10/25/2006

The Saratogian (Saratoga, NY)
By JIM KINNEY

Regan back in court

WATERBURY, Conn. -- John F. Regan, the man who tried to kidnap a 17-year-old girl at Saratoga Springs High School last October, will be in a Connecticut court Thursday to answer kidnapping and sex abuse charges dating back several years.

Regan, 49, could reach a plea agreement Thursday, said John A. Connelly, a Connecticut state's attorney handling the case against Regan in Connecticut. Regan and his defense lawyers will meet with Connelly on Thursday morning.

If they don't reach a deal, Regan will stand trial in his hometown of Waterbury, probably within the next four months, Connelly said.

'We have to move quickly because we have him on loan from New York,' Connelly said. 'We have him for 120 days.'

Regan pleaded guilty in July to trying to kidnap Lindsey Ferguson, then a Saratoga Springs High School senior and a star on the school's cross-country team. She is a student at Notre Dame, where she runs on the cross country team.

Regan is serving 12 years in state prison on that charge.

Ferguson was walking alone to her car through a crowded parking lot after running practice at about 5:30 p.m. Oct. 31, 2005. She heard Regan's van door slide open, and when she went to get in her car, Regan grabbed her from behind and put his hand over her mouth.

Ferguson struggled and got away, and Regan drove off in the van. Police later arrested Regan a few miles away on Beekman Street.

Police later found a tarp, rope tied in a slipknot, liquor, photography equipment and tools, including a shovel, in the van.

At the time, Regan was free on $350,000 bail pending court action on the kidnapping and sexual abuse charges in Connecticut.

'It's mystifying to lay people, particularly an administrator in my position, how he could be out on bail and in Saratoga Springs with those charges against him,' Saratoga Springs Superintendent of Schools John MacFadden said. 'Now, I understand he hadn't been convicted. But I would have thought there'd be some supervision.'

He was first arrested in 2004 and accused of trying to force himself on a co-worker. In the course of that arrest, police took DNA from Regan that matched a notorious 1993 rape case in Waterbury.

Regan is accused of breaking into his friend's home while he knew the friend was away. He's accused of cutting the phone line then binding and gagging his friend's wife. Police said Regan raped the woman while her children were in the next room.

The police bungled the investigation, and the victim later won a lawsuit against the Waterbury Police.

He's been charged only with kidnapping in that case because the statute of limitations for rape had expired.

'To some degree, the Connecticut prosecution's hands are tied because of the statute of limitations,' Saratoga County District Attorney James A. Murphy III said. 'They're going to have to show to a jury that he forcibly restrained her and held her against her will. I believe that under the facts I know, Connecticut can prove that.'

Kidnapping doesn't have a statute of limitations in Connecticut. Neither rape nor kidnapping have statutes of limitations in New York state.

Murphy said he's met with the victim of the 1993 case several times to go over what happened to Ferguson.

'We went down there twice,' he said. 'She was here three weeks ago, in my office.'

After Saratoga Springs Police arrested Regan, they found photos he'd taken of women without their knowledge both in Saratoga Springs and in Connecticut. Some of them were of the victim in the 2004 case resulting in stalking charges against Regan.

Murphy said the van and its contents are still in police custody for Connecticut authorities.

'The photos were found on our warrant,' Murphy said. 'We've offered our case file, we've offered our investigators.'

Lindsey's father, Gary Ferguson, said Tuesday the only thing he wants to see out of the Connecticut case is more prison time for Regan.

'I don't want his time in Connecticut to be concurrent with his time in New York,' Ferguson said. 'I don't want him out.'

Murphy said Regan's New York sentence is set up so as to not run concurrently.

'Unless Connecticut doesn't anything different,' Murphy said. 'I'm hopeful Connecticut will not run their time concurrently. John Regan should do the maximum sentence in New York and he should do the maximum sentence in Connecticut.'

Connecticut's Connelly said Regan could get about 40 years in Connecticut.

Regan's arrest surprised Waterbury residents, where Regan is a member of a prominent family. There is a school named for his grandfather, his father is a dentist and his brother is a partner in a Washington D.C. law firm.

Law-enforcement agencies around the country are still looking at Regan in connection with missing-woman cases. Murphy said those probes are still open. Regan's DNA is in state and federal databases.

'So it is out there and available for matching by any law-enforcement agency,' he said.

Reach Jim Kinney at jkinney@saratogian.com or 583-8729, ext.216.