Matthew Nilo has been charged with sexually assaulting a total of eight women in Massachusetts (Pictures: AP / LINKEDIN)
A lawyer in New Jersey accused of sexually assaulting four women over a decade ago has now been charged with assaulting four more.
Matthew Nilo, 35, was indicted by a grand jury in Suffolk County, Massachusetts on Wednesday with seven more felony counts, including rape, aggravated rape, and indecent assault and battery.
Nilo, a New York City attorney, was already charged on June 5, 2023 with sexually assaulting four women in his hometown of Boston almost 16 years ago. He pleaded not guilty to all charges.
The series of violent sexual assaults in Boston took place between November 2007 and August 2008, the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office said. They remained unsolved for over a decade.
Matthew Nilo is arraigned in Suffolk Superior Court in Boston after being charged on June 5 (Picture: AP)
Investigators were finally able to zero in on Nilo as the suspect by using forensic genealogy. According to the District Attorney’s Office, investigators only searched through ‘publicly accessible DNA databases, populated only by data which users have chosen to make available.’
Nilo, who now lives in Weehawken, New Jersey and works as a cyber crimes attorney in Manhattan, was placed under surveillance in early 2023.
‘FBI agents were able to obtain various utensils and drinking glasses they watched the defendant use at a corporate event,’ Assistant District Attorney Lynn Feigenbaum said.
She continued: ‘From one of the glasses the Boston Police Crime Lab obtained a male DNA profile, which was found to match the suspect profile from the three Terminal Street rapes.’
Matthew Nilo was 19 or 20 and living in Boston when the string of assaults took place (Picture: Facebook)
Nilo was arrested and charged by the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office with three counts of aggravated rape, two counts of kidnapping, one count of assault, and one count of indecent assault and battery.
He was released after posting a $500,000 bail, and was fitted with a GPS ankle monitor.
Nilo’s lawyer, Joseph Cataldo, told Boston.com that his client denied the additional charges announced on Wednesday.
‘You can expect both a legal and factual challenge to the government’s case,’ Cataldo said.
Prosecutors have not yet released any additional information about the new charges, but DA Kevin Hayden did confirm that ‘DNA evidence played a role in these new indictments.’
The victims ranged in age between 23 and 44. Several were attacked outside bars or nightclubs, but at least one was assaulted while jogging.
‘The incidents followed a similar pattern,’ the District Attorney’s Office said. ‘The victims were attacked while they were walking alone, in the dark, either at night or early in the morning.’
In June, the first woman assaulted in November 2007 came forward and identified herself as Lori Pinkham.
In 2007, Pinkham was 23-years-old and working as a club promoter in Boston’s North End when she was approached by a man she now recognizes as Nilo.
‘He pulled up in his car next to me and kind of cut me off,’ Pinkham told Good Morning America.
Pinkham said he first offered her a ride home, which she said she didn’t need. Then she noticed he was holding a gun.
‘He just said “get in the car,”‘ Pinkham said. ‘As soon as we got to Charlestown and he stopped the car, I tried to run as fast as I could. He caught up to me, and that’s when he raped me.’
‘It took away my freedom, honestly,’ the victim said. ‘A big part of my life stopped that day. I couldn’t work, I didn’t want to spend time with anybody. Every day I lived in fear.’
Pinkham said she remembered his eyes, which she described as ‘black.’ When asked if she thought police had found the right suspect, she said, ‘yes, absolutely.’
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The series of violent sexual assaults in Boston took place between November 2007 and August 2008 and remained unsolved for over a decade.