HELL ON WHEELS
DA: Ride-share impersonator facing more rape charges
A 39-year-old alleged serial rapist accused of posing as a rideshare driver and preying on women he picked up from Boston bars and restaurants has been charged with sexually assaulting a ninth victim, prosecutors said.
Alvin Campbell of Cumberland, R.I., was arraigned Wednesday on new indictments charging three counts of rape and two counts of filming an unsuspecting nude person, Suffolk District Attorney Rachael Rollins said.
“The allegations outlined in each of these cases are extremely disturbing,” Rollins said, “and the facts are strikingly similar in each of the nine attacks.”
Suffolk County grand juries returned indictments last year charging Campbell with sexually assaulting eight women from 2017 to 2019. In most of those offenses, he is accused of posing as a rideshare driver in order to target women outside Boston bars and restaurants, the DA said.
Campbell is charged with sexually assaulting the victims while they were unconscious or incapacitated and videotaping his rapes of five of the victims, she said.
Suffolk Superior Court Judge Janet Sanders ordered Campbell to be held until an April 27 hearing to determine whether he is too dangerous to be released on bail.
Campbell has been in custody since his January 2020 arrest in connection with one of the rapes.
Boston Police detectives obtained a warrant allowing them to search a cloud-based account associated with his cell phone, Rollins said. That search uncovered footage that prosecutors allege shows him repeatedly raping an unconscious victim in June 2018, the DA said.
Campbell is the brother of City Councilor and mayoral candidate Andrea Campbell, who said in a statement Thursday: “I am again shocked and devastated by these new charges. First and foremost, my thoughts and prayers go to the victims of these horrendous crimes and all victims of sexual abuse. I pray for their safety and healing. I trust that justice will be served.”