Matthew Nilo, the New Jersey attorney charged with a series of rapes near the Charlestown waterfront roughly 15 years ago while living in the North End, will be extradited to Massachusetts to face the charges.
Authorities from the FBI, the Suffolk District Attorney’s office and the Boston Police Department announced Tuesday evening that Nilo, 35, had been arrested at his home in Weehawken, N.J., earlier that day.
On Thursday, he appeared for an hearing in Hudson County, N.J., where he waived his right to an extradition hearing and will return to Massachusetts for the case to resolve.
Nilo appeared in court wearing a navy prison shirt over a T-shirt, according to the New York Post. His fiancee Laura Griffin, who that newspaper says Nilo had proposed to only a few weeks before the charges were announced, was in court to support him.
It is not yet certain when Nilo will return to the Bay State. The Suffolk DA’s office stated Friday that his arraignment date has not yet been set.
Nilo is charged with three counts of aggravated rape, two counts of kidnapping, one count of assault — attempted rape and one count of indecent assault and battery. The charges stem from alleged incidents in the Terminal Street area of Charlestown on Aug. 18, 2007; Nov. 22, 2007; Aug. 5, 2008; and Dec. 23, 2008, according to information provided by BPD Commissioner Michael Cox at Tuesday’s announcement.
Cox said that he believed Nilo to be a college student at the time of the assaults — which occurred when Nilo would have been in his early 20s — but did not know which college Nilo may have been attending.
Nilo’s LinkedIn page doesn’t show any degrees earned from Boston-area colleges, as he earned his undergraduate degree in psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2010 and his law degree from the University of San Francisco School of Law.
Nilo was at the time of his arrest serving as cyber claims counsel for Cowbell Cyber, according to the LinkedIn resume. Previous employment shows he worked as a paralegal at the Law offices of Iannella and Mummolo for the two years between his bachelor’s degree and when he started law school and then as an associate at the San Francisco-based Clyde & Co and then an associate at Atheria Law in New York.
Cowbell Cyber suspended Nilo when they learned of the charges.
“Matthew Nilo was an employee of Cowbell and was hired in January, 2023 after passing our background check. Mr. Nilo’s employment at Cowbell has been suspended pending further investigation,” the company wrote in a statement.