The Monster Ghost controversy/mystery

[TVC15]

http://www.southbendtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080624/News01/913098364/1011/News

SOUTH BEND — A 47-year-old South Bend man was sentenced this morning to 71 years in prison on child molestation and other felony charges in a case that a St. Joseph Superior Court judge called the most "heinous" of its kind she has ever come across.

Andre Lavoie pleaded guilty to seven felony offenses — including intimidation, battery and criminal confinement — after his wife found and gave to authorities a videotape belonging to him in which Lavoie, dressed as a character he called "Monster Ghost," is seen forcing a preschool-age boy to defecate in his pants, in addition to molesting him.

His wife has since divorced him.

Judge Jane Woodward Miller told Lavoie during a court hearing this morning that she had declined to watch the videotape because she believed it was so heinous she did not want to live with the memory of it.

She based her opinions on information of the crimes provided by prosecutors.

"What you did to that little boy is beyond comprehension," Miller told Lavoie.

I frankly think this is outrageous.  How could the judge possibly sentence him to 71 years without watching the video?  I mean, 71 years is a fucking long time, and as we all know in this youtube generation, sometimes videos don't quite live up to the hype of their description.  As a matter of fact, this "Monster Ghost" scenario sounds so intriguing and mysterious that I'm wondering if there's not some sort of encoded message in the video that only someone as intelligent as a judge could pick up, something that would justify the actions that occur on this so-called video.  Of course, by neglecting to watch the video but still sentencing the victim to such a long duration, we will likely know the truth.  It figures that a woman was the judge in this case, totally ignoring the evidence, the blinking red sign, and instead using her wretched intuition to sentence the man.  I bet that if a man judge was handling this case, he'd either be sentenced to half that time, if none at all, since I think what with the Monster Ghost their might have been some good reason for the actions contained within, perhaps an especially out-of-control execution or maybe a post-dining Chili's experience that is worse than usual.

[Crushed]

I bet there's not even a Monster Ghost on the tape. It's probably a puppet with some CG.

[Van Cruncheon]

the comments to the article suggesting ad&d was an influence in the crime are loltastic

"for the record, your honor, i was not dressed as a so-called 'monster ghost' -- which will not be found even in the horrible 3.5E monster manual -- but as zulzimann the lich king, who has a 1d6 chance of making his opponent defecate. if you'll examine the boy's character sheet, you'll not only find that his wis is unusually low and that he is level 1, but that his saving throw against pooping is a natural 20"


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i am so going to hell for this :'(

[TVC15]

If you look at the comments to that article you get this, which lends credence to what I've said:

"I went to middle school with Andre. He was completely into the D & D gaming thing back in '73-4-5. He was teased and bullied regularly by the athletes and other kids of the "in" crowd for various reasons. Certainly none of that would ever justify these actions, but it kind of makes you wonder."

Knowing his knowledge of the dark arts, I have prepared a sequence of events:

After eating crispers at Chili's, a Monster Ghost (see: Dungeons and Dragons 1st edition Fiend Folio) shows up and frightens Andre and the Child.  Since the crispers have loosened their bowels and the kid does not have as many levels and experience points as Andre, he poops his pants.  Andre then tries to get the monster ghost on video, but by the time he turns on the video camera, the monster ghost has already escaped.  Disappointed that his opportunity to capture and prove the existence of monster ghosts, Andre sadly molests the child.

Knowing that Andre played Dungeons and Dragons 30some years ago, this is the only sequence of events that makes logical sense to me, and I don't know about you, but I think molesting a child after seeing a monster ghost is perfectly understandable.  I bet nobody would give a fuck about prosecuting you if you smoked a joint or stole some mp3s after seeing a monster ghost.