Boston police turn over 500,000 pages of messages investigators exchanged about accused rapist Matthew Nilo
The request was granted.
Prosecutors said they told Nilo's counsel this week 'there are still over 30,000 communications which needed to be reviewed' before they can turn them over.
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The government didn't detail the content of the messages.
Nilo, 37,
Nilo, who attended Boston Latin School and formerly lived in the North End, previously pleaded not guilty to charges of raping three women, and attempting to rape a fourth, in 2007 and 2008. All told, Nilo is accused of raping or sexually assaulting eight women during those years. He remains free on bail.
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Prosecutors have alleged that Nilo targeted women downtown, sometimes attacking them from behind and threatening them with a gun.
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.
During
violated their client's legal rights against unreasonable search and seizure.
'It's the entire case,' Nilo's attorney Rosemary C. Scapicchio said of the DNA evidence.
Scapicchio said police had no other reason to suspect her client, nor did they have a warrant to conduct the genetic search and match in the online database.
'Massachusetts courts have not yet considered the constitutionality of familial searching,' Scapicchio said in a court filing. 'The warrantless search of familial DNA prior to arrest or indictment implicates both the United States Constitution and the Massachusetts general laws.'
A trial date hasn't been set.
Material from prior Globe stories was used in this report.
Travis Andersen can be reached at
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