An empty jury box.
Credit: Nicolaus Czarnecki/METRO
Prosecutors have dropped charges against a 26-year-old man who was arrested after the victim of a North End assault claimed the man was her attacker.
The Suffolk district attorney’s office said on Wednesday that prosecutors filed court documents to end the prosecution of Ross Currier who was arrested last month for the Feb. 15 attack. The woman in her 20s told police she was entering her North End apartment when a man pushed his way in behind her, assaulted her and took a photo of her with his phone before he fled.
Last month the victim called police to report that she saw her attacker playing basketball. That man was Currier who lives in the North End, authorities said. The victim told police that she was between 90 percent and 95 percent certain Currier was her attacker, giving police probable cause to arrest him for assault and battery and indecent assault and battery.
The charges were dropped after authorities investigated the alibi Currier provided to police, which was independently verified, and after an examination his phone and cell tower records. His lawyer had said at the time of Currier’s arrest that the victim made a mistake in identity and Currier was with his fiancee the night of the attack.
When Currier was released following his arrest, he was ordered to wear a GPS monitoring device. A similar attack took place on March 16 and Currier’s GPS device showed he did not commit that attack.
“Prosecutors said they are confident the victim was operating in good faith when she identified Currier, noting that the [dropped charges were]not an assessment of her truthfulness,” the Suffolk district attorney’s office said in a statement.
The investigation into the two attacks remains open, the district attorney’s office said.
Follow Michael Naughton on Twitter @metrobosmike.
