April 9, 2014 Update:
In an apparent case of mistaken identity, the Suffolk District Attorney’s office has dropped the charges against this North End man, Ross Currier, who is no longer considered a suspect. See this post for more information.
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After being spotted by the victim on the Nazzaro Center basketball court in the North End, Salem Street resident Ross Currier was arrested on Monday night for the Valentine’s Day sexual assault on Unity Street. Shortly before 7:00 p.m. on Monday night, Currier was handcuffed and escorted by Boston Police who responded to a phone call from the victim who said she was 90 percent sure he was the man that attacked her.
Court filings identify the suspect as 26 year old, living on Salem St. in Boston’s North End. He works at Boston Beer Company as a senior tax accountant according to his LinkedIn profile.
In court on Tuesday, Currier pleaded not guilty and his attorney said he was wrongly charged. It was disclosed that the victim previously identified a different man as her attacker a few weeks ago in a line-up. The man she identified was in jail. The attorney also said that his client was with his fiancee on the night of the assault. Currier did acknowledge to authorities that he owned clothing (hat and boots) similar to that shown in the videos previously released of a man running at Salem and Sheafe Streets.
The victim, a woman in her early 20’s living around the corner from the suspect on Unity Street, called the police on Monday night when she saw the man playing basketball in the North End. Teens at the scene of the arrest said the man had played basketball with them at that court in the past.
The “Valentine’s Day attack” took place shortly after 1:00 a.m. on February 15, 2014 when a man pushed his way into the victim’s foyer as she was entering her building. The suspect sexually assaulted her via groping and then used his cell phone to take a photo before fleeing when she screamed, according to the victim. At the time of the assault, the victim described the suspect as a white male in his 20′s, blue-eyes, short blond spiked hair, medium build, clean shaven and possible freckles on his cheeks.
The judge released Currier on personal recognizance with no bail, but required a GPS monitoring bracelet at least until he goes back to court on April 29, 2014.
All suspects are considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
[hr]
April 9, 2014 Update:
In an apparent case of mistaken identity, the Suffolk District Attorney’s office has dropped the charges against this North End man, Ross Currier, who is no longer considered a suspect.
See this post for more information.
[hr]
sad part he don’t even look remorseful the s______.. well a night at the Charles hotel he sure will be.. one thing jail prisoners hate are child abusers and rapists..
How this even gets one down vote is disturbing.
It isn’t him. I am friends with Ross, 100% is the wrong guy. Dumb girl, Dumb cops, thats it.
Easy Sam, The woman is not dumb – victims often make unreliable witnesses; this is a known truth – It does not mean they are always wrong, either. What you do not want to do is sound like the idiots who have already convicted Ross based on a assault-victim’s ID and a perp-walk. The Cops are not dumb; they respond to a citizen’s charges -it’s what we pay them to do. The PD’s actions do not mean Ross is guilty. His cell phone and his alibi will clear his name in the courts – what will take longer is clearing it with the armchair prosecutors – I hope his employer is not in that crowd.
I agree that they have the wrong guy. First of all, there was nothing in the video that was remarkable— how could that young man be identified from that hazy video, which showed only the back of him? It is very questionable. Second, what man would play ball out in the open, in the vicinity of the so-called ‘attack’. This is not your man.
assault of any kind is bad, and I feel for the victim, but there is NOTHING about this suspect raping the woman or ever being invovled with any children.
And a split second photo is all you need to assume he’s happy about all this?
I am proud of the woman for having this courage, but JoAnn you could certainly withhold your unnecessary and untrue comments. Do you get pleasure out of hoping this SUSPECT will be hurt in jail?
Despite the only evidence being the girl id’ing him, I find it interesting they find the need to post his work etc. very interested to see how this plays out for all parties involved.
So JoAnn
1)you don’t know anything more than what’s written here
2) nothing written in any article indicates rape or being involved with children, although I am not diminishing how bad sexual assualt and A&B are.
3) you felt the need to post about him being dealt with in Jail because he appeared not remorseful… from a split second photo, at one point in time.
Hope the courts are more unbiased than you are
“nothing written in any article indicates rape or being involved with children, although I am not diminishing how bad sexual assualt and A&B are.” But yet…you are.
If it’s him, I sincerely hope “Ross” gets what he deserves.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/2014/03/11/attorney-expects-man-arrested-ston-police-for-north-end-sexual-assault-will-exonerated/Q1gGrY3EeGycnDAgDOanJN/story.html
“The Commonwealth has indicated to me that they have concerns about this case,’’ Merrigan told Municipal Court Judge Mark Summerville.
Suffolk prosecutors did not challenge Merrigan’s repeated assertions that Currier was wrongly arrested by police.
This is reporting.
calmly.. in my opinon .. that is what the prisoners do to child abusers and rapists..i did not call him a pedophile … I hope to god if he is not the attacker he is not in trouble but if he is.. well whatever justice will be served.. the court sytem is a joke .. many guilty people get slaps on the wrist for misdameanors and other stuff.. the only time the courts tend to be serious is when a child is involved or a murder..he didn’t look remorseful in the picture ..maybe he isn’t guilty and hes putting his faith in god and the sytem that’s why he don’t look to upset? I don’t know.
Eyewitness testimony, especially during an assault, is always questionable. The woman already picked the wrong guy once, don’t assume anything until there is some sort of hard evidence.
maybe he doesn’t look remorseful because he’s innocent! maybe he’s been wrongly accused. maybe we should remember, “innocent until proven guilty”.
i hope when ross is exonerated, the press will make an equally big deal of his innocence!
With todays technology & forensics it should be fairly easy to exonerate or implicate this young man in the Unity St. attack.One mistake people are making is assuming because someone has a Masters degree their exempt from criminal activity remember Phillip Mark off aka the “Craig’s list killer” came from a promInent family, was close to completing medical school & was engaged to a beautiful young woman. But we must presume this man is innocent unless proven otherwise. i personally feel [with all due respect to the victim] that someone would have to be crazy to attack a person a couple of blocks from where they live this & this is a case of mistaken identity.
Video does not look like him, so here I’m not positive it’s him…
I was thinking the exact same thing
the girl who was attacked seemed sure enough about the guy who was arrested to recognize him in the playground and call the cops and provide a positive ID. It does not matter if anyone else thinks he doesn’t look like the guy in the video.
Dont you think she just wants to find the guy so the nightmare will go away. There are alot of tall, blonde, blue eye guys in the North End.
It’s absurd to suggest the victim of one of the worst types of crimes would randomly select a guy a month after the crime just for her own closure. She got the best look at him so she’ll know better than the amateur detectives watching a shaky cell recording of a grainy surveillance video. A forensic search of his phone and computer hard drive will likely turn up the image taken that night even if it’s been deleted.
I don’t think anyone is suggesting she “randomly” picked a guy, but there’s always a chance he just looks like the guy who actually committed the crime.
I don’t think anyone is saying she randomly picked someone, but she is likely traumatized by the event and may or may not be thinking clearly about the suspect. It was late, it was dark, and he attacked her from behind… the description is vague because he ability to identify him is vague. This person definitely doesn’t look like the person in the video. So either the video is of someone else or this person isn’t the suspect. Either way, it is up to the court to decide and more evidence is needed than just a victim ID.
she already identified another man at the end of February… who was already in lock up.
It will matter if a jury thinks it does
Shouldn’t his face be blurred if he is not convicted of the crime? Innocent until proven guilty. We still don’t know if this is the guy, and now this poor kid is going to be recognized everywhere bc of someone’s cell phone camera.
How brazen to be just living life as usual while this poor woman suffers. I will guarantee this woman positively identified her attacker.
Check his cell phone~~~she said he snapped a photo of her before he left the scene !
Or, when that was said on the news~~~~he could have deleted it ??
First, thank you and kudos to this very brave girl who had to endure seeing her attacker and followed up with police to apprehend him. I hope that she feels a little better today.
As a neighborhood mother, I am utterly sick that he was on the Nazzaro playground and local kids said they knew him from playing basketball there.
It is highly inappropriate to post a home address for a person who is assumed innocent until proven guilty. I understand it’s in the court documents but you should practice some journalistic integrity.
Thanks for your feedback. I did remove the street number even though it is in the court filings. I’m not sure what journalism integrity has to do with reporting factual public information from an official document in a pending court case. I would want to know if someone arrested and charged of a sexual attack lived on my block. Of course, all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty, also included on the post.
Posting his home address is inappropriate. Whether or not it is easily found is beside the question. He is innocent until proven guilty and publishing that information in this space only encourages vigilantes to take matters into their own hands. The victim sounds like she doesn’t have her story straight… Ross should not have to suffer for her foggy memory. Let the courts decide.
As I said previously, I removed the street number. The post just says Salem Street.
The victim is a hero for finding her attacker and protecting his potential future victims – which could have been any of us or our children. YOU are a hero. THANK YOU! You may have just saved another girl from being attacked. THANK YOU< THANK YOU< THANK YOU.
It didn’t prevent another woman from being attacked, because the police arrested an innocent man.
This guy is a gainfully employed 26 year old CPA with a masters degree in taxation from Bentley. He would be incredibly stupid to sexually assault his neighbor in a small area like this and then proceed to shoot hoops a few blocks from the crime. This is pretty questionable in my opinion. Just doesn’t seem to add up.
How many people that are “gainfully employed with a masters degree” have committed crimes? A lot. Just because he has an education does not mean he is not able to commit this crime.
Only a moron would sexually assault their neighbor in this neighborhood. He lives a block away. He’s an intelligent guy with a good career and no record. It’s highly unlikely that he would his judgment would be so flawed that he would do something like this. That was my point.
What in the world does his education and his occupation have to do with anything? Have you ever taken a psychology course? Criminals tend to do stupid things…..regardless of their education.
It’s not JUST his education that makes him unlikely to pull something like this. He has a fiance he’s been with for years, who has already said he was with her all night – It was valentine’s day. He has a good job, which indicates that he’s at the very least fairly stable. And he has an excellent education and passed the CPA exam, which is not easy. So we’ve got an intelligent, stable, well respected guy with a solid alibi and no record accused of a random sexual assault a block from where he lives. It just doesn’t add up.
The reason we know who the “craigslist killer” is, is because he was an extreme outlier in terms of the type of person who would commit the crimes he did. If some loner with a drug problem murdered/robbed a prostitute, you likely wouldn’t have seen a movie about it on Lifetime.
Other than the alibi, everything else is meaningless. You simply cannot judge a person’s behavior based on his job, education or the fact that he’s engaged. Some of the most heinous criminals known to man had a live in girlfriend or were married. That stuff means nothing, IMO.
Since employment status, education and lifestyle stability mean nothing to you when judging someone’s character, let me know the next time you need a housesitter. I know of a few unemployed, homeless, high school dropout drug addicts who could use a few bucks.
I certainly hope that there exists additional evidence aside from the victim’s ID that warrants the charges,
One would think that’s a given though it wouldn’t be the fist time someone was arrested and charged for a crime when innocent.
Interesting tweet:
@HagerWBZ: #NorthEnd grope victim ID’d man who was locked up when it happened. Then she ID’d someone else on street yesterday. Judge seems skeptical.
I think the picture should be blurred till more info comes out.
Sounds like victim could be confused in this ID.
Would love to know how it’s ok to arrest someone based on a single ID without further evidence.
twitter: Released on personal recognizance. No bail. Must wear GPS bracelet for now. Unfortunately she’s losing credibility. I wonder if there was any alcohol involved that night…
I agree with the poster(s) above who said that there should be more evidence beside the alleged victim’s ID. I am not suggesting that she would lie, however, it could be a case of mistaken identity. I am also not suggesting that he did or did not commit this crime. Let’s not “hang” this guy on someone’s say so nor should we discredit the victim. Let the evidence speak for itself and let the police do their job. This is still the United States people!
If he lives on Salem St, he would have been running away from his apartment, the videos were taken from Sheafe Street…
just because he was arrested and brought in by the cops doesn’t mean he’s going to be charged. They’re just doing their job, and if it was your sister, you’d want everyone to be investigated that could be a possibility. If it’s the wrong guy, then it’s the wrong guy.
Also, ” I wonder if there was any alcohol involved that night…”
really?
He was arraigned, which means he was charged.
I’m looking forward to learning what evidence prosecutors have besides an ID from the victim.
It will be troubling if that is it.
At this point, it sounds like it was.
They released him without bail on his own recognizances?
Odd.
Yeah, he’s wearing a GPS, but that has to be to appease the victim and public.
The entire situation is strange.
*breaking news* north end man spends valentines evening with wife, stays in so he can wake up for USA vs Russia hockey Olympic hockey at 7:30 am then gets charged for sexual assault.
Are you kidding me? He did what 95% of engaged men did that night…Ross is the victim in this one.
^fiancé
I am hopeful the perpetrator of this crime will be brought to justice, and justice will prevail.
I can’t even begin to imagine how terrifying it has been for each and every woman who has been a victim of each such crime in our neighborhood over the years…
BTW: ~ 30-35 ladies attended last Thursday night’s self-defense class, ranging in age from ~ 10 – 80 years old. I am unsure when another one will be offered, but will post on this site once I have any info.
-David Marx-
NEWNC Public Safety Committee Chairman
April 9, 2014 Update: The Suffolk District Attorney’s office has dropped the case against this North End man, Ross Currier, who is no longer considered a suspect.
See this post for more information:
http://northendwaterfront.com/2014/04/da-drops-case-against-north-end-man-for-valentines-day-sexual-assault/