Trial in Alleged South End Sexual Assault, Home Invasion Moves Ahead

SOUTH END, MA — A suspect who allegedly broke into an apartment, tied, gagged and sexually assaulted two young women is being kept in prison without bail, after his case moved to Suffolk Superior Court Tuesday.

Ronald Brown, a Level 3 sex offender, is charged with two counts each of aggravated rape, robbery, kidnapping, and witness intimidation, along with single counts of indecent assault and battery, assault for the purpose of racial intimidation, and other offenses, after the alleged 4 a.m. attack inside a South End apartment last fall.

If convicted, it won't be the first time.

The Boston Globe reports that court records show Brown was convicted of a chillingly similar crime more than 30 years earlier, when he broke into a Roxbury apartment, gagged and blindfolded a woman in her bedroom, and raped her twice.

He is additionally being charged as a habitual offender and with aggravated rape as a second offense as a result of those prior convictions.

His alleged 2016 attack was in the area of Clarendon Street and Columbus Avenue last October, according to the police.

Prosecutors allege he unlocked the window of a Clarendon Street apartment around 3:45 a.m. on Oct. 11. There, he allegedly blindfolded, gagged, and bound two women inside the apartment and sexually assaulted both women. Brown additionally allegedly told one of the women that he hated Chinese people, apparently referring to what he presumed to be her heritage.

Prosecutors say he rifled through the victims' belongings and demanded passwords for electronic devices that he later took with him when he fled. Prosecutors allege Brown threatened to kill both victims and those close to them if they called police or deviated in any way from their daily routines. Both women took the threats seriously and went to work following the assaults, but each separately reported the attack later in the day, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office said.

Brown's next hearing is scheduled for Jan. 17. He has been held without bail since his dangerousness hearing last October in Boston Municipal Court.

Image via Mass. Sex Offender Registry