Town Official Charged With Raping Woman He Met On Craigslist

Earlier this month, Jeffrey Gray of New Hampshire responded to a Craigslist ad from a New York woman who said she wanted to make a “fresh start” in New England. She was looking for a roommate, so Gray invited her to check out his rented house in Windham, New Hampshire. Police say that after she entered the home on March 5, Gray held her captive for three days and raped her.

Eventually, he drove her to Logan International Airport in Boston, and she immediately told a Massachusetts state trooper about what happened to her. She was taken to a hospital and treated for minor injuries, according to the Associated Press. Police have been looking for Gray for the past two weeks, and arrested him yesterday at a veterans’ hospital in Brockton, Massachusetts.

Gray is a civil engineer who was elected to Salem, New Hampshire’s planning board last year. The woman who owns the house Gray was renting says she “thought he was pretty reputable,” but he actually has a disturbing criminal past: From NECN:

[Gray’s] record includes 13 years worth of domestic assaults and stalking charges. Fellow Salem Planning Board members say Gray was always thoughtful and professional – no sign of personal troubles. But his landlord in Salem says Gray didn’t pay the bills and evicted him. The 48-year-old divorcee is currently named in two restraining orders — one taken out by his sister who has custody of his children. He’s been ordered into anger management in the past.

The other protection order was filed by an ex-girlfriend who claims he threatened and abused her and her children. Police contacted her in February because he’d called a suicide hotline and they thought he might hurt her.

Gray is technically still on the Salem Planning Board, though Chairman James Keller says if he could reach him he’d tell him to resign. “I think it’s fairly obvious to everyone that he should simply resign and let the town move on,” Keller said. Gray has been arraigned on rape, kidnapping, false imprisonment and assault charges, and is being held on $50,000 bail.

NH Police: Woman Who Posted Ad Kidnapped, Raped [AP]
Jeffrey Gray Charged With Kidnapping, Rape Of Woman [NECN]