Sex offender stayed free despite arrests

A registered sex offender, who was ordered held yesterday on $1 million cash bail on charges that he raped a woman in Dorchester this week, had remained out of jail despite being arrested four times over the last two years.

In one of the cases, Raymond Diamond was charged with violating a restraining order, but prosecutors learned that authorities had never notified him of the order. In a second case, prosecutors did not believe they could convict Diamond of failing to register as a sex offender, a spokesman for the Suffolk district attorney's office said yesterday. In the other two arrests, alleged victims failed to cooperate with prosecutors.

''Obviously, we feel badly that he was out to commit a crime; it's horrible," said David Procopio, spokesman for Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley. ''But these cases were handled properly. There's nothing that could have been done that wasn't done. . . . Yes, we did have his record when we made this decision, but we are dealing in the real world here."

Diamond, 43, of Dorchester is a career criminal with a long history of arrests in connection with assaults, rapes, drugs, and larceny, including two convictions for assault with intent to commit rape, in 1975 and 1980, and a conviction for rape in 1989, Suffolk County court records show.

Because of his prior convictions, the state had him listed as a Level 3 sex offender, among those judged most dangerous and likely to reoffend.

On Tuesday, police arrested Diamond on charges that he raped a woman at knifepoint after luring her into his car in Dorchester.

''I think it's really clear that he should not have been out on the streets," said Gina Scaramella, executive director of the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center. ''It seems like there were so many opportunities for intervention. How many other survivors are out there that have been victimized by this man?"

Before Tuesday, Diamond's most recent arrest was in February, when police detained him at his Boyden Street home for failing to register as a sex offender, as he had in past years. Procopio said that Diamond had not mailed back an annual renewal notice and that when he was arrested, Diamond immediately agreed to register.

He did so four days later, and prosecutors dropped the charges, Procopio said. A conviction could have put Diamond behind bars for five years, but Procopio said that, because Diamond had registered in past years, a conviction was unlikely.

''We think it's unrealistic to think a judge would have incarcerated him for this, because he immediately indicated his willingness to come into compliance," Procopio said. He called the decision to drop the charges ''standard procedure when someone indicates their willingness to comply."

In September 2004, police arrested Diamond on charges of strangling and beating his girlfriend, an MBTA employee. They dropped the case, Procopio said, after she refused to meet with prosecutors and failed to show up for the first day of trial in Dorchester District Court. The woman had told prosecutors that she did not want Diamond to go to jail, Procopio said.

In December 2003, Diamond was arrested for violating a restraining order his mother had taken out against him, but prosecutors dropped the charge after learning that authorities had not notified Diamond about the order against him.

In January 2003, Diamond was charged with raping and kidnapping an Atlanta woman, but prosecutors dropped the case after they were unable to find the woman at two addresses in Mattapan and Dorchester and at a phone number she had left with them, Procopio said. The case never went to trial, he said.

''You look at this and you hear about the record and it's easy to say the system failed somewhere along the line, but the inescapable conclusion is that everything that could have been done was done," Procopio said.

But legislators, Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey, and Scaramella said they were outraged that a man with such a long criminal history had managed to escape conviction.

''I think the key breakdown in this case was the courts did not enforce the sentence in failing to register as a sex offender," Healey said. She called the decision not to push for a conviction both ''damning" and disturbing.

''If they had, this crime would not have been committed," Healey said.

Procopio said prosecutors wanted to put Diamond behind bars using a 1999 state law that allows authorities to civilly commit sex offenders beyond the end of their jail term.

But Diamond was released from prison in 1998, a year before the law was passed, Procopio said. If they had been able to win a conviction in recent years, he said, prosecutors would have sought to civilly commit Diamond. ''It's unfortunate, but it's not the result of anybody dropping the ball here," he said.

Healey said she was frustrated that Diamond couldn't have been incarcerated as a repeat offender. ''A man like Raymond Diamond is a prime example of an offender who needs to be civilly committed," she said.

''He is obviously not prepared to be out on the streets and he is a danger to everyone who he comes into contact with."

Representative Peter J. Koutoujian, a Waltham Democrat who has pushed for some tougher sex-offender laws, also expressed frustration that Diamond had managed to avoid jail.

''This is really the story of a person who should not have been back out on the streets," he said.

In Dorchester District Court yesterday, Diamond's lawyer entered a plea of not guilty on Diamond's behalf to charges of rape, unarmed robbery, resisting arrest and other offenses. Judge James Coffey set bail at $1 million cash.

Police arrested Diamond Tuesday after a woman staggered, bleeding, into a police station in Dorchester, pointed at Diamond's mug shot on the wall, and shouted, ''That's the man that raped me!," officers said. They found Diamond hours later, with a second woman in his car whom he apparently was preparing to victimize, police said.

Diamond's court-appointed attorney, Stuart M. Hurowitz, did not challenge the $1 million cash bail. He said he may do so in the future when he knows more about the case.

Diamond is due back in court Aug. 3.