The Boston lawyer who was formerly named as one of People magazine’s “Top 50 Bachelors” was found not guilty of two counts of rape Friday, according to Boston 25 News.
Gary Zerola, 51, was accused of raping a 23-year-old woman in 2016. The woman alleged that after going out with her friends in Boston’s North End, she woke up to Zerola sexually assaulting her.
Zerola’s legal team called the woman a liar, accusing her of kissing the lawyer earlier in the night and changing her story.
“Plain and simple, she is a liar,” Zerola’s attorney Rosemary Scapicchio argued. “The story you just heard from the Commonwealth doesn’t tell half of what happened.”
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The 2016 incident was not the first time Zerola was accused of rape. In 2008, two separate women testified that Zerola raped them in the 1990s, but the charges were dropped due to lack of evidence, according to Boston 25 News.
Zerola was featured as one of People magazine’s “America’s Top 50 Bachelors” in 2001, alongside Ben Affleck, Matt Damon and Benicio del Toro.
Zerola, a former prosecutor for Massachusetts’ Suffolk and Essex counties, said he was “thankful” for the jury’s decision Friday.
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“I’m just thankful the jury had an open mind and listened to all the facts,” Zerola said, according to FOX 25.
“Mr. Zerola has been exonerated from all of these charges and at this point can try and put his life back together,” Scapicchio said. “It’s been a long six-and-a-half months for him.”
The spokesperson for Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office said Zerola is still being investigated for a separate rape charge.
“We are grateful to the special prosecutor and victim advocate from Middlesex who guided this case from the start, the Boston detectives who investigated it, and especially the survivor who had the courage to come forward and the patience to stick with it,” spokesperson James Borghesani said.
“There is still a pending 2021 case against this defendant with similar allegations, and we will once again do our best to prove those charges,” he added.
Fox News Digital’s Greg Wehner contributed to this report.
