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MBTA investigates Red Line assaults

E-mail|Link July 8, 2010 07:27 PM

By L. Finch, Globe Correspondent

MBTA transit police are investigating a string of incidents this week in which two different men on the Red Line allegedly assaulted several female passengers.

The incidents do not appear to be related, and one of the men is in custody, MBTA Transit Police Deputy Chief Joseph O’Connor said.

Police arrested 52-year-old Donald Kalil at Broadway station in South Boston Wednesday night after passengers flagged down officers. A shirtless Kalil was flailing his arms and shouting at commuters waiting for a bus.

Kalil, a Level 3 sex offender, tried to flee, but officers caught him on the other side of the station.

Witnesses told police that Kalil had approached several women and pulled up their shirts, attempting to grope them, according to the police report. Only one of the women remained in the station, but she declined to give her name to the officers, according to the police report.

As a result, Kalil does not face assault-related charges at this time, the Suffolk County District Attorney’s office said. He pleaded not guilty Thursday afternoon in South Boston District Court to charges of disorderly conduct and failure to register as a sex offender.

In another incident, a 16-year-old girl told police early Wednesday that a blonde man in his mid-20s wearing a white polo shirt and khaki pants had pulled down her shirt at Kendall station then ran away.

With the aid of surveillance footage at Kendall station, which captured a man who matched the girl’s description, police expect to make an arrest soon, O’Connor said.

In the meantime, O’Connor assured women should not be afraid to use the Red Line.

"These crimes do not occur on a regular basis," O’Connor said. "But we do ask riders if they see something to say something."

Transit police ask that anyone with information in the attacks call them as 617-222-1212.