Prosecutor: Deputy fire chief stalked woman before alleged rape

By Ryan Kost, Globe Correspondent

BROCKTON -- Boston deputy fire chief Peter Pearson allegedly stalked a prostitute here for three weeks before he told her he was a police officer, dragged her to a park with a gun, and forced her to perform sexual acts on him, a prosecutor said today in court.

Pearson had quietly followed the woman as she went to a drug store and the grocery before he allegedly attacked her in June, prosecutor Shelby Smith said in Brockton District Court. When he was finished, Pearson allegedly told the woman he would keep following her and planned to rape her again, Shelby said.

Pearson, 51, pleaded not guilty at his arraignment today to charges of aggravated rape, assault with a deadly weapon, kidnapping, and impersonating a police officer. He was ordered held on $50,000 cash and ordered to wear a GPS monitoring device if he posts bail.

Pearson's attorney, Kate Barnes, dismissed the charges in court as allegations made by a desperate woman in police custody. Arguing for lower bail, Barnes described her client as a family man with a wife of 30 years and two sons who has deep roots in Dorchester. The East Bridgewater resident has been a Boston firefighter for 23 years. Barnes declined to discuss the case with reporters after the brief arraignment.

Plymouth District Attorney Timothy J. Cruz told reporters that "the allegations are very serious."

"I think people who are out there pretending they are somebody they are not really pose a threat," Cruz said.

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

On Monday evening, a man flagged down an officer and reported 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, she said.

Brockton Police stopped the car and arrested Pearson. While Pearson was detained, the woman came to the police station and identified Pearson as the man who had kidnapped her, said Lieutenant John Crowley, a Brockton Police spokesman.

Boston Fire Department officials declined to comment yesterday but may issue a statement after today's arraignment, said Steve MacDonald, a department spokesman. He confirmed that Pearson is a deputy chief for Division 2, which covers areas west of Massachusetts Avenue.

Pearson is being held without bail at the Plymouth County House of Correction pending his arraignment in Brockton. While he is in police custody, he is on administrative leave without pay from the Fire Department, said MacDonald. If he is released, he will be placed on paid administrative leave, MacDonald added.

Pearson is the latest Boston firefighter to either be arrested or face public scrutiny.

In May, a man identified as a Boston firefighter was arrested after he allegedly offered an undercover officer $29 for a sex act near the Dorchester-Roxbury line. In April, a Boston firefighter on disability leave was charged with buying $200 worth of painkillers illegally at an MBTA station. Another firefighter was arrested in March by Boston police, who charged him with smoking marijuana in a department vehicle in Dorchester.

And in August 2007, after two firefighters died in a West Roxbury blaze, one was found to be legally drunk and the other had traces of cocaine in his system.

The department has also come under fire recently for a series of questionable disability claims, most notably that of Albert Arroyo. The firefighter competed in bodybuilding while his disability application was considered.

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