Matthew Nilo, the lawyer from New Jersey accused in a string of Charlestown sexual assaults dating back some 15 years, pleaded not guilty Thursday to new charges related to four sexual assaults in the North End around the same time.
Nilo, 35, was arraigned in Suffolk Superior Court on seven new charges, including one count of both rape and aggravated rape, three counts of assault to rape, and two counts of indecent assault and battery on a person aged 14 or over, according to legal filings.
His hands clasped in front of him, Nilo entered his plea to the new charges. A clerk magistrate set bail at $50,000 cash, which Nilo posted shortly after he was led away from the courtroom in handcuffs. He had previously posted $500,000 bail for the earlier charges. He walked out of the courthouse in downtown Boston before noon Thursday, holding hands with his fiancée and ignoring questions from journalists.
The next hearing in the case is scheduled for Sept. 14.
Nilo, who attended Boston Latin School and who formerly lived in the North End, had previously pleaded not guilty to charges of raping three women, and attempting to rape a fourth, in 2007 and 2008. With the new charges, Nilo is now accused of raping or sexually assaulting eight women during those years.
After Nilo’s arraignment, Suffolk District Attorney Kevin R. Hayden told reporters the new allegations follow a similar pattern to the Charlestown attacks.
“One of the victims was even attacked twice in just 11 days,” Hayden said. “The attacks occurred during a time when Matthew Nilo lived in the North End and coincide with the period of time of the attacks on other women in Charlestown.”
Hayden said advances in DNA technology allowed investigators to bring the charges.
“Nothing can eliminate the terror experienced by these survivors,” Hayden said. “But at least now they have the knowledge that Mr. Nilo must answer the horrible [crimes] he’s alleged to have committed. We hope this provides some solace to survivors of these attacks.”
He said prosecutors were not seeking a dangerousness hearing because “these are attacks that happened quite some time ago. At this point in time, we don’t believe that he poses a threat or danger to the community.”
Nilo’s lawyer, Joseph Cataldo, denied the allegations Thursday, saying he will challenge the government’s case both factually and procedurally.
Prosecutors said that Nilo attacked four women in the North End in January 2007, July 2007, January 2008, and July 2008.
Prosecutor Lynn Feigenbaum detailed the allegations in court on Thursday. The North End attacks followed a pattern. The victims, all women, reported a man attacking them from behind. In the aftermath of one of the attacks, surveillance video captured a blue Honda Accord near the scene. At the time, a car of that color, make, and model was registered to Nilo, Feigenbaum said. Nilo is alleged to have threatened multiple women with a gun.
In the first attack on the woman who was assaulted twice over an 11-day span in January 2008, “the attack was so violent that she was taken right out of her shoes as she fell to the sidewalk,” Feigenbaum said.
Later that month, the woman was attacked again by a man who put a gloved hand over her mouth and nose and told her he had a gun and not to resist, “or I’m going to kill you,” Feigenbaum told the court. DNA testing of the waistband of the victim’s pants “revealed it was 43.3 billion times more likely” to be Nilo who attacked the woman, according to the prosecutor.
In late May, Nilo was arrested at the New Jersey apartment he shares with his fiancée after a cold case investigation by Boston police and federal authorities connected him to the Charlestown assaults. Prosecutors have alleged that Nilo picked up women downtown and brought them to Terminal Street, where he assaulted them.
Authorities said they used a combination of new procedures to connect Nilo to those rapes.
Once Nilo was identified as a suspect, investigators began surveilling him in the New York area, where he worked for an insurance company as a cyber claims counsel, officials said. They eventually collected DNA from drinking cups and utensils they watched Nilo use at a corporate event, prosecutors said.
Nilo’s lawyer, Cataldo, reiterated Thursday that he intends to challenge the constitutionality of such evidence collected by police and prosecutors used to arrest Nilo.
“There’s a serious question about the way the evidence — the DNA — was obtained, and we most certainly will be challenging that because it was unconstitutional,” he said.
Hayden on Thursday said he is confident the DNA was collected legally.
“Obviously we certainly understand that Mr. Nilo has every right to challenge that in court, and we’ll stand ready to answer to that and sustain our burden” of proof, Hayden said.
One of Nilo’s accusers, Lori Pinkham, was at the arraignment on Thursday. After the hearing, she said she was disappointed his bail was not revoked altogether.
“He’s back on the streets ... it breaks my heart, I hope he doesn’t do it to anyone else,” she told reporters outside the courthouse.
Travis Andersen can be reached at travis.andersen@globe.com. Danny McDonald can be reached at daniel.mcdonald@globe.com. Follow him @Danny__McDonald.