Man indicted in cold case rape 10 years later

NEW BEDFORD, Mass. (WLNE) — Bristol County District Attorney Thomas Quinn said Monday that a man charged in a decade-old rape case was indicted by a grand jury.

Quinn’s office said that 28-year-old Dylan Ponte was indicted on two counts of rape, two counts of indecent assault and battery on a person over the age of 14, and one case of witness intimidation.

Ponte was arrested in July after a decade-old rape kit was tested. The test came as part of Quinn’s office’s untested rape kit initiative.

“I am very pleased our rape kit initiative has resulted in the indictment of the defendant. If our office did not take the initiative to get these kits tested by a private lab, this case would not have been solved,” Quinn said.

In 2012, the victim had been drinking with Ponte in the area of the Hayden-McFadden School, according to the district attorney’s office.

The victim also told police she blacked out and woke up outside of her friends home with multiple bruises on her body.

She submitted to a rape kit that was one of more than 1,100 untested in Bristol County.

In May, the rape kit connected to this case was tested and matched the DNA of Dylan Ponte from previous arrests, according to Quinn’s office.

He is also convicted of misdemeanor domestic battery in Florida.