Groping Suspect Arrested, Charged with Rape
Allston man may be connected to other incidents

The man pictured here is suspected in a string of gropings earlier this month in Brighton and near the BU Bridge. Photo courtesy of the Boston Police Department
Boston police have arrested and charged an Allston man with indecent assault and battery in connection with the gropings of two women with BU connections earlier this month. The same man, Steven Lent, 26, has also been charged with raping a non-BU affiliate last August 14 and with indecent assault and battery of a BU student, also on that day.
Lent pleaded not guilty to all charges in Boston Municipal Court yesterday, according to Boston University Police Detective Lieutenant Peter DiDomenica. Judge David Donnelly released Lent on $50,000 bail, ordered him to surrender his passport and stay away from the Allston/Brighton area, and imposed a curfew.
“Boston police and Suffolk [County] prosecutors are investigating whether these offenses may be connected to similar incidents in Allston and Brookline” earlier this month, according to a news release from the Suffolk County District Attorney’s office. A string of assaults on May 4 and the weekend before that involved BU students and a University staff person.
The news release said that a man matching Lent’s description was captured on BU surveillance video near 855 Commonwealth Ave., and that the images “proved instrumental in identifying Lent as the suspect in all four sexual assaults.” The security cameras were installed two years ago at the request of University President Robert A. Brown.
The BUPD assisted Boston police’s Sexual Assault Unit in the investigation, providing them with the surveillance video. The Boston Police Department then posted it on their website and released it to the news media. Not long afterward, they received a call from someone who identified the man in the video as Lent, says DiDomenica.
On May 4, according to the release, a woman told Boston police that a man approached her from behind near Chester Street shortly after 5 p.m. and tried to lift her dress. The woman said she hit the man and chased him toward Brighton Avenue, but he eluded police. Just before 9 p.m. that night, Lent allegedly committed a similar assault on Commonwealth Avenue.
The alleged rape occurred last August near Quint and Brighton Avenues at about 8:30 p.m. It followed by 40 minutes an alleged assault on another woman, a BU student, near 39 Brighton Ave. The suspect’s description matched in both cases.
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