Prosecutors seek to combine rape cases against attorney

Julie Manganis, Gloucester Daily Times, Mass.
·2 min read

Aug. 12—SALEM — Prosecutors want to combine two separate rape cases against a North Shore lawyer into one trial, a move that is opposed by his attorneys.

But it will be at least a couple of months before a judge can address the issue, given the busy trial schedule of both of Gary Zerola's defense attorneys in the two cases.

Zerola, 49, of Salem, at one time one of People Magazine's "most eligible bachelors," was out on bail in a 2016 case when he was charged in January with raping another woman in her apartment after a night of socializing in Boston's North End.

Prosecutors, in a motion to "join" the two cases, point to "uncanny" similarities between the two cases, as well as a history of similar accusations over the past 25 years.

Both the 2016 incident and the incident in January involved significantly younger women who had accompanied Zerola and women he was dating at the time on nights out involving drinking, according to the motion filed by the Suffolk District Attorney's office.

But one of Zerola's attorneys in the 2016 case, Rosemary Scappichio, said during a brief hearing on Wednesday in Suffolk Superior Court that she does not believe it's fair to her client to further delay his trial in the earlier case — especially when the case has been ready for trial since long before the pandemic.

She pointed to concerns about Zerola's due process rights being violated by the delay.

Meanwhile, Joseph Krowski, her co-counsel on the 2016 case, and Zerola's sole attorney in the 2021 case, is tied up on trials through most of October.

Krowski is representing Thomas Lantanowich in his trial on charges he murdered Yarmouth police Sgt. Sean Gannon in 2018.

Scapicchio said she was ready to try the 2016 case immediately, but Judge Christine Roach said that without Krowski, she could not schedule a trial. And with the need to address the prosecution's motion to combine the cases in one trial, and Krowski not available until late October, Roach said her hands were tied.

"If he's not available until Oct. 26, then that's what it has to be," Roach told the lawyers.

Courts reporter Julie Manganis can be reached at 978-338-2521, jmanganis@gloucestertimes.com or on Twitter at @SNJulieManganis.

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