10/27/2006

Republican-American (Waterbury, CT)
By BEN CONERY

'Creep' Regan pleads guilty

Victim's husband blasts Waterbury kidnapper

WATERBURY, CT - The harshest words for John Regan came Thursday from the husband of a woman Regan attacked in 1993.

The man said he had known Regan since he was 5 years old, but now considers his former friend a coward and a punk. He said Regan is 'a disgrace to his family and friends.'

"I urge you to make sure this creep is kept in prison for as long as possible because he will attack again, the man said to Judge Joan Alexander in Waterbury Superior Court.

Regan, 49, of 117 Euclid Ave., pleaded guilty Thursday to charges of kidnapping, unlawful restraint and stalking. The charges stemmed from crimes against two women in two different decades.

Regan entered his plea under the Alford Doctrine, meaning he did not agree with the allegations but conceded he would likely have been convicted and received a stiffer sentence if the charges had gone to trial. Regan faced up to 36 years in prison.

Under an agreement with prosecutors, Regan was sentenced to 15 years in prison. He also will have to register as a sex offender for 10 years.

"I think it was the best sentence under the circumstances," Waterbury State's Attorney John A. Connelly said.

That prison term will run concurrently with the 12-year sentence he received in July for trying to snatch a girl from a high school parking lot in upstate New York last Halloween. Regan will serve 12 years in prison in New York before he will return to Connecticut to serve the final three years.

Regan, the father of three from a prominent family, was first arrested in 2004 and charged with trying to force himself sexually on a female co-worker. He was later charged with stalking the woman and taking photographs of her after he was arrested.

"He has come after me twice and I fear for my life," the victim wrote in a letter to the judge. She wept and shook as a victim advocate read her letter in court.

She said she now suffers from post-traumatic stress, anxiety attacks and has heart palpitations.

Regan, a broad shouldered, 200-pound man, showed no reaction to the letter.

After Regan was arrested in that case, police took a DNA sample that linked him to a notorious 1993 rape case.

In that case, an Overlook woman was raped in her home while her two children, ages 5 and 7, slept in nearby rooms.

The woman said she awoke to see a figure standing in her bedroom. She said he pinned her to the bed, tied her hands behind her back with nylons, slipped a pillowcase over her head and sexually assaulted her. He left after 20 minutes.

The timing of the attack was suspicious. The woman's husband was out of town for the first time in more than a decade of marriage.

The night of the attack, Regan attended a party that the woman's husband, Regan's longtime friend, would have attended had he been in town. Regan would have known his friend was away and his wife was home alone.

Police questioned Regan after the attack, but otherwise bungled the investigation. Officers accused the woman of lying to conceal an affair. She later won a lawsuit against the department that spurred police to change the way they handle sexual assault investigations.

Regan wasn't charged for another decade. By that time, police could only charge him with kidnapping because the statute of limitations had run out for sexual assault.

"I believe John Regan's ultimate fate will be decided by God," the woman said in court Thursday. "I pray that he is not given the opportunity or ability to harm another person on this earth for the rest of his life."

The woman's husband called Regan an unrepentant creep.

Regan was out on bond last October when he was arrested in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., where he was working on houses owned by his uncle.

His hands cuffed in front of him, Regan showed little reaction Thursday, occasionally shifting his weight from foot to foot.

None of Regan's friends or family were in court so that they could avoid media attention, according to one of his attorneys Hubert J. Santos of Hartford.

"His family loves him, supports him and believes in him 100 percent," Santos said.

Regan's other attorney, Martin Minnella of Waterbury, said the case has been a tragedy for everyone involved. "Hopefully, this will be the end to a lot of pain," he said.