The case against the Irish firefighter accused of raping a woman at a hotel in downtown Boston was ruled a mistrial following four days of jury deliberations.
On March 15, 2024, Terence Crosbie, 38, was charged with raping a stranger while she slept in a Boston hotel. The fresh trial is scheduled for October 14 after the court declared a mistrial on Friday, according to a Suffolk County District Attorney spokesperson.
According to court documents, Crosbie was traveling to Boston to participate in the St. Patrick’s Day parade alongside other Dublin Fire Brigade members. According to the Suffolk Superior Court docket, his passport was revoked and he was ordered to stay in Massachusetts.
Daniel Reilly, Crosbie’s attorney, did not respond to a request for comment.
What do prosecutors allege happened?
Prosecutors claim that a 28-year-old woman told police last year that she went out to supper with Crosbie’s coworker, an Irishman named Liam O Brien. According to the Suffolk DA, the guys were staying together in a hotel room at the Omni Parker House.
Prosecutors wrote that the woman went to O Brien’s hotel room at approximately 11:30 p.m. and finally dozed off in separate beds. Crosbie then used his key card to enter the room at approximately 1:55 a.m. Prosecutors claim that he left the room at 11:30 and stayed somewhere else in the hotel before going back to the room.
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According to the statement of facts, the victim woke up to him raping her vaginally with his penis.
According to the statement of facts, she asked him what he was doing and urged him to stop, but he persisted and said things like, “I know you want this, but he fell asleep,” referring to Mr. O. Brien, and “since Mr. O. Brien couldn’t do it for her, he was going to.”
According to the authorities, Crosbie allegedly insisted that the woman wanted to get dressed and leave the hotel room. According to court filings, she left the hotel room about 20 minutes after Crosbie arrived and messaged a friend right away to report being sexually attacked.
According to prosecutors, Crosbie admitted entering the room during a police interview but denied speaking to the woman, claiming he was only there for one or two minutes. According to the court documents, his account contradicts the 20 minutes recorded by the hotel’s lock system and video evidence.
Crosbie informed police during an interview on March 16 that he would be going back to Ireland on March 19. He subsequently purchased a ticket on another airline to return to Ireland on March 16 at 10:10 p.m., but upon arriving at Logan Airport, he boarded an even earlier departure at 7:00 p.m. Prosecutors told the court that he was taken off the aircraft and taken into custody.
Trial declared a mistrial, retrial scheduled for October
In June 2024, Crosbie entered a not guilty plea to rape, forcing him to give up his passport and stay in Massachusetts. According to court documents, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts submitted evidence in the form of his airline tickets, the BPD Crime Laboratory DNA Comparison Report, and the lock readings from the hotel room.
According to The Boston Globe’s summary of the hearing, the specialists found two men’s DNA on the woman’s genital swab, but the quantity was insufficient to match a person’s genetic profile. The Globe said that a doctor also attested to a rip in the woman’s vaginal region.
According to the Globe, the woman testified that she had consensual sex with O Brien before dozing off.
The lady testified, sobbing as she read a text message she wrote to a friend immediately after the alleged attack, “I woke up, and a guy was inside me,” according to the Globe.
Although the DA’s spokesman declined to comment on the case against Crosbie directly, she did state that victim bias plays a significant role in the difficulty of overcoming the reasonable-doubt standard in rape cases.
According to spokesperson James Borghesani, some jurors intentionally or unintentionally judge rape victims differently than they may judge, say, burglary or shooting victims. They might use their own prejudiced view of sexual circumstances to evaluate what victims did prior to, during, or following a rape. Since rapes are not sexual encounters, this presents distortion. These are predatory circumstances.
Molly Farrar works for Boston.com as a general assignment reporter, covering topics such as politics, crime, and education.
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