Former Hopkinton Deputy Police Chief John “Jay” Porter, who was placed on administrative leave last year, has been charged with raping a student during his time as a school resource officer in town, the Middlesex County District Attorney’s Office announced Monday.
Porter was indicted by a grand jury on three counts of child rape for the alleged incidents almost 20 years ago.
“The incidents allegedly occurred during 2004 and 2005 while the victim was a 15-year-old student,” Middlesex DA Marian Ryan said in a statement. “During that time the defendant allegedly assaulted the victim on multiple occasions off school property.”
As of Friday, Porter no longer works for the Hopkinton Police Department, the DA’s office stated. An arraignment date had not been scheduled as of Monday morning. The DA’s office later announced the arraignment would take place Tuesday, March 9, at noon in Woburn District Court.
UPDATE, Monday, 1:50 p.m.: The town released a statement Monday afternoon attributed to Town Manager Norman Khumalo and Police Chief Joseph Bennett.
“We are deeply disturbed and troubled by these accusations,” the statement reads. “These alleged crimes have no place in our community or anywhere else, and we extend our sympathies to the victim. The Hopkinton Police Department continues to cooperate fully with the Middlesex County District Attorney’s Office.”
On Friday, Porter “notified the town that he is seeking to retire, and the town accepted his immediate separation from employment,” the release notes.
Porter had been recognized for 30 years of service to the town shortly before he was suspended last August. After spending three years working for the police in Upton, where he grew up, he switched to Hopkinton, where he started as a patrol officer and moved his way up as a detective, sergeant and lieutenant before becoming deputy chief in 2021.
In a Hopkinton Independent feature last summer, Porter said he was inspired to become a police officer after bonding with Upton officers who helped him during some tough times during his childhood.
“My mother’s first husband, my biological father, was an abusive person, so the police were at our home a lot to assist her and keep her and myself and my sisters safe,” Porter said. “Because of this, they kind of took me under their wing.”
He helped implement Hopkinton’s school resource officer program and was appointed to serve as SRO from 1999 to 2005.
“The schools are a community within a community here in town, and [former Hopkinton Police Chief Tom Irvin] asked me if I would take on that project,” Porter recalled in the Independent feature. “Not knowing anything about it, I tried to learn all about that atmosphere. It was a rewarding and extremely great challenge for me.
“It allowed me to learn a lot about the educational system, how it is different from what we do out in the community, and really ingrained in me the importance of the forgiveness of mistakes and helping people learn and get better from things they may have done wrong without having to carry a record for the rest of their life.”
The 54-year-old Porter has been married for 28 years and has two children. He has coached girls high school soccer since 2010, first as freshman coach at Algonquin Regional High School in Northborough and then as head coach of the varsity team at Blackstone Valley Regional Vocational Technical High School in Upton since 2014.
This girl had to carry this event for twenty years until the truth came out. When this occurred she has a high school student while Jay was a 36 yo married man who had stayed very local and very involved with police work his entire life. He was not your typical pedophile. Not to mention Hopkinton is having serious leadership problems right now and this is totally crushing news.
May God have mercy on him. This is such a painful article to read having worked with Jay in the past.
Pedophiles tend to take positions of authority, in addition to making sure to work with or around children.
The fact he was the first school resource officer…is telling.
There is no question they are more young girls out there who have yet to come forward.
Sadly…this is very typical pedophile behaviour.
Typical pedophiles are people who manipulate kids to have sex with them.
He qualifies.
What is up with this town??? What is in the water?? I remember hearing similar stories about a local Hopkinton pizza shop. My pregnant daughter was sexually harassed at Price Chopper Hopkinton. Just last month a 19 year old was found dead on the rail trail. This is not okay!! My heart in with the victim of this horrible crime. I do not feel safe in Hopkinton. I dont even trust the drinking water because of the PFAS issue that will never be resolved.
The deputy police chief goes on administrative leave in Aug 2022 in full public view. 8 months later on a Friday, the deputy decides to retire and the town immediately accepts and separates from the officer. The town manager and the police chief release a statement following Monday that they are deeply disturbed and troubled.
What an exemplary behavior from our town government…. And is citizens who will probably be indifferent to this like how we have been through out the past eight months!
He has been on administrative leave for months while an investigation was obviously underway, and yet continued to be the girls soccer coach at a high school in a neighboring community? How is that even allowed to happen?
He is still presumed innocent under the law and the state needs to make their case to prove otherwise. But given the severity of the charges, I think it’s worth a potential lawsuit against the Town or PD for the Town to be absolutely transparent with the community about the events from July 2022 to yesterday. Why was he placed on leave? Why was he allowed to retire with immediately pending charges? If it has something to do with contracts with the police union, then fine, but be open and clear about what’s happened here. Details about the alleged crime will come later as the state and courts work through their process. But we should have a clear understanding of what the process is when an officer is placed on leave and what happens after. The silence helps no one understand what occurred and will lead us all to assume the worst.
Did this man actually continue on the police force after the accusation??