Mom Killer Vows to Kill Romney
11.22.07 -- 7:05 PM
Former Gov. Mitt Romney said yesterday convicted killer Daniel T. Tavares Jr. should never have been released - a decision made by Romney’s own judicial nominee - as it also was revealed yesterday that the twisted felon vowed he would kill the governor and other officials when he got out of jail.
“This is a dangerous man who killed his own mother. He should have been held on bail, given his violent record, attacks on correction officers and a history of threats against public officials, including Gov. Romney,” said Romney spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom in a statement. “It is because of monsters like Daniel Tavares that we need the death penalty.”
But Romney stopped short of expressing regret for his nomination of Superior Court Judge Kathe M. Tuttman. Overturning the bail decision of a lower court on charges he assaulted prison guards, Tuttman set Tavares free July 16.
According to records obtained by the Herald, while in jail for killing his mother with a carving knife, Tavares in February 2006 threatened to kill the governor, attorney general, Bristol sheriff and other public officials when he got out of jail.
Tavares skipped town after the bail waiver and is now charged in the heinous murder of newlyweds Brian and Beverly Mauck of Graham, Wash. Relatives and friends of the Mauck family called on GOP presidential hopeful Romney to be accountable for the judge he nominated.
“He was the governor - he picked this judge,” said Beverly Mauck’s father, Darrel Slater, 51. “He should be answering for what happened.”
Said a friend of the Maucks, Allen Glasenapp, 50, of Washington, “Obviously at this stage in the game, one would say that Mitt Romney’s appointment of this judge was an error in judgment.”
While some speculated that the nomination could emerge as a thorny issue for Romney, noted political scientist Larry Sabato of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics said, “Romney has a way out, but he hasn’t used it. This is so egregious he ought to come out and say, ‘I’m sorry I appointed (the judge).’ ”
Sabato said Romney’s nomination of the judge, however, is hardly equal to the famed Michael Dukakis furlough program that allowed Willie Horton to leave prison and brutalize a Maryland couple - helping to sink the 1988 presidential campaign of former Gov. Dukakis in the process.
“If he doesn’t (apologize),” Sabato said, “he’s asking for a negative attack ad, which would be a devastation. It will compare him perhaps unfairly to the Dukakis furlough program.”
Tuttman, 55, is a former Essex prosecutor who headed the family crimes and sexual assault unit before her widely praised appointment to the bench in 2006.
In 2005, Tuttman received the Massachusetts Office of Victim Assistance Criminal Justice Award for Outstanding Victim Advocacy.
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