Lawrence Police Officer Held Without Bail On Child Rape Charges

LAWRENCE, MA — The longtime Lawrence police officer accused of having sex with a 13-year-old boy he met on an app was held without bail at his Tuesday morning arraignment in Lawrence District Court.

Carlos Vieira is charged with two counts of aggravated rape of a child and two counts of indecent assault & battery on a child under 14. A dangerousness hearing is scheduled for Friday.

The judge in the case impounded the police report, keeping information from within the report from the public.

Prosecutors said Vieira, 49, met the boy on Grindr, a social media dating app popular with homosexual men. The two met at Mt. Vernon Park and engaged in sexual at least once last summer, according to prosecutors.

The boy recognized Vieira as the officer directing traffic at the Mt. Vernon intersection when the boy's family was evacuated during the Merrimack Valley gas explosions, prosecutors said. The boy's mother told the Essex District Attorney's Office about the alleged encounter on Jan. 29, sparking a monthlong investigation.

Vieira, who became a cop in Lawrence in 1999, was arrested Monday in Haverhill. He has been placed on administrative leave.

"This is an ongoing investigation, but the allegations against Officer Vieira are extremely troubling, and we take them very seriously," Lawrence Police Chief Roy Vasque said in a statement Monday.