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The Lowell Sun, January 19, 1996
COMPUTER ENTRIES
Judge may bar diaries from Rex trial evidence
By JOE BARTOLOTTA, Sun Staff
CAMBRIDGE – The prosecution may be barred from using computer diaries it says were written by a child-rape suspect who allegedly admits carrying on a sexual relationship with a minor. Defense attorney Scott Bratton says there is no way to prove his client, Jon Rex, Jr. of Chelmsford, wrote the diaries, because they were typed and not signed. Middlesex Superior Court Judge Margot Botsford said yesterday afternoon she is considering Bratton’s motion to suppress the evidence from Rex’s upcoming trial in Cambridge. If Botsford grants the motion, it will boost the defense’s case. However, the prosecution has other evidence it claims links Rex to the charges, including the alleged victim’s testimony. The Rex trial was expected to begin yesterday with jury selection, but that was postponed for the second straight day because several other cases were picking juries. Attorneys are now expected to spend today picking a jury and may start the trial Wednesday with opening statements. Rex, 25, of 12 Gail St., will be tried on four of 12 indictments pending against him, including child rape and showing pornographic movies and magazines to a juvenile. The remaining eight indictments will be tried at a later date. That trial will focus on allegations that Rex tried to recruit teen-agers to kidnap a boy that he could rape, and, if necessary, kill and eat. The trial slated to begin next week will deal almost exclusively with Rex’s relationship with a boy he met through his computer bulletin board, “The County Morgue.” The boy was 12 when he met Rex in January 1992. According to the district attorney’s office, the two has a sexual relationship for two years. Any sexual contact between an adult and a person under 16 is legally called child rape, regardless of whether it was consensual. During the relationship, Rex allegedly showed pornographic pictures and movies to the boy, who is now 16 and is the key witness in the case against Rex. Also yesterday, assistant district attorney Barbara Piselli and Lincoln Jalelian urged the judge to close the courtroom to everyone when the alleged victim testifies. The prosecutors said testifying before the public and media would put the witness at “significant risk of psychological harm or trauma.” Botsford has taken the prosecution’s motion under advisement.
Rex, who was chemistry major at Middlesex Community College before his March 1, 1994 arrest, has pleaded innocent to all charges. He has been held on $200,000 cash bail while awaiting trial.
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