Matthew Nilo, a New Jersey-based attorney accused of raping or sexually assaulting several women in Boston more than 17 years ago, returned to court Monday as his defense team sought to suppress DNA evidence gathered during a covert FBI operation at a Manhattan restaurant.
Nilo, 38, appeared in Suffolk Superior Court with his fiancée, Laura Griffin, who has continued to attend hearings in support of him.
The hearing centered on DNA evidence prosecutors say links Nilo to multiple assaults in Boston in 2007 and 2008, when he would have been 19 or 20 years old.
His attorneys argue the evidence should be thrown out because FBI agents collected it without a warrant during a 2023 stakeout at Oscar Wilde Restaurant and Bar in Manhattan.
BOSTON SERIAL RAPE SUSPECT MATTHEW NILO RELEASED ON BAIIL
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.
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"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.
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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.
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.
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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.
Fox News Digital has reached out to Cataldo for comment.
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