The destiny of former prosecutor Gary Zerola, charged with raping a 23-year-old lady in 2016, is within the palms of the Suffolk Superior Court jury pool composed of eight ladies and 6 males — two of whom are alternates.
Zerola, 51, is charged with two counts of rape, which the prosecution has mentioned occurred at round 7 a.m. on Nov. 10, 2016, on a sofa in an residence on Myrtle Street in Beacon Hill, which is owned by a buddy of Zerola’s who didn’t testify within the trial.
Defense legal professional Joseph Krowski Jr. made his thunderous closing argument first on Friday, the final day of the trial which started on Tuesday, by which he repeatedly mentioned that his shopper’s accuser is a “liar” and known as the allegations of rape “effing absurd.”
“You know she’s lying when you see her lips moving,” Krowski mentioned of the alleged sufferer within the case. “If you’re telling the truth it’s easy to get your story straight. But when you lie it’s so much harder because you’re trying to remember the lies you told in the past.”
The Herald doesn’t identify victims of sexual assault, alleged or in any other case.
He mentioned that the alleged sufferer purposely misled police and prosecutors about her prior interactions with Zerola to be able to concoct these “false allegations” of rape towards his shopper.
Those embrace that her repeated assertion that the pair had by no means been alone socially, even if the pair took a 2:30 a.m. trip on Zerola’s motorbike from his Salem residence throughout her birthday months earlier than the alleged rape.
Another is that she and the prosecutors made out Zerola to be creepily sensitive and kissy towards the alleged sufferer at bars forward of going to the residence the place the alleged crime occurred, however that the protection had discovered one other SnapChat video the place the alleged sufferer had additionally kissed Zerola, and on the lips no much less.
“Did she have a come to Jesus moment” to lastly admit these items “… No!” Krowski mentioned, saying that she solely disclosed these items when the protection, “the party with no burden of proof,” discovered proof that uncovered them.
Krowski’s ire was not simply directed on the alleged sufferer but additionally at her greatest buddy, and the lady in a “sexual relationship,” as a number of testimonies have established, with Zerola, who he mentioned has had a “selective” reminiscence of all occasions involving the events — together with the night time in query — designed particularly to make his shopper look unhealthy.
Prosecutor Tom Brant mentioned in his closing argument that the “The defense wants you to focus everywhere else than what happened on Nov. 10, 2016” and that as jurors, they need to focus solely on what occurred surrounding the crimes and that all the pieces else is a distraction.
“The Commonwealth has a burden to prove lack of consent … we welcome that burden. Consent isn’t implied or assumed,” Brant mentioned. “Asking for a motorcycle ride three months before is not consent … following a SnapChat story is not consent … kissing someone at a bar is not consent.”
Brant mentioned that her lack of motion instantly following the alleged rape, together with taking a automobile trip from Zerola to return to her automobile at Wellington Station as a substitute of calling a taxi or an Uber, was as a consequence of concern and confusion over what to do: “The defendant, her rapist, is right there … she’s 23 years old, he’s a 45 year old defense attorney … nobody’s going to believe her.”
Brant mentioned that when the defendant noticed the alleged sufferer asleep on the sofa, he thought “I can do this, I’m Gary ‘Big Time Lawyer’ Zerola,” a robust line that protection instantly objected to and Judge Michael Ricciuti ordered struck from the report each then and simply earlier than his jury directions following the arguments.
“Gary Zerola committed two rapes. One while she was asleep and one while she was waking up,” Brant mentioned. “There was no consent when she was sleeping and there was no consent when she said ‘Get the (expletive) off me.’ … That’s rape.”
This is a growing story.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”