DNA leads to arrest in rapes, police say

Less than a month after two young women were raped and beaten when they left Faneuil Hall Marketplace in the early morning, police said they have caught the perpetrator, a 33-year-old Arlington man who allegedly lured the victims into his car with the offer of a ride.

Police arrested Kevin Bennett, who authorities say has a criminal record that goes back to 1991 and includes more than 70 charges, after they linked his DNA to evidence recovered from the victims.

Bennett was arraigned in Cambridge District Court yesterday on two counts of kidnapping, two counts of aggravated rape, and two counts of assault with intent to murder. He pleaded not guilty and was held on $2 million cash bail.

His arrest calmed the nerves of many employees in the marketplace, where managers had posted fliers with sketches of the suspect and one tavern owner had equipped his doormen with digital cameras so they could snap pictures of suspicious-looking vehicles. The second victim believed she was going into a taxi, police said.

''We're very relieved," said Meredith Love, a 31-year-old bartender at the Bell in Hand, a popular tavern in the area. ''We were highly concerned, and now I feel safer taking cabs."

The attacks against both women, who were raped one week apart, were brutal, prosecutors said. Bennett allegedly struck one of the women so hard she needed 20 stitches for a gash on her chin. The other woman nearly passed out as Bennett allegedly choked her, prosecutors said.

Police connected him to the rapes using DNA evidence recovered from the two women, who each went to the hospital within hours of the attack and underwent rape screening, said Emily LaGrassa, spokeswoman for Middlesex County district attorney Martha Coakley.

On Saturday, the State Police crime lab notified Cambridge police it had linked the DNA found on the women to Bennett's profile, which was in police databases because of his extensive criminal record, she said.

Police learned he was in Maine after tracing his girlfriend's cellphone calls, LaGrassa said.

Cambridge police then tracked the phone calls to an apartment in Chelsea, Maine, where he was arrested Sunday on a default warrant for failing to appear in court on a charge of gross and open lewdness, said Cambridge police Officer Frank Pasquarello. That charge stemmed from an April incident in Harvard Square.

Bennett was arraigned Tuesday afternoon in Maine as a fugitive from justice and released into the custody of Cambridge police.

Bennett, who has a former wife in Maine, has a criminal past involving mostly drug and property charges, including breaking and entering and receiving stolen property.

Prosecutors said that on Sept. 17 Bennett picked up a 26-year-old Brighton woman, in a sport utility vehicle. He offered her a ride to the Back Bay, but instead, took her to the area of One Alewife Center in Cambridge, prosecutors said.

She had been talking on her cellphone to a friend who had advised her not to accept the ride. Bennett took her phone and said he would return it if she would kiss him. She complied, but he did not return the phone and instead told her he wanted to drive her out of the city, so she would show him her breasts, said Lee Hettinger, an assistant district attorney.

The victim refused, somehow managed to take his keys, and threw them out of the car, but Bennett retrieved them after he offered to return the phone, he said.

As they continued driving, she pleaded with Bennett to let her go in exchange for money. He told her he would take her to an ATM, but instead drove her to Cambridge and attacked her, Hettinger said.

A week later, on Sept. 24, Bennett allegedly returned to the Faneuil Hall area, this time in a white car that resembled a taxi cab. He took a 23-year-old New York woman to the same area in Cambridge, where he allegedly punched her so hard her chin split. He then tore off her clothes, Hettinger said. The victim scratched and hit him as he raped her, forcing him to flee.

The rapes alarmed the Faneuil Hall area, particularly the waitresses and hostesses who leave work early in the morning and often have no choice but to take taxis when trains have stopped running.

''It makes you think twice," said Danielle Poiesz, 21, a hostess at the Black Rose, a pub on State Street. ''I mean, there's a lot of things that can happen, and you just have to be careful. With cabs, you can't really tell what's going to happen. It's unfortunate, but there is no way to avoid [them] living in the city unless you walk, and that's more dangerous."

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