Bridgewater State Professor Charged with Rape Arrested Again
A Bridgewater State University professor charged with raping a female student was arrested again this week after other women reportedly stepped forward.
Nicholas Pirelli, 36, of Plymouth, pleaded not guilty Wednesday to additional charges including sex trafficking and criminal harassment. Police obtained a new warrant for Pirelli's arrest on Tuesday after other women provided information to police, according to the Brockton Enterprise.
Pirelli was first arrested March 4 in connection with an alleged rape that took place in October. The female student, who is not a student of Pirelli's, told police she had met him on the dating website seeking.com, a service that links older men with younger women. The woman told police that the two exchanged communication of a sexual nature, that she sent him naked photos and that he sent her money, but that she did not consent to sex. She alleges that Pirelli raped her in his office at the college.
Pirelli's attorney, Scott Bradley, called the rape charge "the weakest I've seen in 20 years as a lawyer" and said the new sex trafficking charge "isn't going to go anywhere," the Brockton Enterprise reports.
Pirelli is free on bail and was ordered to wear a GPS monitoring bracelet, to stay away from Bridgewater State, and to have no contact with any student at the school. Pirelli has been suspended from his post as a non-tenured faculty member in communication studies.