Five years after immigration authorities deported a man accused of child rape to the Dominican Republic – during a pending Suffolk County Prosecution – District Attorney Rachael Rollins announced that the defendant has been returned to Boston to face these allegations.
“I’m grateful to the prosecutors, police, and federal partners who worked to help us hold an alleged child predator accountable,” District Attorney Rollins said. “This lengthy process comes to fruition today, as the defendant returns to Suffolk Superior Court five years after he was removed from the reach of our criminal justice system.”
JOSE “BRUJO” ORTEGA (D.O.B. 7/4/71), formerly of Roslindale, appeared in Suffolk Superior Court to remove a default warrant that issued in the pending child sexual assault case against him after his removal from the country prevented the case from moving forward. The defendant is charged with three counts of rape of a child under 16, two counts of indecent assault and battery on a child under 14, and one count each of open and gross lewdness and providing obscene material to a minor.
At the request of Assistant District Attorney Laura Montgomery of District Attorney Rollins’ Child Protection Unit, Clerk Magistrate Edward Curley set the defendant’s bail at $100,000.
At the time of his alleged offenses in Boston, the defendant was the manager of the Boston Broncos youth baseball league. Beginning in 2003, when the victim was as young as 12 or 13, and continuing until 2010, the defendant allegedly groomed the victim for abuse and assaulted him on multiple occasions. According to prosecutors, the defendant secured the victim’s silence and compliance by refusing to allow the boy to play in games if he did not give in to the defendant’s sexual advances.
The defendant was previously convicted of child enticement in 2012 for his actions toward another member of the youth league. In 2014, he was indicted in this pending case and arraigned in Suffolk Superior Court. He remained held on high bail until May 29, 2014, when that bail was reduced to personal recognizance with the agreement that the defendant would appear in court for all scheduled court dates.
By his next hearing date on June 6, 2014, however, the defendant had been taken into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and removed from the country. As a result of the defendant’s failure to appear in court, a default warrant issued authorizing the defendant’s arrest.
Suffolk prosecutors worked closely with federal officials at the Department of Justice Office of International Affairs on the intensive process to effect the defendant’s arrest by Dominican authorities. In June of this year, the defendant was taken into custody in the San Pedro de Macoris province of the Dominican Republic on a default warrant. His arrest triggered a sequence of events that brought the defendant before the top federal court of the Dominican Republic, and his extradition was ultimately approved by that nation’s president.
On Friday, FBI agents transported the defendant to Boston and delivered him to members of the Boston Police Department awaiting his arrival at Logan Airport.
“We want to hold serious offenders accountable regardless of their immigration status. This means keeping the accused here for their prosecution and incarceration, not allowing a defendant to evade the reach of our laws by being returned to his or her country of origin prior to trial and completion of any sentence,” District Attorney Rollins said. “This is especially true in cases of child sexual assault. We owe that much to the survivors as well as the communities we serve. We sincerely want to thank our federal partners for their assistance with the extradition. We could not have done this without them.”
Kate Lagana, Deputy Chief of the Suffolk District Attorney’s Office Victim Witness Assistance Program, is the assigned victim witness advocate. The defendant is represented by Joe Griffin. He returns to court Sept. 23, 2019.