Posted on 07/21/2007 1:22:10 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
MOUNT HOLLY — An illegal Brazilian immigrant living in Delran has been charged in a series of sexual assaults and attacks in Moorestown and Massachusetts, authorities said yesterday.
Burlington County Prosecutor Robert D. Bernardi described Mar-celo G. Mota, 28, of Tenby Chase Apartments as a “serial rapist” who committed two sexual assaults and one attempted sexual assault against women in central Massachusetts in 2003 and a sexual assault and an attempted sexual assault against women in the Laurel Creek section of Moores-town in 2005.
An assistant prosecutor said during a hearing yesterday that Mota had confessed to the Moores-town attacks.
Mota was arrested Friday as he left a restaurant in Cherry Hill. He was charged with aggravated sexual assault and burglary in the Moorestown cases and with being a fugitive from justice in Massachusetts, Bernardi said.
Superior Court Judge Patricia Richmond LeBon set Mota's bail at $1 million yesterday at his first court appearance
In all five cases, authorities said, Mota entered the victims' homes late at night or during the early morning hours and attacked them in their bedrooms.
In the Massachusetts cases, Mota threatened the women with a knife, Bernardi said.
In the two Moorestown incidents, he told his victims he was armed and also threatened to harm others inside the house, the prosecutor said.
“These were very brazen attacks here in all cases,” Bernardi told reporters during a news conference yesterday. “Apparently, he had no regard for his concern of getting caught.”
The first Moorestown attack occurred Sept. 24, 2005. A then 35-year-old woman was sexually assaulted in her home on Hogan Way while her teenage son and his friends slept in the basement
A second break-in was reported two days later at a house on Palmer Drive, which is adjacent to Hogan Way. In that case, a man entered a second-floor bedroom but fled when the woman screamed.
Bernardi said police first became aware of the Massachusetts cases in January 2006 after detectives learned that DNA evidence collected at the Moorestown crime scenes matched DNA evidence found in the Massachusetts cases.
The three sexual assaults in Massachusetts occurred in Westborough, Hopkinton and Framingham during an 18-day period between July 30, 2003, and Aug. 16, 2003.
Bernardi said detectives from Moorestown, Delran and the Prosecutor's Office developed Mota as a suspect in the Moorestown cases after reviewing records of every motor-vehicle stop in Burlington County from 1999 to this year that involved a vehicle with Massachusetts license plates.
They learned that Mota was stopped in Delanco in 2005 for an unspecified violation while operating a vehicle with Massachusetts license plates.
“That, of course, perked our interest in him,” Bernardi said. “We figured he was foolish enough to keep Massachusetts plates on his car, which he did.”
Investigators also learned that Mota had been arrested for a domestic violence incident involving his wife on Nov. 12, 2006, Bernardi said.
Investigators sent Mota's fingerprints to Massachusetts and learned Friday that they matched a print lifted at one of the crime scenes in Massachusetts, Bernardi said.
DNA samples have been taken from Mota and will be compared against DNA evidence from the Moorestown and Massachusetts crime scenes, the prosecutor said.
Bernardi said investigators also are reviewing unsolved sexual assault cases to determine whether Mota was involved. Bernardi also said other states could be examining their own unsolved cases.
“This is going to be a methodical process, as you can see,” Bernardi said.
Unsolved county cases investigators may review include that of a 68-year-old Lumberton woman who was sexually assaulted by a male intruder in November 2005. Police said the man entered the woman's home through an unlocked door and inappropriately touched her while she slept in her bedroom.
The woman was awakened and then fought the man off as he tried to touch her again, police said.
Another case involved a Delran woman attacked June 13 by a man as she slept in her home in the Summerhill development. As the man began to assault the woman, she screamed and struggled and the man fled, police said.
Bernardi said Mota has lived in Burlington County for approximately two years and worked as a Portuguese translator for a Delran tax preparation service.
A restraining order was issued against Mota after the domestic violence incident involving his wife, court records indicate.
Mota filed for divorce in April, citing irreconcilable differences, according to court documents. Mota's estranged wife now lives in California. They have no children.
Bernardi said Mota has been living in the United States illegally since 2001 when his visa expired.
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
And the ACLU fight the use of 287g or any other legal way to protect American citizens...
Way past time to BUILD THE FENCE...
deport the 25,000,000 illegal aliens...
and disband the tax-payer supported ACLU...
Once you get into the USA, it’s don’t ask, don’t tell....
I agree.
Demand a border fence! Build it NOW!! Beef up the border patrol and close our borders!
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Take a look at their hidden agenda: http://www.mexica-movement.org
And the ACLU fight the use of 287g or any other legal way to protect American citizens...
Way past time to BUILD THE FENCE...
deport the 25,000,000 illegal aliens...
and disband the tax-payer supported ACLU...
couldn’t agree more!!!
but...jorge bush....fat ted/all lib/dems and the no cajones republicans all have a foot print in this!!!!
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
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