Acton man, guilty of sexual assaults, gets 15 years in prison
Elie Jammal, 73, was convicted of rape and two counts of indecent assault and battery.
A Acton man has been sentenced to state prison after a Barnstable Superior Court jury found him guilty of repeatedly assaulting a 20-year-old woman.
Elie Jammal, 73, was convicted of rape and two counts of indecent assault and battery on a person over 14 years old, according to a statement from Cape & Islands District Attorney Robert Galibois.
The charges stem from a July 9, 2023, incident at a restaurant in Sandwich.
According to prosecutors, the woman left her table to use the restroom and encountered Jammal in a hallway.
The district attorney’s office said Jammal commented on the woman’s appearance, pushed her against a wall, and sexually assaulted her. Prosecutors said he also demanded that she enter her phone number into his cellphone.
The woman escaped into the women’s restroom, but Jammal followed her inside and assaulted her again, according to the district attorney’s office.
After Jammal left, the woman attempted to call for help using her smartwatch. A family friend found her upset and hiding in a bathroom stall, prosecutors said.
The woman’s mother and a family friend confronted Jammal outside the restaurant. According to the district attorney’s office, he claimed the woman had initiated the encounter.
Police were called, but Jammal left before officers arrived.
A Barnstable County grand jury indicted Jammal in late 2023 on charges of rape and two counts of indecent assault and battery.
Following the guilty verdict, the court sentenced Jammal to 13½ to 15 years in state prison on the rape conviction. He was also sentenced to five years of probation on an indecent assault and battery conviction.
Before imposing the sentence, the judge said the crimes were fueled not by alcohol consumption but by what he described as a “shocking sense of entitlement,” according to the district attorney’s office.
The case was investigated by the Sandwich Police Department and prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Courtney Leigh Scalice, chief of child abuse and vulnerable victims.
