Sex Offender Accused In 2016 South End Assault Arraigned On 19 New Charges
BOSTON (CBS) -- A convicted sex offender accused of breaking into a South End apartment and assaulting two women last year faced new charges in Suffolk Superior Court Tuesday.
Ronald Brown, 53, hid his face as he was arraigned on multiple counts of breaking and entering, larceny, receiving stolen property, and photographing a person in the nude--19 counts in total.
He pleaded not guilty to all the new charges, and was ordered held on $200,000 cash bail for them. He's been held without bail since his arrest.
Prosecutors said Brown had a pattern of targeting women, stealing from them, and secretly recording them leading up to the violent attack and rape in October 2016.
"The videos show that he went to the alley behind this apartment, which was a basement or ground-floor apartment in the South End, and that, through the bedroom window, he videotaped one of the women who lived there unclothed without her knowledge and without her consent," said prosecutor Ian Polumbaum in court Tuesday.
The Suffolk County District Attorney's Office said the new charges come from other break-ins that took place throughout September-October 2016 in the South End in which Brown is also accused.
In that October attack, Boston Police said he broke into the two women's Clarendon Street apartment in the middle of the night, tied up both women, and blindfolded and gagged one of them before raping her.
During that attack, he allegedly yelled, "I hate Chinese people, if you scream I'll kill you."
When he was arrested at a homeless shelter, officers said they found bank cards, IDs, keys, cash, and a lot of jewelry from the alleged robberies leading up to the assault in Brown's backpack. They also said his cell phone contained disturbing video.
His attorney declined to comment on the case.
Brown is a level-3 convicted rapist with a history of assaults and breaking and entering. According to the Sex Offender Registry Board website, Brown was convicted on two counts of aggravated rape in 1986.
