DNA data link man to assault

A 23-year-old woman avoided sexual assault by screaming and kicking her attacker. The scuffle knocked off the assailant's glasses and forced him to flee, leaving behind the glasses and a portion of his shirt, which the woman clutched in her hand.

The glasses and the shred of shirt, along with a cigarette discarded during a police interview, provided DNA evidence that linked 33-year-old Paul C. Aud to the Aug. 23 attack at the woman's Langdon Street apartment building.

Aud was charged Monday with kidnapping, attempted second-degree sexual assault and misdemeanor battery.

At a brief court hearing Monday, Aud looked through glasses with thick, angular, dark frames, a departure from the wire-rimmed glasses he was previously known to wear.

He was ordered held on $9,000 bail at a hearing during which Assistant District Attorney Mike Verveer declared, "The community threat in this case is as strong as it gets."

Aud's attorney, Corey Chirafisi, disputed the basis for the sexual assault allegation. He said no such assault occurred, and the only indication that the attacker intended to rape the woman was a sentence in the complaint that says, "He fumbled with the closing on his pants or the top of his zipper."

According to a criminal complaint:

The victim left her apartment at about 12:45 a.m. to visit a friend, who lived nearby. The woman saw a man across the street smoking a cigarette, eyes fixed on her. A half-hour later she went back to her apartment, entering through a doorway that neighbors had propped open with cinder blocks.

In the stairwell between the second and third floors, the man she had earlier seen on the street ran up the stairs, passed her, then turned and punched her in the face. He grabbed her by the hair and dragged her down the stairs to the landing, the complaint says. Once on the landing the man punched her again and again, directing the blows to her left temple in an apparent attempt to knock her unconscious.

The woman, knocked on her back and beginning to black out, closed her eyes to avoid the sight of the fist slamming into her head. The assailant stopped and fumbled with his zipper, and at that point the woman thought, "I'm not going to let this happen."

She began screaming and kicked at the man. He got up and she landed kicks to his upper thigh and stomach. He tried to run and she grabbed his shirt, which ripped as he fled. He ran down the stairs and out the building, leaving behind his glasses and the cloth from his shirt.

The complaint also describes how Detective Denise Armstrong took those items to the State Crime Lab, which was able to assemble a DNA profile.

On Sept. 7, Armstrong spoke with a manager at Topper's Pizza, who told her that two weeks earlier Aud had come to work with new eyeglasses, skinned knees and scrapes on his legs and forearms,and complained of sore ribs and a sore back. Aud explained away the injuries by saying he had "blacked out" from drinking and couldn't recall what happened.

Armstrong approached Aud outside the restaurant and began asking questions. His eyes widened and his hands began to shake.

"I can't answer questions," he said.

He discarded a cigarette he was smoking and Armstrong picked it up. The DNA from the cigarette butt matched the DNA on a shred of T-shirt and the glasses from the scene of the attack.