Man arrested in connection with South Boston indecent assault
BOSTON -- A South Boston man is accused of groping a woman who was walking alone. Derek Leslie, 32, was arrested after police said over the weekend that they are investigating two reports of indecent assault in South Boston.
Court paperwork shows that police had been looking for Leslie after multiple women reported he allegedly followed them along West Broadway in South Boston. It was a video that an alleged victim recorded that led police to arrest him.
Leslie spoke out in court as he faced the allegations. "This is not right," he said.
Police say Leslie followed a woman, called her baby, then touched her without her consent on June 21.
"He grabbed her left buttocks. She yelled at him to leave her alone and then she ran away," a prosecutor said.
The victim went to police after she saw Leslie two more times outside her home on July 7 and again in the neighborhood on July 8, at which point she took video of him and reported it to police two days later.
Police said they recognized Leslie. A flyer had just been drafted of him in the department because other women had reported him for allegedly following them in the neighborhood.
"He always gave me that gut feeling of something being wrong," said Skye Howard, a bartender in South Boston.
Howard said Leslie was inappropriate with one of her servers recently.
"So, she gets up and he goes do you want to go in the bathroom? And that's when I looked at her and I was like, is he making you uncomfortable? And she was like yeah and I said you're making her uncomfortable right now so I'm going to need you to pay your tab and leave," Howard said.
That interaction prompted her to post in a Southie Facebook group with 27,000 members and more than 70 people commented, sharing similar experiences, pictures, and videos to make sure it was the same man.
"That's when I knew that I had to take the action of reporting this to the police," Howard said.
Skye's report was one of multiple that prompted police to be on alert for Leslie and when later, the alleged groping victim made her report, they arrested him on one count of indecent assault.
Leslie's defense attorney says he wholly denies all allegations.
"Judge I think there are some significant questions to the validity of the allegations here. What stuck out most to me was the fact that the first alleged event happened in mid-June, mid to late June. And while the alleged victim claims to be very scared and concerned, she never called the police," Leslie's attorney Jessica Tripp said.
According to prosecutors, Leslie has a long criminal history that includes six prior restraining orders from three different individuals and charges for assault with a dangerous weapon. He also has another open case right now.
Howard says while it comforts her to hear he was arrested, it's not enough to make her feel safe.
"I am just so relieved I guess to say but at the same time I'm not because he hasn't been sentenced yet," Howard said. "It's not until we get the verdict and that he's locked up that I will be fully comfortable."
He will be held in jail until his next hearing on July 21.