Boston Municipal Court Judge Mark Hart Summerville set bail at $1 million for Anthony Williams, charged with forcing his way into a Beacon Hill residence and raping its occupant [2], the Suffolk County District Attorney's office reports.
Should Williams, convicted of a 1996 rape in Salem, make bail, he'll still sit behind bars, because Summerville revoked his bail on an unrelated assault-and-battery charge.
The DA's office provided the following account of the alleged attack and Williams's capture:
[Assistant District Attorney Holly] Broadbent told the court that Williams followed the 28-year-old victim into her Beacon Hill apartment building as she returned home sometime after 2 a.m. on Nov. 10 and forced his way into her apartment. There, he allegedly threatened repeatedly to kill her, held a kitchen knife to her throat, and sexually assaulted her, prosecutors said.
After the assault, Williams allegedly tied the victim's hands behind her and then tied her to a piece of kitchen cabinetry. He demanded the PIN number for her bank card and told her he would return and kill her if she gave him a phony number. Williams then left the apartment with the victim's iPhone, iPad, jewelry, and ATM card, according to prosecutors.
The victim was able to free herself and went to a neighbor's apartment to call for help. Though unable to describe the assailant's face, she was able to provide police with a detailed description of his clothing, including a tan construction jacket with a darker collar and a large, dark backpack.
According to prosecutors, Boston Police obtained surveillance images from two ATMs where Williams used the victim's bank card – one near the victim's apartment and the second in Dorchester. Still images were distributed to staff at local homeless shelters as well as to the public. An employee at one shelter contacted police and identified the man in the photo as Williams, whom she knew from his stays at the shelter, prosecutors said.
Detectives also teamed with the U.S. Marshals to track the victim's stolen iPhone to a local business in Dorchester, where the owner said he had purchased it on Nov. 10 from a man who regularly sells items at the business. Surveillance video from the business corroborated the owner's story, and he identified Williams' picture from a photo array, according to prosecutors.
Williams was arrested yesterday at an address in Dorchester where he was visiting his mother.
Innocent, etc.