The New Jersey lawyer accused of a series of sexual assaults in Boston more than a decade ago was indicted Tuesday on new charges of rape and assault, authorities said.
Matthew Nilo, 35, was indicted on seven additional counts — of rape, aggravated rape, assault with intent to rape and indecent assault and battery — related to a series of attacks that authorities say occurred between January 2007 and July 2008, according to a news release from the office of Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin Hayden.
The new charges are linked to five attacks on four women in the North End neighborhood of Boston — where Nilo used to live — in the months of January and July of 2007 and 2008, according to the district attorney’s office, which added that one of the victims was attacked twice, eleven days apart.
“The victims were attacked while they were walking alone, in the dark, either at night or early in the morning,” according to the district attorney’s office.
Hayden said that DNA evidence played a role in the new indictments but he did not elaborate, adding that more information will be released at his arraignment. It was not immediately clear when his arraignment was scheduled for. A spokesperson for the district attorney’s office didn’t immediately respond to questions Wednesday.
Nilo was arrested last month outside his Weehawken, New Jersey, residence on three counts of aggravated rape, two counts of kidnapping, one count of assault with intent to rape and one count of indecent assault and battery for incidents that occurred in the area of Terminal Street in the Charlestown neighborhood in August and November 2007 and August and December 2008, the Boston Police Department said at the time.
After his arrest, Nilo’s attorney, Jeff Garrigan, said that Nilo was “looking forward to fighting these charges and showing that he’s innocent.”
It is unclear if Garrigan is still representing Nilo and he could not immediately be reached for comment Wednesday. Nilo could not be reached for comment Wednesday at phone numbers publicly listed under his name.
Nilo waived extradition in New Jersey on June 1 and was arraigned June 5 on the initial slate of charges in Suffolk Superior Court, where he pleaded not guilty He was released from custody on June 15 after posting $500,000 cash bail, according to the district attorney’s office.
Authorities said investigative genetic genealogy — which has been used to identify several victims and suspects in recent years — helped them crack the case after they reopened it last year.
Investigators placed Nilo under surveillance earlier this year and obtained his DNA profile from “various utensils and drinking glasses” they saw him use at a corporate event, the district attorney’s office previously said.
His DNA profile matched that of the suspect who committed the initial Charlestown rapes that Nilo wound up being arrested for, the district attorney’s office said at the time of his arrest. And further testing showed that DNA taken from a glove that the victim in the December 2008 assault, used to poke the attacker in the eye, was 314 times more likely to belong to Nilo than to any other man in the population, the office said.
Following his arrest, Joseph Bonavolonta, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Boston field office, described Nilo as an “accused serial rapist and kidnapper” and said four victims had been waiting to learn the identity of their attacker for years.
Authorities also asked anyone else who thought they were a victim or had information to contact Boston police or the FBI.
After 2008, Nilo also lived in Wisconsin, California and New York, Bonavolonta said.
Cowbell, a company that advertises cyber insurance, hired Nilo in January after he passed a background check but has since suspended him, a spokesperson said Wednesday.
Nilo is next due in court for a pre-trial conference on July 13, according to the district attorney’s office. He could face up to life in prison if convicted of the charges.
If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, call the National Sexual Assault Telephone Hotline at 1-800-656-4673. The hotline, run by the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN), can put you in contact with your local rape crisis center. You can also access RAINN’s online chat service at https://www.rainn.org/get-help. Confidential chats are available in English and in Spanish.
Matthew Johnson contributed.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
