Crime

Campbell faces a slew of rape, sexual assault, and kidnapping charges in a series of incidents prosecutors have described as “chillingly similar.”

By Abby Patkin

May 11, 2026 | 9:42 AM

3 minutes to read

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To hear prosecutors tell it, accused serial rapist Alvin Campbell Jr. had a familiar modus operandi.

“A common denominator,” they allege in court filings, “is evidence that Campbell masqueraded as a rideshare driver and in one case a bar employee, and targeted women at venues in the downtown Boston area who were too intoxicated to consent to sex or to resist his assaults.”

The number of “chillingly similar” incidents would prove staggering, prosecutors say; Campbell, now 45, is charged with sexually assaulting nine women between 2017 and 2019.

The older brother of Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell, he heads to trial this week on a slew of rape, kidnapping, and indecent assault and battery charges, among other counts. Campbell’s attorneys did not respond to a request for comment. 

Here’s what to know about Campbell’s case as jury selection begins this week.

What are the allegations against Alvin Campbell?

Prosecutors say Campbell — a “habitual criminal” with a lengthy rap sheet — posed as an Uber driver and picked up a woman who was leaving a bar near North Station on Dec. 7, 2019. According to court filings, the woman quickly passed out in the back seat of Campbell’s SUV; she awoke hours later at his home in Rhode Island, in pain and with Campbell lying naked next to her. 

DNA from swabs collected during her sexual assault examination allegedly matched Campbell’s genetic profile, and investigators who searched Campbell’s cellphone purportedly found “jarring and incriminating” video of him groping and raping the woman. 

Boston police obtained additional search warrants for Campbell’s phone and cloud-based data storage, which allegedly revealed videos and images depicting the rapes and sexual assaults of eight more women, according to court documents. In addition to the rape and assault charges, Campbell also faces several counts of recording a nude person without their knowledge.

The women purportedly told investigators that on the nights in question, they drunkenly departed various Boston clubs and got into what they believed was an Uber or rideshare.

“Some had vague memories of being assaulted,” prosecutors wrote in court filings. “Others had none at all. All of their rapes or assaults were documented on the defendant’s phone.”

Prosecutors said Campbell’s alleged serial rapes came to an end in January 2020, when he was arrested and charged in the prior month’s incident. 

But Campbell’s legal troubles didn’t end there. He was also charged in 2025 with attacking a correctional officer at Suffolk County Jail, then faced additional charges out of Northampton earlier this year after authorities said he assaulted two other inmates at Hampshire County Jail and House of Correction. Both of those cases remain pending. 

Why are his cases combined? 

While Campbell’s rape and sexual assault charges are spread out over three individual court dockets, Suffolk Superior Court Judge Mary K. Ames allowed prosecutors’ request to combine the cases for trial.

“The defendant’s practice of posing as a livery driver in nightlife areas of downtown Boston to target intoxicated female strangers for sexual assaults that he filmed constitutes a distinctive pattern,” prosecutors asserted in their motion.

Campbell opposed the request, with his lawyers arguing that the alleged incidents varied in time and location. 

“While the Commonwealth harps on the fact that all of the victims were allegedly too intoxicated to be able to consent to intercourse — and claims without any evidentiary support that Mr. Campbell ‘hunted’ these women by ‘trolling downtown Boston for intoxicated women,’ … — that alone does not render the charges related,” defense attorneys wrote in a filing of their own. 

The defense also said the claims that Campbell routinely posed as a rideshare driver were inaccurate, noting some of the women believed he was a bouncer or could not recall how they supposedly ended up in his car. 

What has Andrea Campbell said? 

Speaking to The Boston Globe shortly after her brother’s initial 2020 arrest, then-Boston City Councilor Andrea Campbell said she was “extremely heartbroken and saddened and devastated by these allegations.”

“As my brother’s trial begins, I am praying for the survivors and all those affected. It takes extraordinary courage to come forward, and they deserve dignity and respect,” she said Monday.

Campbell added: “This is an incredibly difficult situation for everyone involved, and I carry that weight with me, including in my prayers for my brother. The case is now before the court, and I respect the judicial process as it moves forward.”

The AG — whose twin brother, Andre, died in state custody at age 29 while awaiting trial — has also said she hasn’t spoken to Alvin Campbell since his arrest. 

“I view my older brother’s charges and what is happening there as just another brother lost, which is sad and tragic for me,” she told the Associated Press in 2022. “So now I have two brothers who are lost.”