A man accused of raping two women at gunpoint in at a Framingham store over 30 years ago appeared in court — the search for him took decades.
A man accused in a pair of sexual assaults in the Massachusetts area more than 30 years ago appeared in court Monday, months after his arrest in August after leading a police chase in Los Angeles.
It took decades for Stephen Paul Gale to be identified as the attacker in a 1989 Framingham store hold-up, in which two workers were sexually assaulted, several more months for him to be arrested and even more for him to be returned to Massachusetts — he'd been in and out of the hospital with health issues, Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan said at a news conference ahead of Gale's arraignment.
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"This is a day that has been much awaited," Ryan said.
Gale was ordered held without bail on charges of aggravated rape, kidnapping and armed robbery during a hearing in Middlesex Superior Court.
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Resources for victims of sexual assault are available through the National Sexual Violence Resources Center and the National Sexual Assault Telephone Hotline at 800-656-4673, and Massachusetts provides this list of statewide and resources for sexual assault survivors.
He was dramatically arrested at the end of a police chase outside a medical plaza in Los Angeles' Westwood neighborhood on Aug. 8. Patrol cars had followed the vehicle as it circled a neighborhood for nearly an hour, then got on the popular I-405 highway and plowing through spike strips.
The driver surrendered while news helicopters circled ahead, capturing the arrest. Prosecutors had noted at the time that Gale was entitled to a rendition hearing before being returned to Massachusetts.
Ryan shared more details about the investigation, including that Gale had been living on a yacht worth up to $1 million in California, and his departure from it sparked the 82-minute, 40-mile police chase that led to his arrest.
During the chase, someone reached out to Ryan's office to say she recognized the man as someone else who'd be in charge of managing a trust she was involved in. Gale also allegedly threw a package out of his SUV during the chase that police found — it had money, a cellphone and an insurance card in an alias.
"The defendant was very adept at setting up various kinds of companies," Ryan said, and "very skilled at making connections with people, gaining their trust."
In Massachusetts, Gale is accused of raping two women at gunpoint in a women's clothing store in Framingham more than 30 years ago.
He was identified through forensic genealogy as the person who held up the Hit or Miss store as it was opening on Dec. 27, 1989, the district attorney said in May.
Prior to his arrest in Los Angeles, Gale was indicted on four counts of aggravated rape, two counts of kidnapping and one of armed robbery and was wanted for arrest. Investigators have also said they were looking into whether other incidents in the Greater Boston area in 1989 were tied to the crimes Gale is accused of.
"You think about the lives that have been lived by the two women affected by this incident … we do not stop working on these cases, they are never closed, and we do not forget what people came into this county and did," Ryan said at a news conference in May, standing in front of police renderings and a driver's license photo of Gale.
