She’s nonetheless standing by her man.
The fiancée of a New Jersey lawyer arrested in 2023 for eight rapes and sexual assaults in Boston almost 20 years in the past appeared in court docket but once more to assist her betrothed for an important evidentiary listening to that would make or break the case in opposition to him.
The case has dragged on for greater than three years whereas Matthew Nilo, 35, stays free on bail. For the reason that starting, he has fought the DNA proof used to construct the case in opposition to him.
And fiancée Laura Griffin was at Monday’s listening to — as she has been all through the authorized battle.
Griffin’s hair was in a no-nonsense updo and clad in darkish pants and an unbuttoned blazer with a light-weight blue shirt beneath, holding a grey purse and an umbrella — and a big rock on her finger, however no marriage ceremony ring but.
Nilo, in a darkish blue swimsuit and crimson tie, was in Suffolk County Superior Courtroom Monday — his first scheduled court docket look since February — as his legal professionals sought to suppress proof gathered in an elaborate DNA amassing course of that linked him to the assaults in opposition to eight girls between 2007 and 2008.
He was arrested in 2023 at his house in Weehawken, N.J., simply two weeks after he acquired engaged to Griffin, who beforehand confirmed up at a listening to in a Hudson County courtroom for his extradition listening to.
Nilo, who posted $500,000 bail and has been free with an ankle monitor since then, landed on cops’ radar as a suspect in three assaults within the prosperous Charlestown neighborhood when the case was reopened in October 2022.
At the moment, the Boston police requested assist from the FBI, which obtained approval to make the most of investigative genetic family tree (IGG) strategies, for which investigators add partial samples of an individual’s DNA to business family tree companies to assist establish potential family members, court docket paperwork present.
Utilizing a pattern recovered from an August 2007 rape equipment, the bureau started piecing collectively a household tree for Nilo limb by limb utilizing info gathered from websites together with FamilyTreeDNA, GEDMatch Professional and MyHeritage.com, in keeping with court docket docs.
Investigators discovered a number of family members of Nilo within the course of, who agreed to have their DNA examined so it could possibly be cross-referenced, in keeping with prosecutors.
Upon completion of the household tree, investigators recognized Nilo because the “seemingly contributor of the DNA recovered from the August 2007 rape.”
In April 2023, FBI brokers tailed Nilo from his house to the Oscar Wilde bar on W. twenty seventh Road in Manhattan and noticed him partake in a meal and several other alcoholic drinks over a four-hour interval.
Over the course of the night, brokers obtained 5 glasses and a utensil Nilo had used after waitstaff cleared the gadgets from his desk.
The gadgets have been despatched to the Boston Police Crime Lab for genetic evaluation, which discovered Nilo’s DNA profile was a match to the DNA profile obtained from the three rapes in Charlestown, court docket paperwork present.
Nonetheless Nilo’s legal professionals argue the warrantless seizure of his dinnerware and search of his bodily fluids with out his consent or data constituted violations of his 4th, fifth, sixth and 14th Modification rights and are shifting to suppress any DNA proof collected because of the investigation.
“The extent of intrusion exercised by the federal government outweighed any alleged professional governmental pursuits superior by the warrantless search,” his authorized crew argues in a Jan. 7 affidavit.
Nonetheless prosecutors countered that the gadgets have been eliminated by restaurant workers “within the odd course of enterprise” and that they have been “now not in defendant’s possession or management on the time brokers obtained them.”
Nilo faces two separate indictments stemming from two separate alleged spates of sexual assaults.
Monday’s listening to consists of the primary indictment, introduced in June 2023, and involving 4 assaults in opposition to 4 girls in Charlestown.
The fees within the case embrace three counts of aggravated rape, two counts of kidnapping, one rely of assault with intent to rape and a rely of indecent assault and battery.
Nilo was hit with a second indictment quickly after the primary, together with expenses involving 5 extra alleged assaults in opposition to 4 girls within the North Finish of Boston.
Fees within the second indictment embrace one rely of rape, 1 rely of aggravated rape and three counts of assault with intent to rape.
