Uncle of Missing Vermont Girl Took Her Home for Initiation Into Sex Ring

**Willowdared** · 07-02-08, 05:50 PM

RANDOLPH, Vt. — A missing Vermont girl's uncle brought her home to initiate her into a sex ring, federal officials claim in court papers.

In an affidavit, officials contend a teenage girl admitted helping Michael Jacques, Brooke Bennett's uncle, drop off the 12-year-old at a store on June 25, then pick her up and take her to his Randolph home for initiation into a child sex ring. Brooke has not been seen since.

The 14-year-old, reportedly related to Jacques, told agents she, herself, had been having sex with Jacques, 42, since she was 9 as part of a sex ring called Breckinridge, according to the U.S. District Court affidavit. She said she was told Brooke was going to be brought into the ring that day.

The teenager said she understood that as part of the initiation, Brooke "would have sex with adult males," according to the affidavit in U.S. District Court.

She and Brooke watched television for a while before Jacques told her to leave and took Brooke upstairs, the teen said. The girl left the house with her boyfriend and did not see Brooke again, she said.

Brooke's former stepfather was expected in court Wednesday to face federal charges that he destroyed evidence in connection with the search for Brooke.

Ray Gagnon, 40, was to appear in U.S. District Court in Burlington, Vt., to answer an obstruction of justice charge. If convicted, the San Antonio, Texas, man could be sentenced to life in prison.

Investigators searching for the girl arrested Gagnon and Jacques, a registered sex offender, this week on sexual assault charges. Brooke is not among the victims, according to police.

Jacques pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Earlier reports said Gagnon allegedly had traveled to the state from his Texas home to help search for Brooke, of Braintree, Vt. Authorities also analyzed surveillance video from the shop at which the girl last was seen.

In it, Jacques and the girl are seen leaving the store together and then Brooke going left out the door while Jacques goes right.

Gagnon was married to Brooke's mother for about five years; Brooke lived with them in Alabama. The mother, Cassandra Gagnon, told the San Antonio Express-News that Gagnon came to Vermont to try to lend a hand after her disappearance made national news last week.

"We're not doing very good ... not very good at all," the child's weeping stepmother, Janet Bennett, told FOX News on Wednesday.

Janet Bennett is married to Brooke's father, James Bennett, and said the family is frustrated over the lack of information they're getting on the case. She discounted the possibility that Brooke might have left on her own.

"She's not the type of girl who would run away," she said.

Gagnon was arrested Tuesday on federal child molestation charges in connection with a sexual assault investigation involving Brooke's uncle.

Gagnon was in federal custody Tuesday on a charge of aggravated sexual assault on a minor, according to Vermont State Police.

The arrest is related to the case against Jacques, who was charged on Monday with sexually assaulting a young girl over a five-year period. The girl told police she had been enrolled in what police called a program for sex.

According to court papers, she told police that Jacques was to be her trainer in a "program for sex" and that she had met three men affiliated with the program.

Girls in the program were warned that "the first [girl] who does it lives and the second gets her throat cut," according to an affidavit filed Monday at Vermont District Court for Orange County.

Col. James Baker, head of the state police, said authorities were considering all possibilities, including that the sex ring was a ruse Jacques created to intimidate the girl into having sex with him.

State police say Jacques is a "person of interest" in Brooke's disappearance.

Brooke had told family she was to meet a friend to visit the friend's hospitalized relative. Police now believe that was a lie and Brooke intended to meet someone she'd met on the Internet.

Police have described their investigation into Brooke's disappearance as involving social networking Web sites.

A vigil for Brooke was scheduled for 8 p.m. EDT Wednesday.

**gopherpuckfan** · 07-02-08, 07:57 PM

Sounds like they found her body.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,375561,00.html

**Craiger** · 07-02-08, 09:47 PM

Originally Posted by gopherpuckfan

Sounds like they found her body.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,375561,00.html

This is so sad, Yes they anounced tonight they ID'ed her.
My Prayers go out to the family.

**Captain America** · 07-02-08, 10:01 PM

Originally Posted by Craiger

This is so sad, Yes they anounced tonight they ID'ed her.
My Prayers go out to the family.

The family is the ones that killed her.

**Craiger** · 07-02-08, 10:22 PM

Originally Posted by Captain America

The family is the ones that killed her.

Let me clarify my prayers go out to the mother Janet Bennett
But yes I agree Captain America according to all report so far it is hard to find someone who is not involved.

**Willowdared** · 07-03-08, 01:07 AM

The former step-father obstructed the case by hacking into her
Myspace account and altering her messages to imply she was meeting someone.

He got the password from the Uncle.

I'm not sure I have prayers for Mom yet -
she let her daughter go to the video store with a registered sex offender.

May that sweet child rest in peace.

**Rhino** · 07-03-08, 02:15 AM

I quote the great Travis Bickle:

Someday a real rain will come and wash all this scum off the streets.

**lewisipso** · 07-03-08, 10:12 PM

Originally Posted by Rhino

I quote the great Travis Bickle:

Someday a real rain will come and wash all this scum off the streets.

I pray for that day.

**RoJo** · 07-03-08, 10:57 PM

Before being sent to that special place in hell that all sexual predators go. I hope they live a long and painful life in prison first.

**HudsonHawk** · 07-05-08, 11:32 PM

The bad news: Vermont abolished the death penalty in 1964.

The good news: capital punishment can still be carried out for people convicted of Federal kidnapping charges.

**CTR man** · 07-06-08, 01:21 AM

Originally Posted by Rhino

I quote the great Travis Bickle:

Someday a real rain will come and wash all this scum off the streets.

Just like in the days of Noah and his Ark? Ooooh I can hardly wait.

Originally Posted by vengeance05

The bad news: Vermont abolished the death penalty in 1964.

The good news: capital punishment can still be carried out for people convicted of Federal kidnapping charges.

Lets hope that happens.

Well, I guess they can give him 4000 years like they did that idiot down in Texas. Still I would like to see him fried, though.

**Willowdared** · 07-06-08, 03:14 AM

Originally Posted by vengeance05

The good news: capital punishment can still be carried out for people convicted of Federal kidnapping charges.

It looks like that may just happen.

The other good news.....you don't spend 15 years on death row for federal charges.

**jcsdscott** · 07-06-08, 04:51 AM

Woe unto he that would harm a little one. He will get what he deserves.

**mack** · 07-06-08, 05:48 AM

Poor child, I just cannot understand how someone can harm a child, how can such evil exist, even though I have been around it I will never understand it. Why do I think that some defense attorney will somehow turn it all around and somehow these animals will be spared

**jcsdscott** · 07-06-08, 06:03 AM

Originally Posted by mack

Poor child, I just cannot understand how someone can harm a child, how can such evil exist, even though I have been around it I will never understand it. Why do I think that some defense attorney will somehow turn it all around and somehow these animals will be spared

Because sometime ago these people convinced themselves that it was okay to defend those that are truly wrong for money.

**mack** · 07-06-08, 07:02 AM

Originally Posted by jcsdscott

Because sometime ago these people convinced themselves that it was okay to defend those that are truly wrong for money.

A normal thinking person knows there are some things more important than money, oh sorry, I forgot they aren't normal, one day it will come back on them

**Pinki** · 07-06-08, 08:51 AM

Originally Posted by mack

A normal thinking person knows there are some things more important than money, oh sorry, I forgot they aren't normal, one day it will come back on them

When I really start to think about things like this, I wonder what is in store for us as a society.

Sometimes I think we (society) are starting to treat victims as "sacrificial lambs' and really sort of mentally dissassociate from them. It's scary.