Man pleads guilty in three 1991 rapes, including case in which innocent man served 12 years

By Brian R. Ballou and John R. Ellement, Globe Staff

A 38-year-old Dorchester man today admitted raping three woman in Boston in the early 1990s, crimes that sent an innocent man to prison for 12 years and led one of his victims to leave the city, never to return.

Anthony Powell served 12 years for one of the rapes committed by Dixon.

Jerry Dixon answered questions from Suffolk Superior Court Judge Carol Ball in a raspy voice during an hourlong hearing attended by Anthony Powell, who was wrongly convicted in 1992 of one of the attacks. Powell was released from state prison in 2004 with the help of the Innocence Project.

Dixon today admitted that he sexually assaulted three women in 1991 – at Townsend Street in Roxbury, Armory Street in Jamaica Plain, and the Academy Homes housing development – and was sentenced to serve 30 years in state prison.

Powell declined to speak to reporters after Dixon was sentenced.

Dixon’s attorney, Veronica White, said in court that Dixon was introduced to alcohol by his parents when he was a child, perhaps as young as 6 years old.

At the time of the attacks in 1991, White said, “He was out of control. He was alcoholic and indicated that he blacked out during those events. He said he specifically doesn’t have any memory of those rapes.’’

Two of the women whom Dixon now admitted raping submitted victim impact statements, but did not attend the hearing. In one statement, the victim said she had moved out of Boston because of the attack, and has never returned.

Suffolk Assistant District Attorney Leora C. Joseph said in court that the prosecution of Dixon was unprecedented for Suffolk prosecutors. Prosecutors indicted him solely on the strength of his DNA profile, which was collected following an unrelated conviction in 2007.

Police got a break that year when Dixon was convicted of motor vehicle offenses. Because of a previous offense, a 1991 armed robbery, he was ordered to submit a DNA sample. That sample matched DNA that had been preserved from two of the rapes in 1991.