Suspected serial rapist arraigned on new charges in attacks on 4 women in Boston
A suspected serial rapist accused of sexually assaulting women in Boston 15 years ago was ordered held Thursday on $50,000 bail on new charges in connection with five additional attacks on four women during the same time period.
Matthew Nilo, a 35-year-old lawyer from New Jersey, was arraigned in a Boston court on charges including one count of rape, one count of aggravated rape, three counts of assault with intent to rape, and two counts of indecent assault and battery.
During the hearing, Nilo’s attorney, Joseph Cataldo, informed the court that his client was in possession of cash and intended to post bail.
These new charges stem from attacks on four women in Boston’s North End between January 2007 and July 2008, according to the Suffolk District Attorney’s Office.
At the time of the assaults, Nile was attending college in Wisconsin but could have been at his North End home during school breaks.
The North End attacks took place around Charter Street. All of the victims were walking alone in the dark, either at night or early in the morning, when Nilo allegedly assaulted them, prosecutors said. One of the victims was attacked twice in a span of 11 days.
In January 2008, one of the victims, a 24-year-old woman, was attacked twice in eleven days.
And DNA taken from her clothes gave police a big break.
At the arraignment, the prosecutor said the DNA was a match to Matthew Nilo.
“Testing reveals it was 43.3 billion times more likely that the mixture included the defendant, Matthew Nilo, than another contributor,” Assistant District Attorney Lynn Feigenbaum told the court.
Among the people filling the courtroom for Nilo’s arraignment was Lori Pinkham, one of the survivors from the Charlestown attacks.
She is insisting on going public.
“Somebody has to be here to hold him accountable. I’m not ashamed of what happened. I didn’t do anything wrong,” Pinkham said.
Matthew Nilo’s attorney says police have the wrong guy.
And he says investigators had no right to collect Nilo’s DNA from a corporate event in New York.
“There was no warrant in his case. They seized his DNA unconstitutionally. They should have sought a warrant, they did not. We will be filing a motion to suppress of the unconstitutional seizure of his DNA,” defense attorney Joseph Cataldo said.
In June, Nilo pleaded not guilty to 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 in connection with four alleged attacks on women in Boston’s Charlestown section between August 2007 and December 2008. He was released after posting $500,000 bail.
Nilo, who was living in the city at the time of the Charlestown attacks, was linked to the crimes by DNA he left on a drinking glass, according to investigators.
A judge ordered Nilo to wear a GPS tracker, have no contact with the victims, and stay away from Charter Street in the North End. He was previously ordered to surrender his passport and stay away from Terminal Street in Charlestown.
Nilo is due back in court for a pre-trial hearing on September 14.
An investigation remains ongoing.
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