SJC upholds sentence on Lynn rapist

LYNN – A former leader of Lynn’s Haitian community who is serving two life sentences for raping two children under the age of 14 lost an appeal of his conviction this week and will remain incarcerated.Frantz Kebreau, 57, formerly of 77 Cook St., was sentenced to two concurrent life sentences in 2005 after he was convicted of raping two female family members between 1988 and 1996, beginning when one girl was 10 and the other 11 years old.After a lengthy trial in 2005, a jury convicted Kebreau on two counts of raping a child, four counts of indecent assault and battery on a child under 14 as well as threats to commit a crime and assault and battery.Kebreau was acquitted of one single incest charge.Judge David A. Lowy sentenced Kebreau to two concurrent life sentences, a decision the legal Haitian immigrant immediately appealed.On appeal to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, Kebreau argued that statements he made at a meeting with the victims and church pastors, when the abuse was originally revealed, were protected by priest-penitent privilege and that the first complaint doctrine was violated when two witnesses were permitted to testify about one victim’s statements regarding assaults that took place at different times. Kebreau argued that this violated the doctrine, which states that in sexual assault cases, only the first person to whom the abuse was disclosed may testify.The SJC quickly rejected both of Kebreau’s claims this week and affirmed the convictions, upholding the sentence.They ruled that the statements from the meeting with church pastors did not occur in the context of the defendant seeking spiritual advice or comfort and are therefore not protected by priest-penitent privilege. A judge reviewing the case instead claimed that Kebreau confronted the pastor to “stop the train that was coming right toward his head.”In addition, they ruled that the first complaint doctrine was not violated since the testimony was about two different assaults at different times.One of the two victims revealed the details of the abuse in 2004, when she was 22 years old, while attending counseling with a pastor in her church.Kebreau, who had moved to Cambridge by the time he was arrested for the abuse, has denied the allegations throughout the trial, conviction and appeal process.Essex Assistant District Attorney Catherine Semel handled the appeal. The case was originally prosecuted by Essex Assistant District Attorney Kristen Buxton. The case was heard by Lowy.