New details were revealed in court about a string of sexual assaults against women in Boston about 15 years ago that are now being blamed on a man who is now an attorney in the New York City area.
Matthew Nilo, 35, faced charges of aggravated rape, kidnapping, assault with attempt to rape and indecent assault and battery in Suffolk Superior Court Monday morning after being extradited from New Jersey following his arrest at his home on the Hudson River last week.
Prosecutors alleged that Nilo drove three women under false pretenses to a remote, industrial part of Boston in 2007 and 2008 and raped them, saying that he had a weapon — in one case he had a gun, in another he flashed a knife. Those women willingly took a ride from Nilo, prosecutors said, but at least one thought he was a taxi or rideshare driver.
In a fourth case, Nilo allegedly tackled a woman who was jogging in the area, Terminal Street in Charlestown, and sexually assaulted her with his hand, but was fought off by the woman despite him repeatedly screaming, "I have a gun."
Nilo was living in the North End and a student in the area at the time. The alleged victims ranged in age from 23 to 44.
He was arrested at his home in Weehawken, New Jersey, last week after after a yearlong investigation in which Boston police checked DNA evidence gathered from the four yearsold attacks against public DNA databases, a process called forensic investigative genetic genealogy, prosecutors said Monday.
Nilo was identified as a person of interest, which led FBI agents to collect his DNA from a glass he drank from at a corporate event in, officials said. The DNA from the glass was a match for the three rapes he's been charged with, prosecutors said, and was found to be likely the same as DNA pulled from gloves the woman used to fight off her attacker in the other incident.
Nilo pleaded not guilty to all the charges and was held on $500,000 bail and ordered to wear a GPS tracker, turn in his passport and stay away from the victims and Charlestown's Terminal Street on his release.
In court, his attorney argued for lower bail by noting Nilo is engaged to be married and is a practicing lawyer. After the hearing, the attorney said he was catching up on the case but suggested that the DNA evidence used to connect Nilo to the attacks could be suspect.
Nilo has lived in Wisconsin, California and New York — he's been suspended from his job in New York City — officials have said, and investigators have urged anyone who thinks they could have been a victim or who has information on any case involving Nilo, to contact Boston Police or the FBI.
Nilo was taken into custody by FBI agents and police who had the front desk of his building call Nilo and say he had a package delivered that was too large to hold in the lobby, according to a warrant filed in court. He was "suspended pending further investigation" by his employer, the cyber-insurance company Cowbell, it said in a statement,
