RI man, prison guard, charged with sexually assaulting inmate in Mass.

The former prison guard from Rhode Island is charged with four counts of rape and three counts of indecent assault and battery for multiple incidents involving a female inmate

PAWTUCKET – A Pawtucket man who worked as a corrections officer at women’s prison in Massachusetts has been charged with sexually assaulting an inmate, Massachusetts’ Middlesex County District Attorney Marian Ryan announced.

Joao Gomes, 49, was arrested Wednesday at his home in Pawtucket without incident, Ryan said. Rhode Island State Police and the Massachusetts State Police Violent Fugitive Apprehension Section helped with the arrest, according to Ryan.

Gomes was indicted in Woburn, Massachusetts, Superior Court, for allegedly assaulting a female inmate in the Massachusetts Correctional Institution in Framingham, Ryan said.

Gomes is charged with four counts of rape and three counts of indecent assault and battery for multiple incidents involving a female inmate, according to Ryan.

He is also charged with three counts of delivering articles to prisoners in a corrections institution, for allegedly purchasing underwear for more than one inmate, Ryan said.

Gomes’s case is the first in Middlesex County since Massachusetts updated the law in 2020 regarding law enforcement engaging in sexual relations with people under their custody or control, according to Ryan. 

A date for Gomes’s appearance in Middlesex Superior Court has not yet been scheduled.