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Paul Downey is accused of raping a 14-year-old boy after communicating over Snapchat to negotiate sex and payment.
A former Boston police sergeant charged with raping a 14-year-old boy pleaded not guilty in superior court Friday and was released on bail, according to court records.
Paul Downey, 58, was initially arraigned on four counts of aggravated rape of a minor, two counts of paying for sex with a child under 18, and two counts of electronically enticing a child for commercial sex in Boston Municipal Court in June.
He was indicted in Suffolk Superior Court earlier this month on the same charges. He pleaded not guilty on Friday.
Boston police placed Downey on administrative leave when the charges came to light in June, police said at the time. He has since retired, a spokesperson for the police told Boston.com.
Downey is accused of raping a 14-year-old boy after communicating over Snapchat to negotiate sex and payment. They met up twice, prosecutors said, where Downey would pick up the teen in Dorchester and drive a short distance to South Bay Center.
During both instances in March and May, Downey allegedly raped the 14-year-old anally and orally, paying him first $50 in cash and then $80. While negotiating payment, a friend of the alleged victim took a photo of the Snapchat conversation, the prosecutors wrote in their statement of the case.
“The child essentially says, ‘That’s too low. I’m 14. … You know I’m young, and you’re asking me to … commit a crime,’” prosecutor Brandon DeAvilla said previously in court. “And the defendant responds with, ‘How about $80?’”
The 14-year-old also updated the friend via throughout the interaction, prosecutors said. The teen told his friend “he’s here” when he was picked up and said “Bag secured period” about 15 minutes later. He also sent of Downey’s alleged license plate, prosecutors said.
Downey is a 34-year veteran of the Boston police “who had been the academy drill sergeant for many members of the force,” prosecutors wrote. Downey earned a gross total of $378,849.25 last year, earning overtime and retroactive pay on top of his $150,385.39 base salary, according to city payroll records.
Prosecutor: ‘Our evidence is not only the testimony of the juvenile’
Later in May, the 14-year-old “made a disclosure to a person who was obligated to report it to child welfare authorities,” prosecutors said. Boston police interviewed the teen, who described the man who allegedly paid him for sex. He also picked out Downey’s photo with “90 percent certainty” in a photo array, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors also said they have surveillance video in the area of the rapes from May, but video from March “was not longer available.” It shows distinctive taillights approaching the parking lot and departing in the direction of their meeting spot, prosecutors wrote in court records.
The 14-year-old’s Snapchat communications also trace to Downey’s cellphone number. Once Downey was identified as a suspect, Boston police referred the matter to Massachusetts State Police.
Downey was arrested at Boston Police Department headquarters, and digital evidence seized on his phone showed the Snapchat history between him and the 14-year-old, who was stored as a contact, and use of Grindr, according to court documents.
His vehicle’s license plate “almost matched” the number reported by the 14-year-old, and the car also had “footprints on the ceiling” which was “consistent with how the victim said he was positioned when Downey penetrated him,” prosecutors wrote.
“Our evidence is not only the testimony of the juvenile,” DeAvilla said in court, according to the Globe. “We have pictures of the communications through Snapchat, where the individual is talking to the user name that the Commonwealth alleges is the defendant,” based on electronic records.
An attorney who represented Downey at his bail hearing did not return a request for comment, and there was no lawyer information listed for Downey in Superior Court.
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