The predawn hours inevitably shatter as the younger mate awakens and realizes she has been undressed and is currently being raped by the male who so generously spirited the get together alongside.
Over the many years, as many as a dozen females have appear forward to allege Gary Zerola raped them in practically indistinguishable assaults courting back to 1996, court data display.
In spite of the many accusations, the 50-year-previous with a regulation office on Beacon Hill has rarely confronted prison fees, considerably significantly less a conviction. Juries 2 times have acquitted Zerola of rape. He has had intercourse costs dropped in Miami Seaside and New Orleans and seen statutes of constraints run out on at least 3 allegations from the 1990s, court filings demonstrate.
Now, prosecutors are taking a new tack, by seeking to join two circumstances.
Indictments from 2017 and this yr accuse Zerola of raping women, ages 21 and 23, in assaults prosecutors describe in court docket papers as “uncannily similar.”
In the motion to sign up for the situations, scheduled to be heard Monday in Suffolk Remarkable Courtroom, prosecutors argued that “similar other conduct by Zerola spanning the past 25 years reinforces the appropriateness” of the approach.
Zerola, who in 2001 was named a “most-suitable bachelor” by Individuals journal, has pleaded not guilty to two counts of rape, one rely of aggravated rape, and a depend of breaking and moving into for allegedly returning to a handed-out victim’s Boston apartment without the need of permission. His defense lawyer has submitted a counter motion to maintain the two present-day situations independent. That motion has been impounded from community perspective.
Zerola is less than home arrest in Salem. Beneath court purchase, he is prohibited from getting any female visitors — family and legal professionals excluded — without having clearance from probation.
Zerola did not return a message to his answering company looking for remark. Neither did Zerola’s defense law firm, Joseph F. Krowski Jr.
Zerola’s mother, Mildred Bowe, of Lynn, declined to remark when reached by telephone. His father, Robert Bowe, died in 2016.
Prosecutors, who did not return calls in search of remark on the situation, want Judge Christine M. Roach to take into consideration allegations towards Zerola from 1996, 1997, 1999, and 2006 in examining regardless of whether “the 2017 and 2021 indictments characterize pieces of a frequent pattern and an intention to victimize youthful gals rendered vulnerable by alcoholic beverages.”
According to prosecutors, the proof is “strong.”
“It was not mere happenstance that Zerola focused females extra than 20 decades his junior, who experienced correspondingly lesser expertise in social configurations, particularly those fueled by alcoholic beverages,” prosecutors wrote.
The Boston Globe also discovered in courtroom documents a footnote citing 4 more alleged rapes that “lack the similar significant similarities,” as well as evidence of dropped cocaine and sexual assault expenses from a Jan. 8, 2012, incident in New Orleans.
In a Suffolk Superior Court docket memorandum from March 17, Decide Janet L. Sanders suggested that Zerola’s working experience as a law firm has benefitted him as a defendant. Zerola, a Suffolk University legislation graduate, went into non-public apply immediately after brief stints as a prosecutor in Essex and Suffolk counties two decades back.
“That the defendant is an legal professional (and previous prosecutor) also indicates that he is effectively informed of the regulation, and as the Commonwealth indicates is totally able of laying the groundwork for a consent protection before participating in the acts he’s accused of,” Sanders wrote.
About the time People journal declared Zerola one particular of its most suitable bachelors two a long time in the past, he also spearheaded a nonprofit for kids escalating up without having their birth moms and dads. The Bowes reportedly have been Zerola’s foster mom and dad.
The charity, One particular for the Children, dissolved in 2005 but not ahead of then-Mayor Thomas M. Menino introduced Zerola with a $30,000 Boston Community Fellows Award for his advocacy on behalf of foster kids, in accordance to a Boston Magazine posting released in March 2008.
The journal profile, composed two months following Zerola’s initial acquittal in January 2008, explained his trial testimony as cost-free, open up, and charismatic as he spoke of lavish shelling out, routinely buying up bar tabs, remaining a nightclub gadabout, and courting young women of all ages.
In juxtaposition, the alleged target, a 19-year-outdated College of Massachusetts Amherst college student, came across as “contradictory and occasionally laughing,” the posting said.
Zerola melted into sobs when the jury, after two days of deliberations, returned a not-guilty verdict, the posting claimed. Vital to the acquittal was the exclusion of evidence of other comparable acts, it explained.
A photo at zerolalaw.com captures Zerola in profile — square jawed, arms crossed, chin resting in the crook of his left thumb and index finger. His legislation office is listed as 11 Beacon St., one block from the Point out Property.
On-line customer testimonials praise Zerola’s preparedness and legal acumen: “He is a beast when it arrives to prison defense,” one reads.
“Gary Zerola will give you an unprecedented level of notice, care and authorized savvy,” a different a person states.
Zerola’s legislation license is energetic. He knowledgeable a short term suspension Nov. 1, 2007, but was reinstated by April 3, 2008, in accordance to the Massachusetts Board of Bar Overseers.
In Zerola’s two current conditions, prosecutors say that partying in the North Close shifted to an apartment, where far more drinking gave way to drunken sleep.
On Nov. 9, 2016, Zerola, a lady he was dating, her girlfriend, and a different law firm relocated to the lawyer’s Beacon Hill apartment.
When the bash died down, the 23-year-aged girlfriend fell asleep on a sectional sofa. Zerola and his day slept on one more component of the couch.
The girlfriend awoke to Zerola, then 45, raping her, in accordance to felony court filings.
On Jan. 12 this 12 months, the alleged victim was so intoxicated she vomited in Zerola’s car or truck though on the way household with Zerola and his day, according to courtroom filings. At the time at the woman’s Boston apartment, Zerola’s day set her to mattress and remaining with Zerola.
Zerola, then 49, is accused of returning to the drunk woman’s apartment and raping her although she was handed out. The 21-12 months-old target awoke to uncover Zerola “sexually assaulting her,” court docket data exhibit. Zerola claimed the target experienced offered him her critical and requested him to return to her apartment, in accordance to the records.
In a number of alleged rapes, victims recalled another distinguishing variable as they have been jolted awake.
Just about every time, they claimed, Zerola quipped: “Don’t you want to perform?”
Tonya Alanez can be achieved at [email protected]. Abide by her on Twitter @talanez.