether we had requested federal help, and I said, 'Of course.'"
Even though a federal warrant had not been issued until recently, Mr. Gagnon could still have been apprehended by another state's law enforcement authorities and held as a fugitive from justice, Chief Melia said. Because his department had never needed the FBI's help in an investigation before, he said, he was unaware of the need for the federal warrant.
"We've never had to use one before," he said.
"Everything in my department has been 100-percent correct," he said, "from the initiation of the investigation to the signing of complaints. Whether the UFAP warrant was issued in a timely fashion, I can't answer that. But we'll welcome anyone's help in getting Mr. Gagnon apprehended."
As far as where Mr. Gagnon could be by now, Chief Melia said, "He could be anywhere he wanted to be."
