The Newton man accused of harassing and groping Boston Latin School students while riding the Green Line posted bail yesterday and was released by Transit Police, a day after he turned himself in, an MBTA spokesman said.
Jeffrey N. Berman, 60, surrendered to Transit Police on Friday, shortly after the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority released a cellphone camera photograph taken by a 16-year-old high school junior who alleged that he had groped her on a Green Line train, and had been doing the same thing to other girls from the school for nearly a year.
He posted $50,000 bail, which had been raised from $25,000. He is scheduled to be arraigned tomorrow in Boston Municipal Court on charges of indecent assault and battery from an alleged November 2006 incident and of open and gross lewdness for allegedly exposing himself on Sept. 7 this year, authorities said.
Neighbors yesterday said they recognized Berman in the photograph - which showed him glancing over his right shoulder in sunglasses and a beige dress shirt and coat - and were stunned by the news.
Several people who live near Berman, his wife, and their two children in the Newton Corner neighborhood said they hoped the accusations were false, calling Berman a helpful neighbor.
"They're just like we are," waving to neighbors and pitching in with snow-shoveling, said Cynthia Schuneman, who lives next door to the Bermans in a neighborhood of modest colonials and grand Victorians near the Massachusetts Turnpike.
"I only knew him as a very pleasant, kind person."
Schuneman said her heart went out to Berman's family.
"It's hard enough to know right now that everyone's talking about it," she said.
"The pain that they're going through right now is horrendous."
Berman and his wife purchased their three-bedroom colonial in April 2004, according to Newton records.
In that time, Schuneman and others on the block came to regard Berman as a cheerful neighbor, though they knew him only superficially.
Multiple neighbors said they had not socialized with Berman and were unsure what he did for a living, but all had nice things to say about Berman, his wife, and their daughter and son.
"Just a really nice family," another neighbor said.
No one answered the door yesterday at Berman's home, where a black
A phone call from a reporter was not returned.
