Matthew Nilo, a New Jersey attorney accused of raping or sexually assaulting multiple women in Boston more than 17 years ago, was back in court Monday as his lawyers pushed to exclude DNA evidence obtained during a covert FBI operation at a Manhattan restaurant.
Nilo, 38, appeared in Suffolk Superior Court alongside his fiancée, Laura Griffin, who has continued to attend proceedings in support of him.
At issue during the hearing was DNA evidence that prosecutors say connects Nilo to several attacks in Boston in 2007 and 2008, when he would have been 19 or 20 years old.
Defense attorneys contend the evidence should be excluded, arguing FBI agents gathered it without a warrant during a 2023 surveillance operation at Oscar Wilde Restaurant and Bar in Manhattan.
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Matthew Nilo faces charges tied to an alleged Boston rape spree dating back 15 years. (David McGlynn)
According to court testimony cited by The Boston Globe, FBI agents tracked Nilo from his home in New Jersey to the Manhattan restaurant after receiving information from Boston investigators.
Agents reportedly remained seated near him for several hours and worked with restaurant employees to retrieve items he used during the meal, including drinking glasses, a fork and a napkin.
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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.
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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 Agency)
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 Agency has reached out to Cataldo for comment.
