BOSTON — Convicted triple-murderer Daniel J. LaPlante, who is serving life behind bars for the 1987 murders of Patricia Gustafson and her two children in their Townsend home, has filed a federal lawsuit against the state Department of Correction claiming his religious rights are being violated by limitations to his Wicca faith.
In the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in March, LaPlante, an inmate at MCI-Norfolk, is suing the DOC and Norfolk’s superintendent, Gary Roden, claiming he is not fully able to practice his Wicca religion from behind bars.
LaPlante, who is representing himself, wrote that he hasn’t been able to obtain some items, such as specific ritual oils, herbs, teas, medallions, fruits and nuts, and a variety of cakes for his faith.
He also claims he has been denied the ability to exercise his faith in a “time, place and manner” his Wicca faith requires.
LaPlante could not be reached for comment.
Attorney Richard C. McFarland, representing the Department of Correction, responded in court documents that the DOC and Roden deny the allegations and note the LaPlante has failed to exhaust all administrative remedies.
Wicca is the name of the contemporary neo-pagan religion with a positive view of nature and an emphasis on personal experience and tolerance of other paths, LaPlante wrote in the lawsuit.
“There is a sense of personal connection to the divine life source, which is open to contact through psychic power, mysticism and natural magic or ritual,” according to the lawsuit.
In working magic, Wicca practitioners adhere to a central ethical law: “Do what you will, but harm none,” LaPlante writes.
The former Townsend man was 18 when he was convicted of first-degree murder in the Dec. 1, 1987, murder of Priscilla Gustafson, 33, and her two young children — Abigail, 7, and 5-year-old William — in their Townsend home.
Priscilla Gufstafson, a nursery-school teacher, had been raped and sodomized. A pillow was placed over her head to muffle the sound of the gunshots when LaPlante shot her. Police found Abigail and William drowned in separate bathtubs in the house.
The murders may have been a result of a burglary gone bad. The Gustafson house had been broken into about two weeks earlier and some valuables taken.
LaPlante may have planned to return for more items. The troubled teen had a history of breaking into area homes and “terrorizing” people by moving objects and leaving some items behind. He has been described as a “time bomb.”
In the lawsuit, LaPlante writes that he has passed the prison’s “sincerity test” for his Wicca faith, which is popular at MCI-Norfolk with about 13 practitioners, he wrote.
It is part of the Wicca faith to “work magic, perform rituals and cast spells,” he wrote.
He wrote that he is not allowed to worship on the new moon, waxing moon or waning moon — which occur every seven to eight days — and does not have access to Wicca religious items during those periods.
LaPlante writes that he, like all Wiccans behind bars, has access to Muslim oils, such as musk, jasmine, frankincese and Somali rose — but not to more than two dozen other ritual oils, such as “Dragon’s Blood” and “Black Opium.” The same is true for a list of ritual herbs, teas, medallions, fruits and nuts.
LaPlante maintains that none of these items is poisonous or narcotic, and none poses a threat to security at MCI-Norfolk.
And officials at MCI-Norfolk have refused to provide an outside area, designated to Wicca, to perform “Earth offerings.”
Although he is allowed to hold ceremonies and celebrations in the basement of the Community Service Building, LaPlante writes that to worship a full moon, practitioners can’t see the moon from the basement.
He has also been denied the use of items such as baking soda, black salt, flour and honey for rituals, as well as use of colored pens for those who use a “Book of Shadows.”
As part of the Wicca faith it is a practice to have juice and “cake” at celebrations that “excite the senses.” Prison officials provided juice and cake, “but the cake is ordinary, which creates a somber energy, and it’s always the same type of cake,” he wrote.
LaPlante writes that he’d like prison officials to provide a variety of cakes, from carrot cake to sugar cookies.
“The defendants have refused to provide cake that excites the senses, which is an essential, and necessary part of Mr. LaPlante’s Wicca faith,” according to the lawsuit.
Follow Lisa Redmond on Twitter @lredmond13.
