George Perrot, 50, is accused of raping a woman as she overdosed on heroin on a sidewalk in Lawrence on Jan. 4.
A Massachusetts man who spent 30 years in prison for a rape he insisted he did not commit before the conviction went on to be overturned has now been accused of raping a different woman earlier this year.
George Perrot, 50, is accused of raping a woman as she overdosed on heroin on a sidewalk in Lawrence on Jan. 4, the Republican reported.
An officer responding to a call of someone lying on the sidewalk found the partially naked woman unconscious on the ground and Perrot, who was also unconscious, with his face between her legs, a police report obtained by the Republican said.
When he was nudged awake, Perrot allegedly became combative and charged the officer, who struck him multiple times with his baton to subdue him, the report said.
After the woman was revived with Narcan, she told police she last remembered Perrot offering her a powdery substance that he encouraged her to snort, authorities said.
She said she did not consent to sex.
Perrot’s arrest comes three years after a judge threw out his conviction in the 1985 rape of a 78-year-old Springfield woman.
He had been accused of breaking into the woman’s home about 4 a.m. and raping her on her bedroom floor before stealing her change purse. Perrot has always maintained his innocence in that case.
He was convicted of the rape first in 1987 and again after winning a new trial in 1992. He was sentenced to life in prison after both trials.
But in 2016, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ordered a new trial after determining there were serious flaws in the forensic analysis of a single hair found on the woman’s bedsheet that was introduced as evidence in the 1992 trial.
Perrot was released pending a new trial, but the Hampden District Attorney’s Office ultimately decided to not retry the case.
After spending 30 years in prison, Perrot was freed in February 2016.
When he was released, Perrot leapt from his chair in court and hugged his mom. She whispered in his ear, and Perrot later told the Boston Globe she said to him that he "better not go back in there.”
In January, Perrot was charged with rape, open and gross lewdness, resisting arrest, and assault and battery on a police officer. He pleaded not guilty to those charges during a Jan. 7 arraignment.
Authorities have since dropped a charge of threatening to commit a crime, which stemmed from Perrot allegedly threatening to kill a Lawrence booking officer and his family.
Perrot is being held without bail after a dangerousness hearing determined he is too much of a risk to the public to be released ahead of a trial, the Essex District Attorney’s Office told the Republican.
Anthony Gulluni, who serves as district attorney in Hampden County, where Perrot was arrested in 1985, responded on social media to news of Perrot’s most recent arrest.
“Originally sentenced to life in prison, for a horrific Springfield rape, which was negated in 2016 by a superior court judge granting a new trial. He just re-offended in Lawrence,” Gulluni wrote on Facebook.
“We have and do continue to maintain the position that George Perrot committed several heinous offenses on elderly female victims,” Gulluni told the Boston Globe. “Regrettably, there is another victim who has now allegedly suffered at his hands, three decades later.”
Two years after being released from prison, Perrot filed a federal civil suit against the City of Springfield, the FBI agents who worked on his case, the Springfield police and prosecutors involved in the 1985 investigation. Attempts to reach a settlement in the case have apparently been delayed, as court records filed on Thursday noted U.S. Magistrate Judge Kenneth P. Neiman notified the court that the case should proceed to trial, the Republican said.
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