By THOMAS GRILLO
BOSTON — Gary Zerola, a criminal defense attorney and Lynn native who was once one of People magazine’s most eligible bachelors, is facing rape charges.
The 45-year-old former Suffolk County prosecutor was arraigned on Wednesday in Boston Municipal Court and charged with two counts of rape in connection with an alleged sexual assault in Boston Nov. 10, according to Middlesex County District Attorney Marian Ryan. Zerola is a former Suffolk prosecutor, so the case was referred to the Middlesex DA.
Police said the victim and defendant know each other.
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Bail was set at $10,000. Judge Eleanor Sinnott ordered him to wear a GPS monitoring bracelet, to observe a 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew, have no contact with the victim and not to consume alcohol.
A hearing has been scheduled for Jan. 4.
A call to Zerola’s Boston office was not returned.
This is not the first time Zerola has been charged with sexual assault. He was acquitted in a rape case in Boston in 2008 and had another case dropped in Florida.
In 2009, he was acquitted of charges of assault and battery on a police officer, urinating in public and disturbing the peace.
A profile of Zerola in Boston Magazine in 2008 revealed he is the youngest child in a family of three brothers and four sisters who grew up in Lynn and bounced in and out of foster homes at age two. When he was 12, Zerola was sent to live with Robert and Mildred Bowes in Lynn, the story said.
He was a “marginal student” at Lynn Vocational Technical Institute, where he “often seemed angry and cut his share of classes,” according to the magazine article. But he managed to graduate on time, in 1989.
Before his troubles began, People Magazine named him one of “America’s Top 50 Bachelors” in 2001 along with Ben Affleck, Matt Damon and Josh Hartnett.
On Zerola’s website, he describes himself as an experienced trial attorney who concentrates solely on defending people charged with state and federal crimes.
“Attorney Zerola accepts clients accused of … sex crimes including indecent assault and battery, date rape, statutory rape, aggravated rape and possession and dissemination of child pornography,” the website says.
Thomas Grillo can be reached at [email protected].
