BOURNE – Barnstable County Sheriff James Cummings says Bruno Sanches De Jesus, the individual charged with two counts of rape on a Steamship Authority ferry, has been in the country illegally as an overstay since 2019.
He was was arraigned in Falmouth District Court Tuesday and held on $25,000 bail.
Cummings said that as a result of the Barnstable County Sheriff’s Office being a part of the ICE 287g program for Jails, the information was put together quickly, resulting in an Immigration Detainer being lodged Wednesday.
The sheriff says this action prevented Sanches De Jesus from being back on the street.
It was shortly before 5 p.m. Monday when Massachusetts State Police patrols and Falmouth Police responded to the Steamship Authority in Falmouth for a reported sexual assault that allegedly occurred on the ferry from Martha’s Vineyard to Woods Hole.
After the ferry docked at Woods Hole, the alleged victim, an 18-year-old woman, reported the sexual assault to Falmouth Police.
Meanwhile, the suspect, later identified as DeJesus, 20, of Dorchester, left the dock as a passenger in a commercial box truck.
A description of the truck was broadcast and a Trooper from the Bourne Barracks located and stopped the vehicle on Route 28 north in Falmouth.
Following a subsequent investigation by Troop D of the Massachusetts State Police and the State Police Detective Unit for the Cape and Islands, troopers charged Sanches DeJesus with two counts of rape.
