A man accused of creepy and predatory behavior on public transportation in Boston now faces indecent assault and other charges.
Rufus Sanders Jr., 63, of West Roxbury, was charged in municipal court in his home neighborhood on Tuesday with indecent assault and battery on a person over 14 and lewd, wanton and lascivious conduct. Judge Margaret Albertson set bail at $750 and ordered Sanders to stay away from the victims and from the Forest Hills MBTA station. She scheduled a pre-trial hearing for June 30.
“This individual’s behavior is dangerous and disturbing and impacts the safety realities and perceptions of our many residents who rely on public transportation,” said Suffolk District Attorney Kevin Hayden in a statement.
Sanders appeared in an online edition of the Herald’s Crime Briefs on May 31, where he was seen on a bus in Jamaica Plain sporting a bucket hat while staring at an alleged victim with one hand holding what appeared to be an open nip-size liquor bottle and the other hand purportedly doing something lewd around his groin area, though that is censored in the police-provided image.
MBTA Transit Police and Boston Police officers met a woman at the Forest Hills Station at around 6 p.m. on May 25 who said a man wearing a camouflage bucket hat and a white long-sleeved shirt had cupped her breast at the station before, according to the Suffolk District Attorney’s office, moving his hand to her waist “attempting to pull her in.
She was able to push him away, she said, and flee toward a more crowded area where fellow passengers were able to intervene Sanders’ alleged continued attempts to molest her.
The alleged assault continued as the woman tried to board her bus, where she told police he grabbed her bag in an attempt to pull her back off. She was once again able to get away, this time to the front of the bus as he made his way to the back. The woman then allegedly heard another woman yell “stop grabbing my (expletive)!”
The allegedly aggressive molestation apparently continued the next day, when a person reported to police that a man was harassing two “young girls” on a bus, and had the video to prove it. Police say the video revealed this man to be Sanders.
Prosecutors say that Sanders, an open beer in hand, on June 5 approached some police officers at the Forest Hills Station. They say he was wearing the same bucket hat as in the earlier alleged incidents and even identified himself in a still photo provided by a victim.
