T employees rush to protect passenger from alleged assault

Cambridge man faces charges

Rayfield McCants had rubbed against the woman intentionally earlier at Park Street Station, prosecutors said.

Two MBTA employees helped protect a woman who was allegedly being groped and verbally harassed by a man while riding on a nearly empty bus in the South End on Tuesday night, prosecutors and transit officials said yesterday.

Their actions led to the arrest of Rayfield McCants, who has pleaded not guilty to one count of indecent assault and battery.

McCants allegedly sat next to the 29-year-old woman as the bus traveled down Tremont Street at 11 p.m., positioning himself so he pressed up against her. The bus driver, Patrick Coughlan, said yesterday at a press conference that he could hear McCants muttering inappropriately and making the woman very upset. Coughlan decided that enough was enough.

"I can't let this woman go through this anymore," Coughlan said, describing his mindset as he drove his Route 43 bus. "There is no reason to be sitting right next to a woman when there are 40 open seats."

Coughlan said he ordered McCants to move away from the woman. McCants complied, but he allegedly continued saying inappropriate things to the woman and grabbed her. Coughlan said he pulled over near Dartmouth Street, opened the bus doors, and ordered McCants to get off. The woman, who struggled with English, may have misunderstood, Coughlan said, because she was the one who ran off the bus.

McCants, 28, of Cambridge allegedly followed, jogging up behind the woman, who screamed in terror. Coughlan said he followed in his bus, opened the doors, and persuaded the woman to seek refuge onboard. As McCants began walking away, Coughlan followed him in his bus and called MBTA Inspector Leon Saunders for help.

McCants was apprehended by guards working for Longwood Security, who held him until transit police arrived and arrested McCants.

Prosecutors said the incident had begun earlier, when McCants had approached the woman and intentionally rubbed against her at Park Street Station before she boarded the bus.

"It's astonishing that we've entered 2009 and some people still think this is acceptable behavior," Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said in a statement. "It's not. And it's not just unacceptable - it's a criminal offense, and it's going to be treated as such when it arrives in a Suffolk County courtroom."

McCants pleaded not guilty at his arraignment yesterday in Boston Municipal Court and was ordered held on $5,000 cash bail. Steven J. Topazio, McCants's attorney, did not immediately return a message seeking comment.