Massachusetts

A specialized Boston police unit investigating sexual assaults has reached a milestone: its first conviction.William Mancortes pled guilty in Suffolk Superior Court last December and was sentenced to 10-12 years in prison for raping two women who thought he was an Uber driver. It’s also a first for the Boston Police Department’s Sexual Assault Kit Initiative, which with the help of a $2.5 million federal grant uses cutting-edge DNA technology and old-fashioned police work to investigate unsolved sexual assaults.In an interview more than two years ago with 5 Investigates, Lt. Richard Driscoll vowed that Justice is coming for the survivors.There are a number of unsolved rapes that we are going to solve, he said at the time.In its grant application, Boston police said there were about 200 serial rapists they wanted to identify.In Mancortes case, police had previously linked two attacks through DNA, but they didnt know whose DNA it was.That changed two years ago when Mancortes was forced to submit his DNA into an FBI database after pleading guilty to exposing himself to a teenager in Dedham. Massachusetts law requires anyone convicted of a felony to submit a DNA sample to the FBI.His DNA matched the samples from the two Boston rapes.Mancortes is also facing charges in Norfolk County for allegedly raping a Milton woman in 2017 while he was working as an Uber driver. He has a plea hearing scheduled for later this month.In addition to Mancortes, four other men have been arrested and charged with rape as part of the Boston police initiative, including Manhattan attorney Matt Nilo, charged with raping three women in Charlestown and sexually assaulting other women in the North End, and former State Street Vice President Ivan Cheung, now charged with raping two girls, ages 13 and 14 years old, in 2003. Both Nilo and Cheung have pleaded not guilty.The Bristol County District Attorney’s office has also seen success with a similar federal grant that allowed it to identify and test rape kits for DNA that had never been tested before.The impact of the Sexual Assault Kit Initiative is being seen at the national, state, local, and tribal levels. People suspected of committing sexual assault are continually being identified and apprehended, victims are receiving long-awaited justice, and law enforcement agencies have the support and resources to improve their overall response to the crime of sexual assault, Karhlton Moore, director of the U.S. Bureau of Justice Assistance, said in a statement. SAKI funding not only helps link victims to advocates and needed services but also helps jurisdictions implement best practices and comprehensive reform to bring people who commit sexual assault to justice and increase safety in communities by preventing future sexual assaults.