Rape trial to begin for former prosecutor
Gary Zerola, a former prosecutor in Suffolk and Essex counties who became a defense attorney who was twice acquitted on charges that he sexually assaulted women, goes to trial Tuesday, where he’ll face a third woman to take him before a Suffolk County jury on two counts of rape.
Zerola, 51, has pleaded not guilty to the charges brought against him by a 23-year-old woman who told police that a night of partying in the North End in November 2016 ended with her waking to find Zerola undressing and assaulting her, according to criminal court filings. Opening statements and witness testimony are set to begin Tuesday before Judge Michael Ricciuti in Suffolk Superior Court. Jurors were selected last week.
Over the years, as many as a dozen women have come forward alleging Zerola raped them in nearly indistinguishable assaults dating back to 1996, court records show.
Despite the numerous accusations, Zerola has rarely faced criminal charges, much less a conviction. Two separate juries in 2008 found Zerola not guilty of rape and attempted rape. He has had sex charges dropped in Miami Beach and New Orleans and seen statutes of limitations run out on at least three allegations from the 1990s, court filings show.
He also faces a rape charge in a separate case from 2021. The facts in that pending case are so “uncannily similar” to the current case that prosecutors sought to have the two tried together to show “a common pattern and an intention to victimize younger women rendered vulnerable by alcohol,” court filings show. A judge denied the motion.
In the 2021 case, Zerola has pleaded not guilty to aggravated rape and a count of breaking and entering for allegedly returning to a passed-out victim’s Boston apartment without permission. The 21-year-old woman said she woke up to find Zerola sexually assaulting her, court filings show.
Zerola’s defense lawyer Joseph F. Krowski Jr. did not respond to a request for comment on Monday.
Zerola, named a “most-eligible bachelor” in 2001 by People magazine, has been awaiting trial while under house arrest in Salem. Under court order, he is prohibited from having any female visitors — relatives and lawyers excluded — without clearance. His law license is active, records show.
In a Suffolk Superior Court memorandum from March 17, 2021, Judge Janet L. Sanders suggested that Zerola’s experience as a lawyer has benefited him as a defendant. Zerola, a Suffolk University law graduate, went into private practice after brief stints as a prosecutor.
Zerola worked as an assistant district attorney in Essex County for one year, and in Suffolk County for two months in 2000, according to the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office.
“That the defendant is an attorney (and former prosecutor) also means that he is well aware of the law, and as the Commonwealth suggests is fully capable of laying the groundwork for a consent defense before engaging in the acts he’s accused of,” the judge wrote.