Fire official pleads not guilty to rape

Prosecutor says deputy chief had stalked victim

BROCKTON - A prosecutor said yesterday that Boston Deputy Fire Chief Peter Pearson stalked a woman for three weeks before he posed as a police officer, took her to a park while armed with a gun, and forced her to perform sex acts on him.

Pearson told the victim he had been eyeing her for three weeks before he approached and attacked her, prosecutor Shelby Smith said in Brockton District Court. The woman told police that Pearson described what she was wearing during a trip to a Save-A-Lot market and mentioned another trip to a CVS store.

Smith said that after the 51-year-old longtime firefighter had finished assaulting the woman, Pearson told the alleged victim that he expected her to go further the next time and indicated he would be watching her.

At his arraignment yesterday, Pearson pleaded not guilty to charges of aggravated rape, assault with a deadly weapon, kidnapping, and impersonating a police officer. By late afternoon, he had posted the $50,000 cash bail and was being fitted with a GPS monitoring device, as ordered by the court. Judge Mary Dacey White also ordered him to stay away from the alleged victim.

As he was led to the clerk's office, Pearson remained stone faced. The restraints on his legs jingled with each step. He had swapped the suit he wore during his morning arraignment for a T-shirt and shorts.

"My client has no comment," his lawyer, Kate Barnes, said as they walked quickly down the hall.

The prosecutor had originally asked White for $250,000 cash bail. Smith cited Pearson's alleged impersonation of a police officer and referred to a 1996 sex-for-a-fee case involving Pearson that was later dismissed.

The defense attorney called the latest charges baseless allegations made while the alleged victim was in custody. She said that Pearson, an East Bridgewater resident who has been with the Boston Fire Department for 23 years, is a family man with roots in the community. She mentioned his wife of 30 years, who was in the courtroom, his two sons, and his second job, in security at the Boston Harbor Hotel.

"He poses absolutely no flight risk," Barnes said, requesting a bail of $5,000.

After the arraignment, Plymouth District Attorney Timothy J. Cruz told reporters: "The allegations are very serious. . . . I think people who are out there pretending they are somebody they are not really pose a threat."

The allegations surfaced in early June when a woman whom Brockton police had detained as a "common night walker" told officers she had been sexually assaulted by a patrol officer two weeks earlier, authorities said.

On Monday, a man flagged down an officer and reported that he and the woman, his girlfriend, had seen the car involved in the alleged June rape that evening, prosecutors said. As the two talked, the car passed by, the police report said. Police stopped the car and detained Pearson. The woman positively identified him as the man she said kidnapped her, the report said.

Boston Fire Department officials declined to comment about the case, though Steve MacDonald, a department spokesman, confirmed that Pearson is a deputy chief for Division 2, which covers areas west of Massachusetts Avenue. MacDonald also said the department had no knowledge of the 1996 allegation.

Pearson has been placed on paid administrative leave, MacDonald added.