CHELSEA RAPE SUSPECT HELD ON $50k BAIL Feb. 8, 2008 A Chelsea man was held on $50,000 cash bail following his arraignment today on rape and other charges stemming from an early morning attack near Sixth Street, Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said. Suffolk prosecutors recommended that JUAN AMARO, 25 (D.O.B. 1/1/83), be held on $100,000 cash bail when he was formally charged in Chelsea District Court on charges of rape, kidnapping, assault with a dangerous weapon, and intimidation of a witness for the assault on a 46-year-old Everett woman. Judge Sarah B. Singer ordered Amaro to return to court on March 3. At about 3:30 this morning, Chelsea Police responded to the area of Chestnut and Fifth streets for a report of a sexual assault. On arrival, they spoke with the victim, who told officers that she had been walking from a friend’s house to Bellingham Square when a man began following her on Washington Avenue. The man followed her to Heard Street, where he allegedly produced a kitchen knife and forced her toward the railroad tracks, telling her, “I also have a gun.” Once in a secluded area beneath a nearby bridge, Amaro allegedly raped the woman. The victim told officers that each time she tried to scream for help, he choked her. When he finished, the woman said, he also tried to take her jacket, which she clung to. “Don’t try to get up,” Amaro allegedly told the woman before running away. “I have people watching you.” The woman then called police and gave a description of her assailant. As one group of officers raced to her location, Conley said, another group fanned out and set up a perimeter to apprehend him. “Their response was outstanding,” Conley said. In the otherwise undisturbed snow, officers in marked Chelsea Police cruisers soon spotted a set of fresh footprints leading from Cherry Street into an alleyway. A moment later, one officer spotted Amaro – dressed in the beige pants described by the victim but without the grey hooded sweatshirt she had seen – as he stuck his head out from behind a corner. “I did it,” Amaro allegedly said as he was being taken into custody. Officers brought the victim to the area where Amaro was held, and she positively identified him as her assailant. Officers searched the area and soon recovered a grey hooded sweatshirt on the other side of as fence about a foot from Amaro’s hiding place. The sweatshirt was inside out and warm to the touch. Additional officers tracked Amaro’s footprints back to a telephone pole on Cherry Street, where they recovered a black-handled kitchen knife wedged into a crack. Conley said prosecutors assigned to his Sexual Assault Team would review the case for indictment to Superior Court, where Amaro would face up to life in prison if convicted. Return to the Press Releases page.