T rape defendant has long record

Suspect first sentenced to prison in '83

A 48-year-old Roxbury man accused of raping a woman in the Back Bay MBTA station last Friday has a lengthy criminal record of armed robbery, breaking and entering, and larceny dating back to 1983, according to court records.

But Richard Flowers, who was released on parole July 31 after serving 13 years for armed robbery, apparently had no record of sexual assault, according to the records.

As more disturbing details about the alleged attack emerged yesterday, court officials said there was no indication that prison authorities or the Massachusetts Parole Board had missed any signs that Flowers continued to pose a threat to the public. In prison, he was reprimanded for only minor infractions, such as having chewing tobacco in his cell or using a business computer to access the Internet, according to state Parole Board records.

Since his release from MCI-Norfolk, Flowers had not violated the conditions of his release, a spokesman for the Executive Office of Public Safety said yesterday.

"We don't have a crystal ball that will predict this sort of behavior," said Jake Wark, spokesman for Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley. "It is appalling when it is committed, but there is nothing to suggest that it could have been avoided by any means other than the defendant's own restraint."

A man who answered the door at Flowers's address yesterday said his family did not want to comment.

"These people here have nothing to do with it," said the man, who did not identify himself. "He's his own person and he'll be dealt with."

According to a report by Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority transit police, Flowers approached the 25-year-old woman just after 8:30 p.m. Friday as she walked to a stairwell leading to Clarendon Street. He asked her the name of a street, then pulled a black handgun from his waist and demanded her money.

She said she had only a few dollars, but offered her ring and other belongings so that he would not harm her, according to the report.

Instead, the police report says, he dragged her to a stairwell leading to Columbus Avenue and waved away witnesses who asked if everything was OK. He then ordered her to take off her dress and underwear, and raped and beat her, the report says.

After the attack, he momentarily looked away from her and his gun, which he had placed on the floor. She kicked the gun down a stairwell, and as he scrambled for it she ran screaming from the station, naked and clutching her dress in front of her, according to the report.

By then, several witnesses who had seen the two on the platform had called 911.

The woman gave police a detailed, lengthy description of her attacker, said the report. She described the smell of alcohol on his breath, how his clothes looked like they had not been changed in days, the scars on his arms, some of which looked like burns, and the gold chains he wore.

The information was very helpful to police, said Detective Andrea Purcell, who helped arrest Flowers at his Munroe Street home Saturday night.

"She kept her wits about herself the whole time," Purcell said of the alleged victim. "Her thinking was 'I need to get out of this, and I need to pay attention to detail in order to pass this information along to police in order for them to find the person who is attacking me right now.' She is an incredible, incredible person."

Purcell said the woman told her that she had taken self-defense courses.

"She was thinking, 'I have been through this. I'm supposed to be able to protect myself from someone trying to attack me,' " she said.

But, Purcell said, when Flowers allegedly threatened her, the woman's only concern was, "I don't want to die."

In Middlesex Superior Court in 1983, Flowers was convicted of robbery and sentenced to four to six years in state prison. In 1988, he was sentenced to six to eight years by a Hampden Superior Court judge after he was convicted of breaking and entering into a motor vehicle with intent to commit a felony.

In 1994, he was charged with stealing electrical and audio equipment from an Assembly of God church in Tewksbury.

In 1995, Flowers was charged with robbing a jewelry store in Cambridge. According to court documents, he pointed a gun at jewelry store employees and fled with $25,000 worth of jewels and $500 in cash. He was sentenced in December 1995 to 12 to 15 years in prison for that crime.

In August 2007, the state Parole Board began reviewing his case and whether he should be paroled. "Subject has worked hard at his rehabilitation and appears ready for community supervision," the board determined, but it made no final decision.

In November 2007, he was disciplined for the chewing tobacco and unauthorized Internet use, as well as lying to a staff member, using a business telephone for personal reasons, and asking an employee to mail a letter. There were no violent offenses, according to state records.

In May of this year, the board delayed a vote. But it voted in July to release him because there had been no more disciplinary actions. "He accepts responsibility for his actions," the report states.

Flowers was ordered to be home between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m., wear an electronic monitoring device, and be tested regularly for drug and alcohol use.

Rosemary Scapicchio, a Boston defense lawyer, said many inmates are paroled after serving the minimum of their sentence.

"If you're not misbehaving, to be released after the minimum date that's imposed by the court is not unusual," she said.

Milton J. Valencia of the Globe staff contributed to this report.

Maria Cramer can be reached at mcramer@globe.com.