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A Boston school security director has been charged with the sickening rape of a woman who was found naked and terrified on the side of a road on Martha’s Vineyard minutes after the alleged attack, officials said.
Edward Brown, 27, was arraigned on Oct. 13 on a rape charge for the heinous sexual assault of the woman on Aug. 15, according to a press release from the Cape and Island District Attorney’s Office. He’s pleaded not guilty.
He was arrested on Oct. 9 at Boston Latin Academy, where he works as an assistant security director, the Oaks Bluff Police Department announced.
Just before 1 a.m. on the day of the alleged attack, police received two calls about a naked woman in distress on the side of the road near the Massachusetts State Police barracks — where the rape allegedly occurred.
She was rushed to Martha’s Vineyard Hospital, where she explained to police the horrors she had allegedly endured at the hands of Brown.
She said she was a bar called The Ritz with her friend when Brown approached her, groped her backside and tried buying her a drink, according to the DA’s office and CBS News.
Brown was allegedly staying the night at the Massachusetts State Police barracks with his friend, who is a trooper working on the island, CBS news reported.
Police said the woman told them that she remembered nothing that happened at the bar after Brown allegedly approached her, and that the next thing she said she remembered was waking up with him on top of her in an unfamiliar location.
“She woke up face down and naked in a bed, she tried to get up but the man came back into the room and forced himself on her. The man held her down by the neck,” a prosecutor said in court on Tuesday, according to Boston 25 News.
After she managed to escape, she claimed she ran down two flights of stairs to leave the building and ended up on the road. People found her a few minutes later.
The alleged victim is from Ireland, where she has since returned, MV Times reported.
During the hearing, prosecutors referenced four police reports filed against Brown from March to August, involving two harassment complaints by his ex-girlfriends, Boston 25 News reported.
Both women were granted restraining orders, and one of them remains active, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors also alleged that Brown had cocaine on him when he was arrested.
But Brown’s attorney Anthony R. Ellison argued that he’d never before been charged with a crime and said he was an upstanding citizen.
Brown has posted $10,000 bond and was released on the conditions that he stays away from the alleged victim and witnesses, and checks in with probation. He’s due back in court on Dec. 3 for a pre-trial hearing, according to the DA’s office.
Brown has been placed on an administrative leave from Boston Public Schools and is awaiting a termination hearing. He has worked as an assistant security director in the district for the past two years, earning a $117,000 annual salary.
“These allegations are absolutely horrific,” Boston Mayor Michelle Wu said, per Boston 25 News.
“We need to ensure that every single one of our students and our school communities has high standards with safety and support surround them so obviously we are incredibly disturbed.”
“Mr. Brown has entered a plea of not guilty and professed his innocence. There is more than one side to a story. We trust the judicial process and we anticipate presenting our case before the court,” Ellison told The Post.
The Massachusetts State Police did not return a request for comment.