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Cohasset 'skirt' incident tied to MBTA alleged assailant
Created by Mary Ford - Cohasset Mariner on 15th July 2010, 11:27 amCohasset — The same man that was wanted by Transit Police for allegedly indecently assaulting a 16-year-old girl on the Red Line on Wednesday is facing charges in Cohasset for accosting a woman at Shaw’s Supermarket on July 4.
Cohasset Police have issued an arrest warrant today for Joseph P. Joyce, 27, of 39 Ocean Ave., Scituate, for indecent assault and battery on a person over 14 years of age, and accosting a person of the opposite sex.
Joyce was arraigned on the Cohasset charges Friday afternoon at Quincy District Court. He was released on $1,000 cash bail and is due back in court next month, according to published reports.
Police said the Cohasset charges stem from an incident at 8:10 p.m. on Sunday (July 4) at Shaw’s off Route 3A.
Joyce was arrested by the MBTA Transit Police for similar crimes that occurred on the Red Line train at Kendall Station in Cambridge on July 7. Accompanied by his lawyer, Joyce turned himself in to Transit Police Friday morning and was arraigned in Medford.
On July 4, Cohasset Police patrol officers responded to Shaw’s regarding a complaint from a 40-year-old Cohasset woman who reported that a young man had accosted her and lifted her dress up in the frozen food section of the market. She told police that at about 8 p.m., she was shopping in the frozen food section when a white man in his early 20s with blonde hair and wearing a white T-shirt and shorts walked by her and said “hi.” She then walked over to the ice cream cooler and while getting some ice cream, the man walked over and lifted her dress up, exposing her buttocks.
She yelled and the suspect then fled Shaw’s. There were no other witnesses but employees did see the suspect leave the store with a friend in a silver vehicle that had an Army sticker, a motorcycle sticker and a “Fox racing” sticker on the back window.
Joyce was known to Cohasset police from a prior arrest.
Based upon the alleged victim’s description of the suspect and video surveillance, Cohasset Police Detective Garrett Hunt identified Joyce as a possible suspect in the assault at Shaw’s. Cohasset Police Detective Lt. Gregory Lennon and Detective Hunt put a photo array together, in which the alleged victim positively identified Joyce as her assailant.
After seeing reports on the news and a surveillance photo of the man suspected of pulling down a girl’s shirt exposing her breast on the T, the alleged victim the notified the Transit Police and told them suspect looked to be the same man who accosted her at Shaw's. The Transit police called Cohasset police. They said based on their investigation they had identified Joyce as their suspect and were in the process of getting an arrest warrant. According to TV reports, several co-workers of Joyce, who works for an investment firm in Cambridge, identifed Joyce from the video and notified the Transit Police.
In July of 2006 Joyce was arrested by Cohasset police and charged with assault and battery following an incident at Bassing Beach. According to the police report, Joyce attacked a Cohasset teen, who was walking on the beach with Joyce’s former girlfriend. He also attacked his former girlfriend during that incident, the report stated. He was found guilty of assault and battery and was on probation until March of 2008, police records state.
Joyce's lawyer told the media outside Quincy District Court on Friday that Joyce is a former Marine, is a college graduate and comes from a well known Scituate family.
Cohasset Chief Mark DeLuca said good police work put the pieces together to get the alleged assailant off the streets.
“It was good teamwork between us and the MBTA police,” he said.
