Suspect in rape traced via DNA

BRIDGEPORT — A DNA match resulted in an arrest Friday in the 5-year-old unsolved rape of a Rhode Island woman at the city's train station.

Jose Binet, 46, of Dover Street, was taken into custody by detectives of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

He was charged with first-degree sexual assault.

Binet was later ordered held in lieu of $500,000 bond by Superior Court Judge Earl Richards.

"The MTA police did a fine job following up this investigation," said Senior Assistant State's Attorney Cornelius Kelly. On March 28, 2002, the 23-year-old Rhode Island woman parked her car at the train station lot and was walking to the ferry terminal when police said a man approached her and asked her for directions to the ferry.

Police said the man then grabbed the woman, put his hand over her mouth and stuck a knife to her throat. He dragged her to an area under the train tracks. When the woman began to struggle, police said, the man shoved the woman into a puddle of water. He ripped her clothes off and repeatedly raped her.

Police said the man left the victim in a heap and walked away.

On March 5, MTA compared a sample of the rapist's DNA with a DNA sample of a man arrested for a similar crime in Massachusetts. While there was no match there, police said when the sample was run through the Connecticut Convicted Offenders computer system it did match with that of Binet who has a lengthy criminal record.