CONCORD — A Rhode Island man faces charges after authorities say he traveled to Massachusetts to engage in a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old girl.
The Middlesex district attorney says 41-year-old Rocco Pelopida, of East Greenwich, was held on $25,000 bail after not guilty pleas to charges including aggravated statutory rape of a child. He was arrested in Concord after the girl’s parents heard her leave home at about 3 a.m. and found her in the defendant’s car in town.
Prosecutors say the girl and the defendant met on a dating website and subsequently began corresponding over Snapchat, where they arranged the meeting.
Pelopida’s court-appointed attorney said in court his client did not know the girl’s age.
BOSTON — A woman who lied to a bank about her company’s financial condition and even submitted falsified documentation to get a $4.2 million loan has pleaded guilty to fraud.
Federal prosecutors say 53-year-old Beth Zastawny, of Ludlow, pleaded guilty in Springfield federal court on Wednesday to bank fraud and money laundering. She faces up to 30 years in prison at sentencing Oct. 1
From Associated Press