Matthew Nilo Update: Charges, DNA Suppression Fight, and Trial Status

The latest update on Matthew Nilo: the New Jersey lawyer accused of a series of rapes in Boston in 2007 and 2008 remains free on bail with a GPS monitor, no trial date has been set, and the case now hinges on a suppression hearing over whether FBI agents legally obtained his DNA from a fork, water glass, and napkin at a Manhattan bar without a warrant.¹²

Where the Case Stands Now

Judge Debra Squires-Lee, a Massachusetts Superior Court justice appointed in 2017, is presiding over the suppression hearing in Suffolk Superior Court. The hearing opened on June 22, 2026, with roughly five hours of testimony from FBI Special Agents James Smith and Megan Calpin, and was continued to August 2026 for additional proceedings.²

Whichever way Squires-Lee rules, the losing side is widely expected to appeal to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, which means the DNA question, and with it any realistic path to trial, could remain unresolved for some time.²

Nilo has been out on bail since shortly after his June 2023 arraignment, when he posted $500,000 cash. He later posted an additional $50,000 after a second indictment. He wears a GPS monitor, surrendered his passport, and was ordered to have no contact with victims or witnesses and to stay at least 1,000 feet from Terminal Street in Charlestown unless accompanied by his attorney.³⁴

The Charges

Nilo was first arraigned in Suffolk Superior Court on June 5, 2023, on charges connected to four attacks on or near Terminal Street in Charlestown:

Three counts of aggravated rape
Two counts of kidnapping
One count of assault with intent to rape
One count of indecent assault and battery

On June 27, 2023, a grand jury returned a second indictment tied to five attacks on four women in Boston’s North End between January 2007 and July 2008, including one woman assaulted twice within 11 days in January 2008. The second indictment added seven counts: rape, aggravated rape, three counts of assault with intent to rape, and two counts of indecent assault and battery. Nilo was arraigned on those charges on July 13, 2023, and pleaded not guilty.⁵⁴

Prosecutors say Nilo attacked a total of eight women across the two neighborhoods.¹

The DNA Fight That Will Decide the Case

On April 6, 2023, five FBI agents followed Nilo to the Oscar Wilde Restaurant and Bar in midtown Manhattan, where he was attending a private work function. They did not have a warrant. Over about four hours, agents sat at a nearby high-top and worked with a waitress to collect items Nilo used. Two early attempts failed because she grabbed glasses from someone sitting next to him. When Nilo left, agents seized a water glass, a fork, and a napkin from his table. Agent Smith transported the items to an FBI office in Atlantic City before they were sent to Boston.²⁶ DNA from those items was matched to DNA collected from the victims.⁷

Defense attorney Rosemary Scapicchio has moved to suppress the fork, glass, and napkin, arguing that collecting them without a warrant violated Nilo’s right to privacy. She told the court Nilo did not voluntarily abandon the items the way someone abandons trash. “The way they stole his DNA here is different than leaving it at a crime scene,” she said. “This wasn’t trash.” She contends that a diner has no realistic ability to carry restaurant dinnerware home, and that agents entering a private venue and orchestrating the collection of someone’s biological material should need a warrant.²⁸

Scapicchio has also pressed the FBI on how the operation was documented. On cross-examination, she drew out that agents never obtained the names of the restaurant manager or the waitress, did not photograph the evidence at the scene, and left the failed collection attempts out of the official surveillance report. “Clearly there’s something wrong they feel they need to hide,” she told MassLive.² The defense has also blocked a prosecution request for a buccal swab from Nilo, calling it a “red herring” until the suppression question is resolved.⁹

Prosecutors argue the items were abandoned property. Nilo used them in a public setting and left them behind in the hands of restaurant staff, which they say makes them fair game to seize without a warrant. They also argue Nilo lacks standing to challenge the earlier genealogy database search, because any privacy rights there belong to the relatives who voluntarily uploaded their own genetic data.¹⁰

What’s at stake is the entire prosecution. Scapicchio has said bluntly, “If we win the motion to suppress then there is no evidence.” No witness has ever identified Nilo in a lineup or photo array, and no other physical evidence linking him to the attacks has been disclosed.¹⁰

How Investigators Identified Him

Investigators confirmed as early as 2008 that DNA linked several of the Boston attacks to the same unknown person, but they had no suspect, and the cases went cold.¹¹ The break came after the Boston Police Department received a $2.5 million grant through the Sexual Assault Kit Initiative to re-examine unsolved sexual assault cases. A working group that included BPD, the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office, and the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center reviewed roughly 100 cold cases and re-screened about 1,000 previously unsubmitted kits.¹²

In May 2022, the group began a focused review that turned to forensic genetic genealogy, which compares crime-scene DNA against profiles people have voluntarily uploaded to public genealogy databases to build a family tree and narrow the suspect pool. That work pointed to Matthew Nilo, and the Oscar Wilde surveillance followed as the step to confirm the match.¹¹

Who Matthew Nilo Is

Nilo was 35 at the time of his 2023 arrest and lived in Weehawken, New Jersey. He worked as a cybersecurity attorney and had been hired in January 2023 by Cowbell Cyber, a Manhattan-based cybersecurity company; he was suspended from that position after the arrest. He had lived in Boston’s North End between January 2007 and July 2008, overlapping the period of the alleged assaults.¹³

Other Jurisdictions Looking at Him

Police in Madison, Wisconsin, have said their detectives are aware of Nilo and are working with Boston police to review old cases in their jurisdiction for any possible connection.¹⁴

1
Court TV. Attorney Accused of Multiple Rapes Claims Evidence Illegally Seized
2
MassLive. FBI Agents Detail Restaurant Surveillance as Judge Weighs DNA Evidence in Boston Rape Case
3
Boston Globe. Matthew Nilo Released From Jail After Making Cash Bail
4
ABC News. Serial Rape Suspect Matthew Nilo Ordered to Pay $50,000
5
Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office. Matthew Nilo Indicted on Additional Rape, Indecent Assault Charges
6
New York Post. How FBI Agents Stalked Alleged Serial Rapist Matthew Nilo in Temptation Room at NYC Bar to Get His DNA
7
CBS News. Matthew Nilo DNA Drinking Glass Links Lawyer to Boston Sexual Assaults
8
MassLive. Boston Cold Case Rape Suspect Says His DNA Was Taken Illegally From Fork He Used
9
MassLive. “The Public Should Be Terrified” — Lawyer Decries DNA Search in Decade-Old Boston Rape Case
10
MassLive. Key Hearing Could Make or Break Case Against Matthew Nilo
11
ABC News. Lawyer Arrested Decades After Rapes After Identified Through Genetic Genealogy
12
Sexual Assault Kit Initiative Tracking and Transparency Act. Boston
13
WBUR. New Jersey Lawyer Pleads Not Guilty to a Second Series of Sexual Assault Charges in Boston
14
WCVB. Boston Serial Rape Suspect Matthew Nilo Faces New North End Charges