Prosecutors told the court in Boston on Thursday that an important piece of evidence is missing in the case against accused serial rapist Matthew Nilo. If that did not work, the judge said if they are unable to locate it in four weeks, he will give Nilo the green light to move as a matter of right to have the case dismissed.
The problem basically lies in the so-called ‘bite’ of DNA evidence, with which the procurators sought to connect Nilo, a lawyer from New Jersey, to five attacks on four women in the Boston in 2007-2008. Hearing had it that Nilo had earlier denied the allegations of rape, kidnap and assault levelled against him last year.
The defense has moved that prosecutors make the snip of DNA as part of trial proceedings but the Suffolk District Attorney’s Office lawyer said this in a motion hearing in Suffolk Superior Court that the office was still working on getting it.
The rape kit was taken to Bode Technology for testing, a DNA-testing lab which, at one time, sub contracted the test to a company from Texas known as Gene by Gene, which has not been receptive to prosecutor’s attempts to contact them, according to the office.
“Well, maybe you should call police officers and ask them to knock on the door right now,” Judge James Budreau said, “Anyway, this seems to be going on long enough.”
Defense attorney Rosemary Scapicchio claimed that the single head hair sample is extremely important to the case — and that “this is the case; this is how they fixated on Mr. Nilo from the beginning.” The prosecution remained firm that it is not the focal point of the case, though the FBI later collected another DNA sample from Nilo, which was a match for the evidence.
And if not produced, there will be a motion to dismiss based on the reason given by counsel. But whether or not it will be successful, is another problem, he said.
The judge heard other motions in Thursday’s hearing, to compel a defense expert to file an affidavit stating why they need the DNA profiles of the apparent victims — the prosecution claimed that there was no justification for sharing that evidence, and the defense motioned for the request under the misunderstanding that they already possess that evidence.
Budreau also wanted to give the defense a list of the women who said they were victims but Andrusko said the defense can’t disclose those names.
One of those alleged victims has previously said she planned to attend all court hearings with Nilo to show him that she is not afraid of him, according to NBC10 Boston.
‘I am going to be a voice for any of the victims that don’t want to come just so I could be here and make sure that he is got to pay for what he has done,’ said a woman who preferred to remain anonymous.
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