A grand jury indicted five people in the August beating of a mentally disabled man at the southbound Orange Line platform at Downtown Crossing Station, Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said Monday.
The five are accused of participating in an Aug. 27 attack on Carlito Rezende, 40, a Dorchester man under treatment for schizoaffective disorder. At about half past midnight, Rezende, who has a restricted ability to communicate, joined a conversation the group was having and told them not to use the word “hate,” authorities have told the Globe.
The group then surrounded Rezende and beat him badly, Conley’s office said.
Indicted on charges of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and assault and battery on a disabled person causing bodily injury were Karen Marie Akiba, 22, of Somerville; Ivan P. Bacai, 23, of Malden; Maryanne Hamilton, 28, of Jamaica Plain; Germail Johnson, 28, of Dorchester; and Byron H. Lashus, 32, of Watertown.
Bacai and Johnson also face charges of hitting Rezende with a belt and a traffic cone.
MBTA Transit police who saw Hamilton’s face in surveillance footage recognized her from previous interactions, the district attorney’s office said. Officers began a search for Hamilton in Harvard Square on Aug. 27. They were unsuccessful, but did find and arrest Akiba and Lashus.
Hamilton was arrested the next day when she appeared at Boston Municipal Court for the arraignment of Akiba and Lashus. Johnson turned himself in to Transit Police on Aug. 29, and Bacai was arrested at his Malden home that night, MBTA Transit Police said.
At their Aug. 30 arraignment, Bacai and Johnson were held on $10,000 bail, and Bacai’s bail on a stabbing charge in Cambridge was revoked. Lashus was released on his own recognizance when his lawyer told a judge he was assisting authorities in their investigation. Hamilton’s bail was set at $4,500, and her bail in a Brookline case was revoked at her Aug. 29 arraignment. Bail for Akiba was set at $2,000.
Arraignment for the five is scheduled for Oct. 9 in Suffolk Superior Court.