Offender Charged With Assaulting Teen In Cemetery

BOSTON -- A registered sex offender is facing a dangerousness hearing Friday for allegedly kidnapping and raping a teenage boy at knifepoint in a city cemetery last week.

Daniel L. Fontes, 44, of 69 Fulton St. in Fall River, was arrested Wednesday and arraigned on charges that include kidnapping, rape, indecent assault and battery on a person over 14 and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, the New Bedford Standard-Times reported.

Fontes is a Level 2 sex offender with a lengthy criminal record that includes multiple convictions for indecent assault and battery on a child, open and gross lewdness, assault and battery and assault with a dangerous weapon, police said.

Police allege that Fontes approached an 18-year-old male walking down the street on May 23. They said he followed the teen, stopped him and asked for a cigarette and questioned him about the music he was listening to on an iPod before proposition him.

When the teen tried to walk away, police said, Fontes pulled a knife on him and ordered him into Sacred Heart Cemetery where the teen was sexually assaulted. After the attack the teen fled and called police.

A few hours later, police said, they were patroling an area near the Presidential Heights housing project when they spotted a man fitting the description of the teen's attacker.

The victim picked Fontes' photo out of lineup and police obtained a warrant Wednesday to arrest Fontes at his apartment, where officers also discovered clothing and a ski mask matching the description given by witnesses.