Somerville police have arrested a local man for allegedly forcing a woman behind a house near Tufts and raping her in the dawn hours of July 6. And this was not the only recent attack on a local woman.
A separate victim reported being grabbed and threatened while jogging by Somerville's Powder House Circle on June 28. She broke free before her attacker could harm her.
Click here to view a map of the attacks.
Police arrested Michael Mahoney on July 7 in connection with the previous day's rape, which occurred near College Avenue and Dearborn Road, according to the Somerville Police Department. While charges have not been filed in the June 28 assault, Somerville Police Captain Paul Upton pointed to "distinct similarities between the two events."
Upton said the two attacks "were close in time -- they were only eight days apart -- they occurred at approximately the same time of day, they occurred in the same vicinity and there are similarities in the suspects' descriptions."
Upton would not specifically confirm that Mahoney, 25, was being considered in the earlier incident, but he said a charge in that case is forthcoming. "Detectives are working on that and we expect them to be charging somebody soon," he said. "I can't say who it is because they have not appeared in court yet … for that charge."
Mahoney was arrested in March for allegedly biting his mother in the breast area during an argument. He was charged and released on personal recognizance, according to the Middlesex County District Attorney's office.
When asked in retrospect whether the DA's office felt it should have encouraged the judge to keep Mahoney in prison after his first alleged assault, spokesperson Jessica Venezia said, "Because of the lack of criminal record and based on the facts of the case, we asked what was appropriate and the judge agreed." The DA's office successfully requested in March that the judge serve Mahoney with a no-abuse order that pertained to his mother.
Police did not inform the public of the June 28 attack on the jogger until almost four days later. Upton cited a variety of reasons for the lag.
For one, the sketch artist needed to produce an image of the suspect was on vacation. Also, "when you're dealing with victims in this sort of incident, they can be very emotional," Upton said. "Before we put out information, we want to make sure we have all the facts straight. [Victims are] not always available to talk when we want to talk to them."
Rising junior Helen Corless, who is living on Sunset Avenue this summer, said it bothered her that it took the police so long, but that she understood that complications might have hindered the department.
"I'd say that it's unnerving that the public wouldn't be notified, but who knows what kind of protocol they have to go through? Or maybe there's a reason that they had to wait," she said. "But it does seem like four days is a bit much to let that go on for."
The two recent attacks come just one month after Nicolas Chacon was sentenced to 15 years in prison for a string of sexual assaults near campus.
Corless had no illusion that one arrest would be enough to solve the problem of sexual abuse around Tufts. "It's a little bit safer now that one person's been put away, but it's not just the problem of one person."
Mahoney was arraigned on July 8 on three counts of aggravated rape and one count of kidnapping. According to the DA's office, Mahoney is being held without bail pending a dangerousness hearing today, the Somerville Journal reported.
Update: Rapist gave victim his number, officials say.
