A Rehoboth man facing various charges after he was found in the baby's bedroom of a neighbor's house is released with no requirement to post bail.

01:00 AM EDT on Saturday, September 24, 2005

BY C.EUGENE EMERY JR.
Journal Staff Writer

REHOBOTH -- Mark Carvalho thought he was coming home to an empty house. It was just before noon Wednesday, and he went upstairs to close the windows because the air conditioner had been left on.

But in the room of his 16-month-old son, he caught the unexpected odor of stale cigarette smoke. He was startled to find a man trying to hide behind the door. It was his next-door neighbor.

Carvalho became even more disturbed when he looked down.

The neighbor, Douglas Vaill, seemed to have something stuffed into his pants and his fly was open. Vaill insisted he hadn't stolen anything.

But when Carvalho threw Vaill out of the house and made him pull the object from his pants, it turned out to be a wash mitt crammed with his wife's underclothes, along with a small stuffed toy kitten and -- just to make things even more bizarre -- a tube of caulking adhesive.

He forcibly escorted Vaill home, summoning the mother of the 34-year-old intruder, and then called police. When officers arrived, Vaill emerged to explain that he had a drug problem and a fetish for women's underclothes. In his left front pocket, according to the police report, an officer also found the type of pipe used to smoke crack cocaine.

The incident left Carvalho, a self-employed stone mason, and his wife, Corrine, badly shaken.

Like many of their neighbors in Rehoboth Village, they felt safe enough to often leave their doors unlocked.

They were also upset because, after being taken to Taunton District Court to face charges of felony breaking and entering in the daytime, larceny of a building, cocaine possession, and lewd, wanton and lascivious conduct, Vaill was released without being asked to post bail.

Assistant Clerk Joseph Cosentino made him pay only a clerk's fee of $40 to be released.

"They don't even call us and warn us he's been sent home. He was home in time for dinner," said Corrine Carvalho, who arrived home shortly after the incident.

Yesterday afternoon Mark Carvalho also said he was upset that Rehoboth police and, ultimately, Taunton court officials didn't know -- or couldn't explain -- how to get a "no trespass" order against Vaill, which they now feel they need to stay safe.

"I'm very upset. It seems like nobody's got a handle on this," said Carvalho, who has talked to Vaill casually for the six years Carvalho has lived in the neighborhood. "The biggest concern is the danger it poses to my family."

"How do I raise my [11-year-old] daughter here now?" Corrine Carvalho asked.

According to court documents, Vaill said he got into the house through an open garage door. He said he was looking for a floor jack to work on his car. When he found the connecting door to the house open, he went in, took some bras and underwear from the laundry room, then went to the master bedroom and stole more underwear from Corrine Carvalho's dresser.

That's when Mark Carvalho came home and discovered him.

Corrine Carvalho said she suspected this wasn't the first time Vaill had snuck into her house. She said she'd noticed since March that some of her underwear was missing. She said she suspected he had taken other small items, as well.

At one point in February, the couple said, Vaill inexplicably showed up at the house and asked to use the bathroom, something other neighbors have since reported.

"The public needs to know this can happen in your neighborhood," Corrine Carvalho. "There was no bail. No search warrant of his house."

Vaill will be back in court Nov. 25.

To contact Gene Emery, phone (508) 674-8401 or e-mail gemery [at] projo.com