'Most Eligible Bachelor' Charged in Rape of College Student

[WarmNCozy]

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

[AlsoKnownAs]

Maybe he can get Bill Clinton for a Lawyer. AKA

[Wichita]

It's just a damn shame prisons segregate sex offenders these days. I think this guy's status as "most eligible bachelor" might help find just the right cell mate. One can only hope.....

[Bluefox]

The link didn't work for me, but i'd sure like to know more about this dude's background. He didn't just suddenly become a sexual sleazeball predator. This has to go wayyyyyyyyy back, and people have been covering up for this guy. I hope they throw the key away, or put him in a cage with a gorilla, 'cos they may just have stopped a future serial killer in the making.

[Wichita]

You're right, Blue. He's been getting away with it for a looong time. These guys don't wake up one day and decide to become a rapist, or pedophile. I'm just glad he's not in California. They have a tendency to pamper their celebrities a bit more than others.

[WarmNCozy]

Originally Posted by Bluefox

The link didn't work for me, but i'd sure like to know more about this dude's background. He didn't just suddenly become a sexual sleazeball predator. This has to go wayyyyyyyyy back, and people have been covering up for this guy. I hope they throw the key away, or put him in a cage with a gorilla, 'cos they may just have stopped a future serial killer in the making.

The link has probably been taken down since it was in October. But I did copy the whole article then pasted the link. I will look for anything further since this incident that my be available in a news article.

[Bluefox]

Thank you WarmNCozy. I actually missed this thread until i saw a fresh post!!

Yes Wichita, it's easy to work out what kind of upbringing this guy had, well off parents who indulged his every whim, or didn't have time for him, so he did his own thing. Then again, sometimes you just get 'a bad egg' who has loving parents behind him/her, and can't understand what went wrong! I'm not sure if i missed a report of what age he is, anyone know?

Something happened in the past, maybe an early introduction to sex and/or aggressive sex or something along those lines, to make this guy think women were so cheap, and there for his taking, in whatever fashion he could devise. Over confident, over large ego, the audacity to work in law, whilst he was breaking every law in the book. I for one am glad he's off your streets, but i think he'll always be a danger. Would be interesting to have any updates on this.

[Wichita]

Sounds like a cross between the Menendez brothers and Ted Bundy. The Menendez brothers killed their parents to expedite their inheritance. They were spoiled, and no doubt, enabled little brats. Bundy was from a lower-middle class family, whose mother was strict. Bundy, consequently, turned to law and psychology to enable him to become a very successful predator. I wonder if any of this guys victims ever failed to awaken after being drugged and raped? He has no conscience, so I wouldn't doubt if he has murdered before. If he escapes conviction on this rap, he may resort to murder just to avoid the possibility of being identified.

[Bluefox]

A bon vivant Boston attorney authorities suspect of moonlighting as a serial rapist “is simply a man who meets women in bars,” Gary Zerola’s lawyer argued yesterday.

But Suzanne Kontz, who is prosecuting Zerola for the rape and attempted rape of two 19-year-old women in 2004 and 2006, painted a sinister picture of the high-cheekboned criminal defense attorney ABC once wooed to star in “The Bachelor”: that of a predator who grooms victims before he gropes them

http://news.bostonherald.com/news/re...icleid=1042860



Pity, the rest of that article has been archived, there's a pic too. I have to say, he doesn't have the look of a lawyer about him, he gives me the creeps big time!! He just meets women in bars, oh yeah right!!

[Victims]

11+ Victims of Gary Zerola:

4 victims of Gary Zerola testified under oath about what happened to them. I have heard of at least 3 other victims that came forward and told police similar stories. Below are blogs about 5 more victims. So far that is 12 women who all claim they were victims of Gary Zerola. There are many many more blogs posted by other victims of Zerola. Think about it. He is clearly a serial rapist and needs to be put away.

"4 years ago Gary Z managed to gain the trust of my family through business ties he has with my father and then drugged and raped my sister as soon as he had a minute alone with her. Luckily he never got his hands on me. This loser behind being put away is the best news I've ever heard! I can only hope that his fellow inmates teach him what it feels like to be manhandled."
-RT
Boston Herald

"a similar situation happened to me with gary, but i never reported it, and i was also 18 years old."
-a girl
Boston Herald

"Gary Zerola raped two friends of mine about 9 years ago. The last thing they remember was Gary buying them drinks at West St. Bar. They woke up naked next to Gary in the morning. Gary made sure he put enough drugs in their drinks so they wouldn't remember how they got there. They do know that they were raped. Neither of them had ever blacked out before in their lives. Read the blogs on Gary Zerola.... other's have similar stories"
- Florida International University Beacon



you'll get what's coming to you
Apr. 2, 2008 at 10:35 PM
Posted by BURN IN HELL GARY
these girls are absolutely telling the truth. how do i know? i'm in the same boat. i hope gary is miserable and tainted for the rest of his life, just like the girls he abused.
-Boston Magazine

" Boston magazine has found reference in court documents to prosecutors' allegations of a fourth incident, involving a young woman who claims her friends had to whisk her away from Zerola after he allegedly drugged her, though no charges were ever brought."
-Boston Magazine

See for yourself what kind of person Gary Zerola is:

http://www.bostonmagazine.com/articl...inst_casanova/