The former Winthrop police officer accused of raping a child will now be arraigned in Suffolk Superior Court.
James Feeley, 56, of Winthrop, faces seven counts of aggravated rape and indecent assault and battery on a child under 14 years old. A Suffolk County grand jury indicted him on March 4.
He is set to be arraigned on the new charges Thursday at an unknown time.
Feeley himself had admitted to police that he had sexually assaulted the child, according to the redacted criminal complaint released following his first arraignment in the case at municipal court in East Boston on Dec. 27.
A plea of not guilty was entered on his behalf there on the then-charges of aggravated rape of a child and two counts of indecent assault and battery on a child.
Feeley was a lieutenant with two decades of experience at the Winthrop Police Department, according to previous reporting. Feeley was placed on administrative leave following his arrest and the department has since fully severed ties.
In an interview summarized in the criminal complaint, Winthrop Police Chief Terance Delehanty told a Massachusetts State Police detective that Feeley had called him from his parents’ graves at Winthrop’s Belle Isle Cemetery and told him that he was “in a bad way.”
Delehanty said he believed that Feeley was suicidal and that Feeley told him “wait until I tell you what I’ve done,” before disclosing that he had had sexual contact with the child. The assaults, according to the complaint, “occurred on unknown dates and times presumably in Winthrop.”
