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Boston serial sex offender attacks court officers during sentencing on 21 charges
Ronald Brown was sentenced to serve between 72 to 105 years in prison for charges including aggravated rape.
A 60-year-old Boston man recently convicted on 21 charges, including sexual assaults, attacked court officers on Tuesday as he was sentenced to decades in prison, officials said.
Ronald Brown was sentenced to serve between 72 to 105 years in prison for the charges he was convicted by a jury of on Friday, which included aggravated rape, kidnapping, witness intimidation, photographing an unsuspecting nude person, and breaking and entering, according to the Suffolk County District Attorney’s office.
Prosecutors said that Brown, who has been held without bail since his arrest in October 2016, refused to stand as the sentence was imposed, swore at the judge, and attacked court officers who attempted to remove him from the courtroom. The 60-year-old allegedly refused to attend his jury trial in person, watching proceedings instead over Zoom.
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Prosecutors said he logged off as the verdicts were read out on Friday.
Brown was convicted on charges related to a series of sexual assaults and home break-ins in the South End in September and October 2016. Prosecutors said his crimes included breaking into the homes of women and stealing their belongings — in one case while the woman was sleeping in the residence — and filming a woman through a window as she got dressed after a shower. The crimes were committed months after he was released from a 25 to 30-year sentence for a 1986 rape, according to the DA’s office.
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The series of crimes in the fall of 2016 culminated on the morning of Oct. 11 when authorities said Brown broke into a basement apartment on Clarendon Street where he blindfolded, bound, and gagged the two women inside.
“He forcibly raped one woman, forced her to shower to wash away potential evidence, and told her he hated Chinese people, in reference to her heritage,” the DA’s office said. “He touched the breasts of the other woman and threatened to kill both if they told anyone.”
Detectives found a prescription bottle with Brown’s name on it in the apartment and one of the victims was able to describe the glimpse she caught of his clothing.
Brown was arrested on Oct. 12, 2016 at the Pine Street Inn. Police found items stolen from victims and notes in his handwriting about the women he targeted in his backpack, prosecutors said.
Impact statements from six of his victims were read during Tuesday’s sentencing.
One of them said she won’t ever feel safe again.
“No wrought iron bars, no upgraded ADP, no glancing into the window well each time I return home, none of it will replace the feeling of wellbeing that Ronald Brown took from me that night,” she said. “This is his menacing legacy. Fear, suspicion and rage. He is a real and present danger to society.”
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