Matthew Nilo, an attorney from New Jersey, returned to court on Monday to address serious accusations from more than 17 years ago, alleging he raped or sexually assaulted several women in Boston. At the center of the latest legal maneuverings was an effort by his defense team to suppress DNA evidence that was collected by the FBI during a covert operation at a Manhattan restaurant.
The 38-year-old lawyer appeared in Suffolk Superior Court, accompanied by his fiancée, Laura Griffin, who has steadfastly supported him by attending court sessions throughout this ordeal.
The crux of the hearing involved the DNA evidence that prosecutors claim connects Nilo to a series of assaults that occurred in 2007 and 2008 in Boston. At that time, Nilo was just 19 or 20 years old.
Nilo’s defense attorneys argue the evidence should be dismissed on the grounds that the FBI collected it without a warrant during a stakeout at Manhattan’s Oscar Wilde Restaurant and Bar in 2023.
BOSTON SERIAL RAPE SUSPECT MATTHEW NILO RELEASED ON BAIL
Matthew Nilo is charged in a 15-year-old Boston rape spree. (David McGlynn)
According to court testimony reported by The Boston Globe, FBI agents followed Nilo from his New Jersey home to the Manhattan restaurant after receiving information from Boston authorities.
The agents sat near him for hours and coordinated with restaurant staff to collect items he used during the meal, including drinking glasses, a fork and a napkin.
BOSTON SERIAL RAPE SUSPECT MATTHEW NILO NOW ACCUSED OF ATTACKING 8 WOMEN
Nilo’s defense attorneys have argued he did not abandon the items because he had no meaningful opportunity to take them with him when he left the restaurant.
“The commonwealth is claiming that they have some connection between Mr. Nilo and DNA from 15 years ago, but that evidence was presumably taken from tableware in New York without a warrant and searching it for DNA,” his attorney, Joseph Cataldo, previously said. Cataldo added that the alleged DNA evidence was “taken without his knowledge or consent or, most importantly, without a warrant.”
Prosecutors have countered that once the items were left behind and cleared by staff in the ordinary course of business, Nilo had relinquished any expectation of privacy over them.
Matthew Nilo and fiancé Laura Griffin arrive at Suffolk Superior Court in Boston. (David McGlynn)
FBI Boston Special Agent in Charge Joe Bonavolonta said in May 2023 that Nilo’s arrest was “the direct result of the FBI’s use of investigative genetic genealogy,” which he described as “a unique method used to generate new leads in unsolved sex assaults, homicides and other violent crimes.”
Prosecutors revealed during a June 2023 hearing that investigators matched a DNA profile left on three rape victims to the profile of at least one of Nilo’s relatives that had been uploaded to a public genetic genealogy database. They later matched that DNA to a sample obtained from a drinking glass Nilo used at a corporate event in New York, prosecutors said.
Matthew Nilo and his fiancée Laura Griffin sit inside Suffolk County Superior Courthouse in Boston on Dec. 21, 2023, as Nilo appears for a hearing on charges related to rapes and sexual assaults between 2007 and 2008. (David McGlynn/News Media)
Nilo has remained free on bail throughout the proceedings. His fiancée has stood by his side throughout the drawn-out hearings.
He was initially charged in May 2023 with three counts of aggravated rape, two counts of kidnapping, one count of assault with intent to rape and one count of indecent assault and battery.
In July 2023, a Suffolk County, Massachusetts, grand jury indicted Nilo on seven additional charges, including one count of rape, one count of aggravated rape, three counts of assault with intent to rape and two counts of indecent assault and battery.
News Media has reached out to Cataldo for comment.