Richard Roger Lavigne (February 18, 1941 – May 21, 2021) was a laicized priest of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield in Massachusetts and convicted sex offender. Lavigne was at the center of the priest abuse scandal in the Diocese of Springfield in Massachusetts with about 40 claims of sexual abuse of minors placed against him.
He was removed from ministry by Bishop John Marshall in 1991. He pleaded guilty to two counts of child sexual abuse on June 26, 1992, and was the only suspect named in the long-unsolved 1972 murder of 13-year-old altar boy Danny Croteau of Springfield, Massachusetts. In 1994, DNA tests failed to link Lavigne to the Croteau murder, and the Hampden County District Attorney, William Bennett, did not bring any charges against Lavigne. Lavigne was laicized by the Holy See on November 20, 2003. According to the Massachusetts Sex Offender Registry, Lavigne spent the last two years of his life "in violation", and his last known residence was in Chicopee.
Lavigne died in May 2021 of acute hypoxia respiratory failure, as a result of COVID-19-related pneumonia, just hours after the Hampden County district attorney Anthony D. Gulluni's office had begun preparing an arrest warrant in the 1972 case, based on deathbed admissions by Lavigne of specific details. Gullini declared Lavigne responsible for the death of Danny Croteau.
Two Springfield, Massachusetts Roman Catholic bishops, Christopher Joseph Weldon (1905–1982) and Thomas Dupre, were named as pedophiles who each covered up the abuse and murder of Danny Croteau by Lavigne, who was in their charge.
References
Further reading
Cullen, Kevin, December 14, 2003, http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2003/12/14/a_priest_a_boy_a_mystery/