The Boston Globe - 13.08.2019

A6 The Region The Boston Globe TUESDAY, AUGUST 13, 2019

Chloe Ricard’s death.
“He is always with girls,”
one woman told detectives. Ri-
vera plastered their photo-
graphs — “over 100 pictures of
girls” — all over his bedroom in
his Lawrence apartment, the
woman alleged.
The new revelations paint a
chilling portrait of the man at
the center of an ongoing probe
into Ricard’s death and the
widening scope of the investi-
gation.
Rivera, who was arrested on
May 25, faces multiple felony
charges in connection with the
death, including aggravated
rape of a child, two counts of
indecent assault and battery on
a child under 14, two counts of
distributing cocaine to a minor,
one count of indecent assault
and battery on a person 14 or
over, and distribution of fenta-
nyl.
More charges may follow.
“We are conducting an ac-
tive grand jury investigation
that could result in more in-
dictments against Mr. Rivera,”
Essex district attorney spokes-
woman Carrie Kimball told the
Globe.
Rivera pleaded not guilty to
the charges at his arraignment
in Essex County Superior Court
on July 19 and is being held
without bail.
The documents provided to
the Globe include a copy of the
May 29 search warrant for Ri-
vera’s home and a 13-page affi-
davit outlining probable cause
for the search.
A Globe reporter requested
the files at Lawrence District
Court on July 2, and a clerk
handed them over. Essex Coun-
ty officials later said the docu-
ments were released prema-
turely. The records were initial-
ly supposed to remain
impounded until Aug. 26. They
have since been re-impounded
until Sept. 27.
The affidavit contains de-
scriptions of law enforcement
interviews with Rivera, as well
as with two of Ricard’s teenage
friends who told police they
were with the girl, an Ames-
bury resident, at Rivera’s apart-
ment the day before she died. It
also includes descriptions of in-
terviews with two women who
said they were familiar with Ri-
vera, including one who said
she had been to his home
“about 50 to 60 times.”
The records also reveal new
details about the events preced-
ing Ricard’s death, including
her last hours, during which
she was allegedly struggling to
breathe on Rivera’s couch. A
toxicology screening per-
formed during the autopsy in-
dicated the 13-year-old tested
positive for cocaine and fenta-
nyl, the affidavit states.
According to interviews in
the affidavit, Rivera video-re-
corded his assaults on the teen
girls he lured to his first-floor
apartment at 59 Bellevue St. in
Lawrence and solicited sexual-
ly explicit photographs from
the girls he victimized.
During the May 29 search of
Rivera’s apartment, authorities

uRIVERA
Continued from Page A

seized three black boxes of pho-

tographs, an HP laptop, a

Night Owl digital video record-

er, a PlayStation 4, cases of

thumb drives, handwritten let-

ters, a red notebook, and “vari-

ous dangerous weapons.”

Investigators first searched

Rivera’s apartment on May 21,

the day after Ricard’s death,

according to the affidavit. On a

step outside that led to Rivera’s

doorway, police found a pair of

women’s underwear. Inside the

apartment, they observed vari-

ous bottles of alcohol and dis-

connected “video/surveillance”

cameras.

The search uncovered vari-

ous items allegedly intended to

cater to his female visitors:

women’s clothing and under-

garments stuffed in a few draw-

ers of a bureau, and toiletries —

“Summer’s Eve, maxi-pads, and

shampoo” — in Rivera’s bath-

room. Police also found a draw-

er full of weapons, including

nunchucks and metal knuck-

les.

On the floor of his apart-

ment, investigators spotted “a

white straw that is commonly

used to snort narcotics” and a

pair of black sneakers with

pink tongues that police later

identified as belonging to Ri-

card.

A mechanic by trade, ac-

cording to investigators, Rivera

also allegedly sold drugs, such

as fentanyl, pills, cocaine, and

marijuana, a woman told po-

lice. The woman identified Ri-

vera as her “main dealer” in an

interview with investigators.

She told investigators she

bought “one gram of dope”

from Rivera at 7:30 p.m., on

May 20, about three hours after

Rivera dropped off an uncon-

scious Ricard at the hospital.

The woman told investiga-

tors she “used to party” at Rive-

ra’s apartment “five or six years

ago.” Teenage girls as young as

13 would be there, she said,

and Rivera would claim they

were his cousins. But one of the

girls opened up to her, she said,

and told her the girls weren’t

actually related to him.

“Carlos would pull out drugs

and expect you to do stuff with

him sexually,” the woman told

police, and he would record

these encounters on his phone.

In her interview, she also ac-

cused Rivera of attempting to

sexually assault her and of rap-

ing one of her friends.

Still, she admitted to police,

she invited other girls to Rive-

ra’s home because “she knew if

she had sex with them he

would videotape it and then

give them free drugs.”

The woman’s account of Ri-

vera’s apartment corroborated

investigators’ findings during

their search. In his drawers, Ri-

vera kept girls’ underwear, she

said, that he had “pre-bought

to give you” and sometimes, he

would have “outfits for her to

put on” when she arrived at his

home. His bathroom, mean-

while, “was just loaded up with

women’s products,” she said,

such as razors, loofahs, and

soaps.

Another woman inter-

viewed by investigators said

she’s known Rivera “for many

years” and called him by the

nickname “Mago.”

“Carlos is always with young

girls and does everything and

anything for them,” she told de-

tectives.

Girls would frequent his

apartment for a bottle of alco-

hol, she said, and he would de-

mand a sex act in return.

In the interview, the woman

said Rivera would supply her

with alcohol, drugs, and money

when she was younger, and in

exchange, she would allow him

to perform oral sex on her.

She said girls would send

Rivera pictures “in which they

are depicted in a sexual na-

ture,” which Rivera allegedly

would delete upon receipt.

According to the affidavit,

investigators “believe that lo-

cating these photographs will

enable them to identify other

victims.”

In his interview with police,

Rivera denied using drugs. He

also said no drugs were used at

his apartment and he never

had sexual contact with Ricard

or her teenage friends.

The affidavit does not men-

tion whether Rivera confirmed

or denied selling drugs.

Ricard, who would have

turned 14 on July 21, was a tal-

ented artist and loving friend,

according to her family and

friends. She was in the eighth

grade at Solstice Day School, a

therapeutic school in Rowley

for students with learning,

mental health, or behavioral is-

sues.

Drawing helped Ricard

cope with her father’s death six

years ago, her family said, and

she wanted to be a tattoo artist

when she grew up. But, as her

mother told reporters, Ricard

had begun hanging out with

the “wrong” group of friends.

On Sunday, May 19, Rivera

picked up Ricard and two of

her friends, both teenage girls

whose interviews are included

in the affidavit. He drove them

to Salisbury Beach for fried

dough, according to police in-

terviews. They went back to Ri-

vera’s house, but only for 30

minutes, Rivera said, before he

drove Ricard and one of the

girls to another house in Law-

rence and the second girl to her

home in Amesbury.

But Ricard and the girl who

had gone to Lawrence came

back later, Rivera told investi-

gators, knocking on his door

when the sun was up. He said

they seemed drunk or high or

both. In her interview with po-

lice, the girl said she and Ri-

card had been partying until 4

a.m., on Monday, May 20.

Both Rivera and the girl told

investigators that Ricard spent

Monday morning on Rivera’s

couch, “snoring and breathing

heavily,” the girl said. Rivera

said he watched Ricard’s chest

rise and fall, but it was appar-

ent she was “having a hard

time breathing.” He said he

slapped her on the arm and on

the cheek to initiate a response.

He said he left the girls

around 11 a.m. to go to Burger

King in Methuen. When he re-

turned with three hamburgers

and a milk shake, Rivera said,

Ricard hadn’t gotten any better.

“I don’t want this girl to die

here,” he recalled saying.

“She’s fine,” he claimed her

friend replied.

But at some point, he said,

he believed Ricard had

stopped breathing; he didn’t

see her chest rise and fall. Rive-

ra told police he carried Ricard

out of his apartment and laid

her body in the back of his

Honda Odyssey. Then he and

the teenage girl drove Ricard

to Lawrence General Hospital,

about 2 miles from his apart-

ment.

In the back of the minivan,

Ricard was as “white as a piece

of paper,” Rivera said.

According to investigators,

Rivera pulled up to the hospi-

tal’s emergency department en-

trance around 4:30 p.m. He ex-

ited the vehicle and, investiga-

tors said, dumped two cut-up

plastic straws, an orange ciga-

rette filter, and a small bag with

a white powdery substance into

a nearby sewer. He got down

on both knees to ensure the

items went down the drain. In-

vestigators believe the white

powder was cocaine, fentanyl,

or heroin, or a combination of

the three, according to the affi-

davit.

By the time medics arrived

to assist Ricard, she was

“pulseless, cyanotic, and with

fixed and dilated pupils,” the af-

fidavit states. They attempted

to revive her with Narcan, a

drug that can reverse opioid

overdoses, but it had no effect.

The 13-year-old was pro-

nounced dead at 5:06 p.m.

Deanna Pan can be reached at

[email protected].

Follow her on Twitter

@DDpan.

cussed at the board meeting.
Officials also announced the
debut this week of the first new
Orange Line cars and detailed
plans to shut down core sec-
tions of the most heavily trav-
eled lines on numerous week-
ends this fall.
T officials also disclosed
that they expect to know the
root cause of a disruptive June
derailment on the Red Line in
two weeks, when they will get
more answers from an outside
lab that’s testing the 50-year-
old train involved.
The Green Line extension, a
massive undertaking funded
by state and federal dollars,
will bring service to Somerville
and Medford. Roughly $
million has been spent on con-
struction so far, but that is ex-
pected to swell to $400 million
in each of the next two years,
officials have said.
The project is also a key part
of Governor Charlie Baker’s
plan for the T. As he an-
nounced an $18 billion trans-
portation bond proposal last
month — and ticked off proj-

uMBTA
Continued from Page A

ects on the Green Line — Baker

called “rescuing” the extension

plan the “most significant suc-

cess of the past four years.”

Aiello on Monday pointed

to both the $595 million that

Baker carved out for the proj-

ect in the bond bill and the

work the administration did to

realign the plan after its esti-

mated costs ballooned to $

billion.

“He [Baker] and we took a

big risk... to get this project

back on track. And we need to

convince the Legislature that we

are deserving of the recommen-

dation the governor put in his

transportation bill,” Aiello said.

Stephanie Pollack, Baker’s

transportation secretary, said

the administration expects the

project to be completed on time

and on budget, and she indicat-

ed the latest developments don’t

appear to have upended that.

“As we sit here in August

2019, there should be time for

recovery from those pressures”

on the schedule, she told re-

porters.

The discussion came on the

same day the MBTA detailed

another wide-reaching plan.

Officials are warning riders

about an unprecedented slate

of weekend service disruptions

this fall as part of the effort to

speed up repairs to the aging

transit system.

Hundreds of thousands of

weekend riders will have to

contend with a half-dozen

closed stations in downtown

Boston and beyond in October,

most of November, and into

December.

The plan will affect the Or-

ange Line; stations from Tufts

Medical Center to Sullivan

Square will shut down for six

straight weekends in October

and November.

After that, the half-dozen

Red Line stations from Broad-

way to Kendall Square will

close for two weekends in late

November and two weekends

in December, with regular ser-

vice on the weekend after

Thanksgiving.

The T will substitute buses

for subways, as it will on the

Green Line, where it is plan-

ning four weekends of shut-

downs on the C or B branches.

That’s in addition to 14 weeks

of previously planned interrup-

tions this fall on the D branch.

The work includes adding

signs and cleaning the Park

Street and Downtown Crossing

stations, in addition to install-

ing thousands of feet of new

track on the Red Line, near

Downtown Crossing and Park

Street, and on the Orange Line.

“We’re hopeful that these

sort of short-term diversions

result in longer-term benefits

for our customers,” Steve Pof-

tak, the MBTA’s general man-

ager, told reporters.

Riders, however, appeared

to have mixed views about the

news. Tina Smith, of Peabody,

said she may not travel to Bos-

ton if the T is using buses to re-

place subway service.

“When I know it’s a shuttle

bus, I don’t [bother] with it,”

Smith said. “It’s too hectic al-

ready when it’s working regu-

larly. I think it’s unnecessary,

and it’s going to be very prob-

lematic for people that depend

on public transit to get to and

from work.”

Jamie Kweon, who works in

Charlestown, said she sees

“many little things going

wrong” every week on the T.

“But I don’t know if doing

this at this time is the right

move,” she said at Downtown

Crossing. “I think it’ll cause a

lot of inconvenience to people

who are already feeling that

the MBTA [isn’t] doing enough

right now.”

Romie Fulgencio, a nurse,

said he takes the subway to

Tufts Medical Center and de-

pends on it when he works ev-

ery other weekend. “I hope

they’re going to be effective,”

he said of the repairs. But, he

added: “I’m probably going to

walk to work.”

Matt Stout can be reached at

[email protected].

Part of Green Line project is running late

LANE TURNER/GLOBE STAFF

The Green Line extension is not the only big project: Track

repairs on other lines will be done of weekends in the fall.

Lawrence suspect may have more victims

ERIN CLARK FOR THE BOSTON GLOBE

A search of Carlos Rivera’s apartment uncovered various items allegedly intended to cater to his female visitors.

FAMILY PHOTO

Records reveal new details about the events preceding

Chloe Ricard’s death in May, including her last hours,

during which she reportedly struggled to breathe.

‘He[Governor

Baker]andwe

tookabigrisk...

togetthisproject

backontrack.’

JOSEPH AIELLO,who chairs

the board that oversees the T