Massachusetts Personal Injury News
Man Charged with Child Rape
A 20-year-old Leominster man has been charged with child rape and held on $25,000 cash bail after his arraignment. Eric Rivera is accused of raping a 13-year-old girl in Gardner while she was sleeping this past summer.
According to a brief statement of facts filed by police in Gardner District Court, the girl alleged that while she was sleeping at a friend’s house in Gardner on July 26, Rivera, who also stayed at the home that night, lay down beside her and started rubbing her leg and trying to kiss her. She told him “no” and pushed him away. The girl said she woke up later while he was raping her. She said that Rivera then went back to his bed and apologized the next day.
Police pursued a warrant for Rivera’s arrest on September 30 and he was arrested on that warrant by Fitchburg police on Thursday afternoon. Judge Arthur F. Haley III presided over the arraignment, citing Rivera’s record of convictions, history of violence and defaults, as reasons for setting $25,000 bail. Rivera is scheduled to appear in court on October 24.
That same week, one of two area men on Massachusetts’ new list of most wanted sex offenders, turned himself over to authorities at Clinton District Court. Massachusetts police and the Sex Offender Registry Board announced the new list, including 10 Level 3 sex offenders, those considered to be at the highest risk of committing another sex crime.
Shayne M. Sampson, the man who turned himself in, was wanted by West Boylston, Clinton and Worchester police. Sampson was convicted of indecent assault and battery on a child under 14, disseminating obscene material to a minor and open and gross lewdness. He served 18 months in prison, but was wanted by Clinton police for violation of the Abuse Prevention Act.
