Deval Patrick's brother-in-law, a convicted rapist, is negligent in registering with the Sex Offender Registry, the Boston Herald is reporting.

Bernard Sigh was convicted in 1993 in San Diego of raping his wife, Rhonda, who is Patrick’s sister. He pleaded guilty, served a short jail sentence and was put on five years probation, officials said.

The Massachusetts Sex Offender Registry Board sent Sigh a letter this week alerting him that he is required to register. The letter informed him he has 10 days to comply or he will face criminal prosecution, according to Kelly Nantel, spokeswoman for the state Executive Office of Public Safety.

Nantel said the board recently learned of Sigh’s rape conviction and after reviewing his record, “determined he is required to register.”

Sigh, 54, has lived in Milton - the same town as Patrick - since 1997, records show.

The most preposterous thing about this story is that Deval Patrick, through his spokesman, is claiming that Patrick was "unaware" that his brother-in-law is required to register with the Sex Offender Registry.

In a statement released last night, Patrick spokesman Doug Rubin said the Sighs were “very upset and distressed that they have been dragged into this campaign of negative attacks.”

He said Patrick was “unaware” his brother-in-law was required to register as a sex offender and that Sigh is reviewing his court records and the law.

“If he is, in fact, legally obligated to register, he plans to do so immediately,” Rubin said.

Are we to believe that a guy like Deval Patrick, formerly on the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, former partner in the Boston law firm of Hill & Barlow, and former Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, wasn't aware of the fact that a convicted rapist has to register as a sex offender? (Heck, he was appointed to the Department of Justice by a sex offender.) Besides the fact that anytime you pick up a newspaper you are nearly guaranteed to see the words "registered sex offender," you would expect anyone running for governor would be aware this requirement for sex offenders. We know Patrick is aware of the Sex Offender Registry Board--he has attacked Kerry Healey for allegedly cutting funding to the Sex Offender Registry, and we can expect that he's brushed up on Kerry Healey's 50-point plan, with point number 3 about the posting the addresses and photographs of Level 2 sex offenders online along with the Level 3 sex offenders.

So the question is, was Patrick really "unaware" of the need for a convicted rapist to register as a sex offender, or does he just not see rapists as sex offenders?

Clearly, Patrick has a soft spot for rapists like Benjamin LaGuer, why not his own brother-in-law too? Did he conveniently become unaware that his own brother-in-law had to register? I've got news for you all, his running-mate Tim Murray also has a history of defending sex offenders. The Boston Globe is reporting this morning that Democratic Lt. Governor candidate Tim Murray has represented sex offenders in court, with one case still pending in Superior Court.

Murray, who is the Democratic nominee, said he has argued on behalf of sex offenders seeking to be reassigned to a lower classification. In the state's three level system, the board places the most serious offenders in Class 3, and their photos and other information are posted on the Internet. Information about Class 1 and Class 2 offenders is less readily available.

Murray, who has a small private law practice, said that as a court-appointed lawyer he offered to represent sex offenders because there had been a shortage of lawyers willing to take the cases.

``Everyone is entitled to a lawyer and a fair hearing, regardless of the crime," he said in a written statement. ``In fact, when the Sex Offender Registry was established, the courts had to make special outreach efforts to appoint attorneys to these cases, so the hearings could go forward quickly and these sex offenders could be properly classified. The law wouldn't work otherwise.

This truly makes you wonder how someone like Deval Patrick, whose own sister was raped, could have been such a supporter of Benjamin LaGuer. His brother-in-law is convicted of raping his sister in 1993, after which Deval Patrick found the time to write several letters, one in 1998 and another in 2000, appealing to the parole board on behalf of Benjamin LaGuer. Let's not forget that Patrick was a dear pen pal of LaGuer, who has written two letters (that we know about) to LaGuer, on in July of 1998, the other in August of 1998.

Deval Patrick has lied about his role in the Benjamin LaGuer case, he and has been, shall we say, less than transparent. Can we trust him when he says he was "unaware" that his rapist brother-in-law had to register? Please, even your average Joe reading a newspaper know that sex offenders have to register. The prospect of a Patrick/Murray administration should be a very scary thought.