HOPKINTON, RI — A former Hopkinton resident was charged with the January 2005 sexual assault, according to the Rhode Island Attorney General's Office.
Robert Czerwein, 41, was arrested Tuesday and arraigned Wednesday on charges of first-degree sexual assault, the attorney general's office said in a media release.
Czerwein sexually assaulted a 45-year-old stranger in Hopkinton in January 2005, "using force or coercion," according to the release.
"Following the alleged sexual assault, the Hopkinton Police Department conducted an investigation that soon went cold," the release said.
"In 2026, the Office of the Attorney General and the Hopkinton Police Department reopened the investigation, employing new forensic DNA analysis and investigative techniques that identified the defendant as a potential suspect," according to the release. "Investigators also developed a connection between the defendant and an alleged unsolved sexual assault in Connecticut in 2005."
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