BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP) – The former stepfather of a 12-year-old Braintree girl who was raped and killed this summer is facing new federal child pornography charges in Texas.
An indictment unsealed earlier this month in federal court in San Antonio charges that Raymond A. Gagnon “did knowingly use, persuade, induce and coerce a minor to engage in sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of producing a visual depiction of such conduct.”
Gagnon is the former stepfather of Brooke Bennett, who authorities say was abducted, drugged, raped and killed in late June. Her body was found a week later, and her uncle, 42-year-old Michael Jacques, has been charged in the crimes.
Gagnon was indicted in July on charges that he possessed child pornography in April of 2007 and had used a computer or other means to transmit the images across state lines. The new indictment adds charges that he produced child pornography during a four-year period.
The new indictment does not say where the child pornography was recorded or identify the minor or minors depicted as participating in sex acts. It says the pornography was produced between March of 2003 and April of 2007.
Gagnon was sent from Vermont to Texas to face charges there after federal authorities in Vermont dropped an obstruction of justice charge they had lodged against him in July.
The July charge against Gagnon alleged that while on a trip to Vermont in late June, he called a friend in Texas and asked him to dispose of a computer that contained child pornography.
Court papers said the images of the computer were pictures of a girl identified as Juvenile 1 performing sex acts with a boyfriend; and that Jacques and Gagnon took part in sex acts with Juvenile 1 in Royalton in 2007.
The charges against Jacques say he recruited Juvenile 1 into a purported “program for sex” called Breckenridge by threatening that girls who refused to cooperate could be “terminated.” Juvenile 1 allegedly was coerced into helping Jacques with Brooke’s abduction.
Gagnon married Brooke’s mother, Cassandra Gagnon, in 2000, after they moved from Vermont to Alabama. The couple separated in 2004, and Brooke, her sister and mother returned to Vermont. Raymond and Cassandra Gagnon divorced in 2006.
AP-ES-10-25-08 0924EDT
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