New Jersey attorney was recently charged with sexually assaulting four women in Boston 15 years ago; the offenses were connected to him thanks to DNA found on a drinking glass. He has since been indicted on suspicion of five further assaults that may have occurred at the same time.
Based on Police Reports
According to the news released by AP News, Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin Hayden, Matthew Nilo, 35, was charged on Tuesday with seven charges related to five attacks on four women in Boston’s North End. Assaults allegedly occurred between January 2007 and July 2008 while the victims were alone and in the dark, either late at night or early in the morning, according to Hayden. He stated in a news release that a woman had been attacked twice, 11 days apart.
Joseph Cataldo, Nilo’s attorney, stated on Wednesday that his client disputes the accusations and that he plans to submit documents to contest the DNA test. DNA from a drinking glass Nilo used at a business event this year, according to the prosecution, connected him to those attacks. Cataldo questioned whether taking it without a warrant was legal.
DNA Test Without Warrant, Questioned
He wrote in an email, “I think citizens of this country would be shocked and offended if courts permitted warrantless searches, seizures, and DNA analysis without the government first obtaining a warrant.” The Fourth Amendment is significant.
Nilo, a resident of Weehawken, New Jersey, was detained in late May and entered a not-guilty plea to four counts of aggravated rape, two counts of kidnapping, one act of assault with the purpose to rape, and one count of indecent assault and abuse this month. These accusations are related to four incidents that took place in Boston’s Charlestown neighborhood between August 2007 and December 2008, when Nilo, according to the police, resided there.
The additional accusations against him include two counts of indecent assault and abuse as well as one count each of aggravated rape, rape, and three counts of assault with the intent to rape. Nilo, who was granted bail this month, must appear in court on July 13 to answer to the fresh allegations.