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Criminal Justice
Lawyer once named most eligible bachelor acquitted on rape charges
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A Massachusetts criminal defense lawyer has been acquitted on two counts of rape in an alleged 2016 assault following a night of drinking.
Jurors acquitted 51-year-old lawyer Gary Zerola on Friday, report the Boston Herald, the Boston Globe, NBC Boston, Boston 25 News and Boston.com.
Zerola is a former prosecutor who was named one of People magazine’s most eligible bachelors in 2001.
Prosecutors had alleged that Zerola raped a 23-year-old woman twice at the apartment of Zerola’s friend—once while she was sleeping and a second time as she was waking up, according to the Boston Herald coverage of the trial in Suffolk County, Massachusetts.
Assistant District Attorney Tom Brant argued in his closing that Zerola saw the woman sleeping on the couch and thought, “I can do this, I’m Gary ‘Big Time Lawyer’ Zerola.” The argument led to an objection and a decision by the judge to strike the statement from the record.
A lawyer for Zerola had argued that the accuser was a liar whose story changed over time, the Boston Herald reported. “You know she’s lying when you see her lips moving,” said lawyer Joseph Krowski Jr. in his closing argument.
Krowski and a second defense said the woman claimed that she was never alone with Zerola before the night in question, even though she rode on a motorcycle with him months before. And the defense found a Snapchat video showing that the woman had kissed Zerola.
Zerola was acquitted on charges of rape and attempted rape by two separate juries in 2008, according to the Boston Globe. In a statement, prosecutors said another 2021 case against Zerola with similar allegations is pending.
“We will once again do our best to prove those charges,” the statement said.
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