Detectives used a drinking glass swiped from a corporate event to link
New Jersey lawyer Matthew Nilo to a series of rapes from 2007 and 2008 in
Boston, prosecutors revealed Monday.
The detail emerged as Nilo appeared for an arraignment attended by his fiancée, Laura Griffin, who
reportedly clutched at rosary beadsas he pleaded not guilty to four sexual assaults he allegedly committed as a college student.
Nilo, 35, is charged with three counts of aggravated rape, two counts of kidnapping, one count of assault with the intent to rape, and one count of indecent assault and battery. If convicted, he could spend the rest of his life behind bars.
After more than 15 years without a suspect, Assistant District Attorney Lynn Feigenbaum said Boston cops decided to look into the series of unsolved rapes again last year. She said Nilo was ID’d as a person of interest—thanks in part to DNA samples submitted to sites like Ancestry.com by family members—and the feds began monitoring him.
That’s when, at a “corporate event,” FBI agents spotted Nilo drink from glasses and using silverware, Feigenbaum said. Agents swooped in to pinch the items and test them, allegedly finding a match between DNA left on a drinking glass and the rape victims.
Feigenbaum said one of Nilo's alleged victims fought back against him in 2008, poking his eye repeatedly with a glove she was wearing. That act of self-defense could be crucial to the prosecution, as DNA from Nilo’s glass matched the DNA profile left on the woman’s glove, which is “314 times more likely to belong to Nilo than any other male,” according to Feigenbaum.
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