Somerville teen in police custody for sexual assault spree near Medford campus

Residents of the Hillside area have been able to breathe easier following the May 4 arrest of 19-year-old Somerville resident Nicolas Chacon, who police officers say committed several of the sexual assaults that plagued the area from the end of March through much of April.

Suspected of being the first serial sexual assaulter near campus in the history of Tufts, Chacon is charged with crimes ranging from aggravated rape to kidnapping that were committed against five different victims.

He admitted to these crimes during questioning by the Medford Police Department (MPD), but still pleaded not guilty at his May 7 arraignment.

On Tuesday, Chacon was denied bail following a dangerousness hearing. His next court appearance will be at a probable cause hearing on June 5 at the Somerville District Court.

The five incidents with which police officers can definitively connect Chacon occurred over a two-week period, but they are investigating the possibility that he might be responsible for assaults against three other victims outside of that time frame, according to Somerville Police Department (SPD) Public Information Officer Paul Upton.

Two of these incidents' victims are Tufts students who reported being assaulted. One of them occurred on March 31 and the other on April 10.

According to the Boston Herald, Chacon lives with his two younger brothers and a younger sister in an apartment complex on Powderhouse Boulevard in Somerville.

His neighbor Helen Maloney, 38, described him as "a really nice kid" and "very quiet," according to the Somerville Journal. Though the officials involved in the case will not say whether Chacon had a criminal record prior to his recent arrest, the Medford Transcript reported that he has "no known prior record" and is not a registered sex offender.

Officials credit his arrest to the work of a task force with representatives from MPD, SPD and the Tufts University Police Department (TUPD) that was convened after a woman walking along Winthrop Street in Medford was threatened with a knife and sexually assaulted twice on April 20.

Members included Tufts Director of Public and Environmental Safety John King, TUPD Captain Mark Keith, who attended some of the task force meetings, and Upton, who was present at most of them. MPD Public Information Officer Lieutenant Paul Covino said that representation from the police departments was "pretty even across the board."

The first step of the task force was to "determine if there was a pattern developing, if the community was at risk," Upton said.

As the case progressed and a pattern was identified, task force members followed leads that arose after MPD released a video of the attacker taken from a surveillance camera at a convenience store, gathered registration numbers of cars fitting a description of the perpetrator's vehicle and collected information on registered sex offenders. This involved "countless hours of work," Upton said.

The involvement of the public was crucial, officials say. While Somerville and Medford residents were notified of the crimes via a "reverse-911" call to all homes, TUPD hung wanted posters and security alerts around campus and sent several campus-wide e-mails. Through these, students were provided with a description of the suspect and his vehicle.

Keith said that TUPD alone received "two to three dozen" phone calls from Tufts students and staff members who offered potential leads.

Finally, Upton said, the investigation zeroed in on Chacon, whose "appearance seemed to be similar" to that of the person in the video and to descriptions given by witnesses.

Chacon was then called into the Medford police station "to talk" - and he "did come voluntarily," Upton said.

"The DA, as a result of those conversations, was confident that this was the sole perpetrator of the crimes that we were looking at," he said.

The nature of the crimes with which Chacon is charged is rare for the area. Somerville has not had a case of "stranger rape" reported in over three years, while no crimes of this kind have been reported in Medford since 2001.

As for Tufts, Keith and King said that they cannot remember a case of stranger rape in the over 18 years that each has been at Tufts.

"When we have reports of sexual assaults, a lot of times it has to do with some type of dating, not a stranger per se that jumps out from behind a bush and attacks somebody," Keith said.

King characterized Tufts as "a very safe campus" and said that the attacks are "an unfortunate wakeup call" for the community.

Students who live in the Boston Avenue area, where two of the crimes with which Chacon is being charged occurred, note that while the tension has eased somewhat since his arrest, the atmosphere has changed permanently.

"To be frank, I don't feel that much better about it because the initial sense of safety has already been broken," said senior Bic Leu, who lives on Boston Avenue. "Before this I knew that there was a degree of care that needed to be taken when I was walking home alone at night. But for some reason I trusted that because it was around a college campus it would be in this bubble where nothing could happen."

Police and administrators hope that this disillusionment will result in greater student vigilance.

"It's good to feel relaxed and secure about your environment, but there's also usefulness about heightened awareness, which isn't a bad thing," Dean of Student Affairs Bruce Reitman said.

Keith said he continues to urge students to not walk alone, or at least to not distract themselves with iPods while they walk.

He said that the "escalation" in the use of TUPD's escort service is proof that attitudes toward safety are changing for the better.

Keith said that requests for the escort service rose after the Winthrop Street attack from "a handful a night" to between 50 and 70 per night, though this number is now in decline.