Crime
The alleged assault happened at the State Police barracks in Oak Bluffs after the 27-year-old Boston man went out drinking with friends, authorities said.
A Boston Public Schools security employee is charged with rape following an alleged incident at the State Police barracks on Martha’s Vineyard this summer that ended, prosecutors say, when passersby found a woman naked in the street, screaming for help.
Edward Joseph Brown, 27, of Boston pleaded not guilty Tuesday in Edgartown District Court. He was held at the Dukes County jail in lieu of $10,000 cash bail. His next court date is Dec. 3.
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Woman allegedly sexually assaulted at State Police barracks on Martha’s Vineyard, police say
If he is released on bail, the court ordered that Brown stay away from and have no contact with the witnesses or the victim and that he turn over any firearms.
“Edward Brown has pleaded not guilty and maintains his innocence,” his lawyer, Anthony Ellison, said in a statement to Boston.com. “We trust the judicial process and eagerly await his trial date.”
According to a recording of Brown’s arraignment, prosecutors said that the woman told Oak Bluffs police she had gone to a bar with friends when a man grabbed her buttocks and bought her a drink.
She said the next thing she remembered was waking up naked in an unfamiliar place with the same man, also naked, on top of her. She ran out of the building and into the road, where someone found her.
At a hospital after the woman was found, officers observed bruises on her legs and a large red mark on her neck, prosecutors said in court. A sexual assault exam detected unknown male DNA on multiple swabs, they said.
Investigators also reviewed video from outside a car rental agency. According to prosecutors, it shows the woman holding a railing and swaying for about a minute before Brown approached her. The two then entered a rideshare vehicle that, cellphone tracking showed, went to the State Police Barracks, prosecutors said.
A state trooper told investigators that Brown was visiting him on the island that week, prosecutors said in court. The trooper said they went out with friends that night, and Brown later told him he was returning to the barracks with a woman.
Brown allegedly gave the trooper a different account of what happened there, saying the woman was too drunk and needed to leave. He said she was gone when he returned from the bathroom.
Prosecutors said the woman has since returned to Ireland, her home country.
Oak Bluffs and Boston police arrested Brown at Boston Latin Academy on Oct. 9. Prosecutors said police found suspected cocaine in his wallet during the arrest.
At Brown’s arraignment, Ellison said his client had worked in BPS’s Department of Safety and Security for about two years and had no criminal history.
The Boston Public Schools did not return a request for comment. However, a spokeswoman told The Boston Globe that Brown was placed on administrative leave following his arrest.
“The safety and well-being of our students is our highest priority, and immediately following this arrest, Boston Public Schools placed the individual on administrative leave,” spokesperson Sujata Wycoff told the Globe.
“According to law enforcement, the current charges do not involve BPS students,” the statement continued. “We will continue to cooperate with law enforcement as the investigation unfolds. Further inquiries should be directed to the appropriate law enforcement agencies.”
Oak Bluffs police publicly disclosed in September that an investigation into an alleged assault at the barracks was underway, saying at the time that State Police were not involved with investigating the incident and were cooperating with the local department’s investigation. State Police launched an internal probe into the incident, the agency said at the time.
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