< Back to front page Text size – +

Transit police make second arrest in subway attacks

E-mail|Link|Comments () July 9, 2010 12:58 PM

By L. Finch, Globe Correspondent

MBTA transit police have arrested a 27-year-old Scituate man, saying he is the neatly attired attacker who pulled down the shirt of a 16-year-old girl at the Kendall Square subway station earlier this week.

Joseph Joyce

Joseph Joyce turned himself in at transit police headquarters this morning, MBTA Deputy Transit Police Chief Joseph O'Connor said. Joyce will be arraigned in Cambridge District Court in Medford today on a charge of indecent assault and battery.

The girl told police early Wednesday that a blond man in his mid-20s wearing a white polo shirt and khaki pants had pulled down her shirt at Kendall station then ran away.

A surveillance camera at the station captured the image of a man who matched the girl's description.

Joyce also faces charges stemming from a similar incident in Cohasset on the Fourth of July.

A 40-year-old woman told police that Joyce walked up behind her in a Shaw's supermarket and intentionally brushed up against her, lifting up her dress, Cohasset Police Chief Mark DeLuca said. Joyce faces charges in that case of indecent assault and battery as well as accosting a person of the opposite sex.

The woman called transit police after seeing Joyce's photo this week in the media and identified him as the man who assaulted her, DeLuca said. Surveillance footage from the supermarket also helped identify Joyce in this case, he said.

Joyce's arrest this morning was the second this week in assaults on women in the subway system.

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.

Martin Finucane of the Globe staff contributed to this report.