GROSS, ROLLINS FUMING
Rip bail paid for convicted rapist they say struck again
Authorities say a progressive group bailed out a convicted rapist who was in jail on new rape charges — and is now accused of striking again, infuriating top law enforcement officials in Boston.
Shawn McClinton, 39, of Boston, has been convicted of rape twice — once in 1994 in a different state for rape and abuse of child, and then of forcible rape in 2007 in Fall River, according to the state’s sex offender registry. McClinton had to register as a Level 3 sex offender — the highest level, meaning most likely to reoffend — after a judge sentenced him to up to 12 years in jail for forcibly raping a woman, according to news reports from 2007.
McClinton, who’s listed as homeless, then faced new charges in 2018 in Boston, when, authorities say, he forcibly raped a woman in a McDonald’s bathroom.
He was held on bail since then — until mid-July, when a group called the Massachusetts Bail Fund helped him pay the $15,000 cash bail to get out, according to authorities.
Just this week he reoffended again, according to police who filed charges against him of kidnapping and aggravated rape. According to court documents filed by Boston Police, he is charged with bringing a woman to a Boston apartment and forcibly raping her, strangling her and holding her at knifepoint early Wednesday morning. After the woman was found with wounds to her arms, shoulders and neck, cops quickly tied this assault to the “McDonalds rape,” using, in part, McClinton’s back tattoo featuring an obscene sexual reference, police said.
McClinton was arraigned Thursday on these new charges and is held on $500,000 bail, and his previous bail was revoked, meaning he’ll be held indefinitely, authorities say.
Boston Police Commissioner William Gross, in a phone interview with the Herald, was furious at the bail fund.
“I hope they never get a wink of sleep — because this is absolutely ridiculous,” Gross said. “This could have been prevented.”
Gross has been vocal at crime scenes over the past few months about violent criminals being released on lowered bail or bailed out by organizations like this. He repeated on Thursday that this sends a bad message: that people won’t be held responsible for their actions.
“To the criminals, it’s like, ‘Hey, you can do what you want — we’ll bail you out,'” Gross fumed, saying that rapes are among the “most horrendous” crimes to investigate. “For victims, it’s hard enough just to come forward on a rape, and then something like this happens. … This predator goes out and violates another victim.”
“This is just appalling,” he said.
The Massachusetts Bail Fund didn’t respond to multiple requests for comment on Thursday. The organization’s homepage declares “Free them all,” and says it just in early July began chipping in a maximum of $5,000 per person for bail, rather than the $2,000 they had been offering up to that point.
Suffolk District Attorney Rachael Rollins told the Herald that the members of this group apparently “just don’t believe in jail.”
“These are real people that are being harmed and there are real consequences when decisions like this are made,” Rollins said. “It’s deeply saddening to know that this could have been avoided.”
Rollins drew a sharp distinction between her — sometimes controversial — campaign pledges to look to avoid prosecuting some lesser crimes, and leniency for these types of horrific violent crime.
“He’s a repeat sex offender,” Rollins said. “He has shown time and time again he will harm unless he is removed from the community.”