WarmNCozy
10-24-2007, 08:35 AM
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
MIAMI BEACH, Florida — One of People Magazine’s former Most Eligible Bachelors, Gary Zerola, was arrested Friday for allegedly drugging and raping a college student in Miami-Dade County, Fla., according to MiamiHerald.com.
The Web site reports the 36-year-old Boston defense attorney attacked the woman inside the Catalina Hotel in Miami Beach, forcing her to swallow pills before sexually assaulting her.
MiamiHerald.com report.
A Boston defense attorney once dubbed one of People Magazine's Most Eligible bachelors was arrested for allegedly drugging and raping a college student he met at a Miami Beach nightclub.
Gary Zerola -- already facing trial in two sexual attacks in Boston -- was arrested last Friday night and booked into Miami-Dade County jail.
Miami Beach police charged Zerola, 36, with sexual battery.
Once known for his work on behalf of foster children, Zerola was also a candidate to star in the first season of ABC's reality hit The Bachelor,'' according to Boston media reports.
Zerola did not return phone calls from The Miami Herald. Because of the Miami Beach arrest, prosecutors in Massachusetts on Monday filed a motion to revoke his bond.
According to a Miami Beach police report, this is what happened:
Zerola and a woman named Jheri Leigh Burch met a female Florida International University student at the club Mansion, 1235 Washington Ave. They shared drinks.
Surveillance video showed them entering the Catalina Hotel, 1756 Collins Ave, at 3:03 a.m.
But once inside, Burch ''got upset that [Zerola] brought another woman home with them,'' the report said. Burch left and checked into another room.
Then, Zerola attacked the FIU student, police said. ''He held her face with his hand and forced her to take an unknown amount of pills with an unknown liquid,'' according to the report.
The bloodied girl later woke up naked laying next to Zerola.
Donning a bathrobe, she called police on her cell phone. When officers arrived, she was ''emotional and distraught,'' police said.
When Miami Beach officers arrived, Zerola said spontaneously: ''I never had sex with her,'' the report reads.
In November 2006, Zerola was indicted on charges of rape, indecent assault and battery and procuring alcohol for a minor stemming from a 2004 attack in Suffolk County, Mass.
He was also indicted in connection with a 2006 attack on a 19-year-old woman. According to Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly, he tried forcing himself on a woman, forced her dress off and when she ran into a hallway naked, he covered her mouth and threw her to the ground.
Zerola -- a former prosecutor with Suffolk County -- forced her back into the apartment and ''slammed her head off a wall,'' Lawyers Weekly reported, citing police reports.
He later escaped when he saw flashing police lights.
Zerola, who is already facing sexual assault charges in two other cases in Massachusetts, claims he never had sex with the woman, MiamiHerald.com reports.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,304427,00.html
MIAMI BEACH, Florida — One of People Magazine’s former Most Eligible Bachelors, Gary Zerola, was arrested Friday for allegedly drugging and raping a college student in Miami-Dade County, Fla., according to MiamiHerald.com.
The Web site reports the 36-year-old Boston defense attorney attacked the woman inside the Catalina Hotel in Miami Beach, forcing her to swallow pills before sexually assaulting her.
MiamiHerald.com report.
A Boston defense attorney once dubbed one of People Magazine's Most Eligible bachelors was arrested for allegedly drugging and raping a college student he met at a Miami Beach nightclub.
Gary Zerola -- already facing trial in two sexual attacks in Boston -- was arrested last Friday night and booked into Miami-Dade County jail.
Miami Beach police charged Zerola, 36, with sexual battery.
Once known for his work on behalf of foster children, Zerola was also a candidate to star in the first season of ABC's reality hit The Bachelor,'' according to Boston media reports.
Zerola did not return phone calls from The Miami Herald. Because of the Miami Beach arrest, prosecutors in Massachusetts on Monday filed a motion to revoke his bond.
According to a Miami Beach police report, this is what happened:
Zerola and a woman named Jheri Leigh Burch met a female Florida International University student at the club Mansion, 1235 Washington Ave. They shared drinks.
Surveillance video showed them entering the Catalina Hotel, 1756 Collins Ave, at 3:03 a.m.
But once inside, Burch ''got upset that [Zerola] brought another woman home with them,'' the report said. Burch left and checked into another room.
Then, Zerola attacked the FIU student, police said. ''He held her face with his hand and forced her to take an unknown amount of pills with an unknown liquid,'' according to the report.
The bloodied girl later woke up naked laying next to Zerola.
Donning a bathrobe, she called police on her cell phone. When officers arrived, she was ''emotional and distraught,'' police said.
When Miami Beach officers arrived, Zerola said spontaneously: ''I never had sex with her,'' the report reads.
In November 2006, Zerola was indicted on charges of rape, indecent assault and battery and procuring alcohol for a minor stemming from a 2004 attack in Suffolk County, Mass.
He was also indicted in connection with a 2006 attack on a 19-year-old woman. According to Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly, he tried forcing himself on a woman, forced her dress off and when she ran into a hallway naked, he covered her mouth and threw her to the ground.
Zerola -- a former prosecutor with Suffolk County -- forced her back into the apartment and ''slammed her head off a wall,'' Lawyers Weekly reported, citing police reports.
He later escaped when he saw flashing police lights.
Zerola, who is already facing sexual assault charges in two other cases in Massachusetts, claims he never had sex with the woman, MiamiHerald.com reports.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,304427,00.html