SALEM, MASS. (WHDH) - A Lawrence police officer convicted of raping a 13-year-old boy was sentenced in Salem Superior Court on Friday.
Carlos Vieira, 53, was found guilty on two counts of Aggravated Rape of a Child and a charge of Indecent Assault & Battery on a Child Under 14 last week, according to the Essex County District Attorney’s Office.
On Friday, Judge Thomas Drechsler sentenced Vieira to ten to twelve years in state prison, while ordering him to serve five years of probation after finishing his prison term. Vieira was also ordered to stay away from and have no contact with the victim and his family and to register as a sex offender.
Other orders included Vieira having no unsupervised contact with children under 16.
In a press release, the DA’s office said Assistant District Attorney Kate MacDougall requested a 12 to 15 year sentence.
“This defendant knew exactly what he was doing,” MacDougall said in her sentencing argument. “There was no mistaking that the victim was a boy. And, as a police officer, his actions further eroded the public’s trust in law enforcement. Worse, the victim’s mother, who poured her life into providing a nice home for her family, had to sell her house because of its proximity to the defendant’s home and the park where her son was raped.”
During the trial, prosecutors alleged that Vieira met the teenager on a dating app in 2018, then had a sexual encounter with him at Mt. Vernon Park in Lawrence.
The teen told authorities he did not know Vieira was a police officer until months later, when the victim reportedly saw him in uniform, directing traffic while he and his family were evacuating during the Merrimack Valley gas explosions on Sept. 13, 2018.
The victim’s mother later learned about the sexual contact during a “family conflict” in January 2019, leading to her immediately contacting the DA’s office.
“The defendant’s conduct is an affront to the community he swore to protect,” Essex District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett said in a statement on Friday. “It’s important to acknowledge that many people were impacted by this defendant’s criminal behavior. The victim and his entire family will never be the same. I hope that they can now find some healing and peace.”
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