An illegal immigrant who has been repeatedly arrested for public lewdness over the last two decades was apprehended by federal immigration authorities earlier this month, the Daily Caller News Foundation confirmed.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) issued a press release earlier this month on their apprehension of a foreign national repeatedly convicted for “open and gross lewdness and lascivious behavior” in the Boston area. Through court records, local news reports and social media posts, the DCNF identified the man as Lucio Tomar, a Cape Verde national living illegally in the U.S.
Deportation officers apprehended Tomar on April 24, ICE announced in the press release, with an agency spokesperson describing the individual as a “public safety threat to communities” for his litany of convictions for lewd conduct. However, the agency did not identify him by name — a practice that has become much more common under the Biden administration.
ICE revealed that the individual was legally admitted into the U.S. in September 2003 by Customs and Border Protection, but he has since been convicted for lewd offenses and indecent exposure in 2006, 2009, 2010, 2013, 2015, 2021 and 2022. Under Massachusetts law, committing lewd acts includes public masturbation, and federal officials confirmed that he has been convicted of lewd acts over the past twenty years.
It was his 2022 conviction, ICE says, that nullified his legal immigration status, making him an illegal immigrant. However, he was never removed from the U.S. and was arrested again by local police in 2023 for allegedly committing more lewd acts before federal immigration authorities finally apprehended him.
After the DCNF reached out to ICE, the agency confirmed Tomar’s identity.
“Deportation officers from ERO Boston arrested Lucio Tomar, a 39-year-old national of Cape Verde, with ten convictions of exposing himself and committing lewd acts spanning two decades,” and agency spokesperson said. “He will remain in ICE ERO custody pending the outcome of his immigration proceedings.”
The DCNF identified Tomar by reviewing Boston Municipal Court records and the Massachusetts sex offender registry.
A law enforcement official familiar with Tomar’s history in Boston referred to him as a “serial masturbator” when speaking to the DCNF.
Tomar is classified as a level 3 sex offender — the highest level in the state, meaning he is at major risk of reoffending and a danger to the public, according to the Massachusetts Sex Offender Registry Board. The registry board shows Tomar was convicted of “open and gross lewdness and lascivious behavior” in 2009, 2010, 2015, 2021 and 2022.
The ICE press release said Tomar’s conviction in 2022 in the West Roxbury District Court finally nullified his legal immigration status. However, this change to his legal status — or the fact that it was at least his ninth conviction — did not stop him from getting into further legal altercations.
A Boston woman was waiting for her Uber on the morning of October 6, 2023 when she noticed a BMW pulled up in front of her, according to local reports. Tomar, the individual allegedly driving the vehicle, was then seen with his penis “fully exposed.”
The woman’s son called the police and reportedly smashed Tomar’s car window with a hammer, prompting him to flee the scene.
Just three days later, Boston police responded to a call about a man in a black hooded sweatshirt “pleasuring himself” in the area, according to Boston.com.
Police reportedly stopped Tomar shortly afterward, finding him in a black hooded sweatshirt and a shattered car windshield.
“While no one may have been physically hurt in this incident, that by no means diminishes the disturbing and lasting impact it had for the victim,” Suffolk District Attorney Kevin Hayden said at the time. “This individual’s chronic lewd behavior has inflicted intolerable emotional trauma across many neighborhoods. His continued actions endanger the community and himself.”
Local prosecutors noted that Tomar has been involved in other offenses, such as larceny, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, malicious destruction of property, disorderly conduct and failure to register as a sex offender. However, publicly available documentation indicates his most frequent crime is open, lewd conduct.
In another instance, Tomar was arrested and charged for open and gross lewdness after allegedly whipping his penis out in plain sight of cops.
Officers assigned to the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston on Nov. 19, 2019 on an unrelated matter allegedly observed Tomar expose himself and “commit a lewd act” roughly seven yards away from them, according to a press release by the Boston Police Department. He may not have known he was exposing his genitals to police at the moment, as they were in an unmarked vehicle and dressed in plain clothes.
It’s not entirely clear why Tomar was continually released from prison after being convicted of sexual offenses so many times. The charge of open and gross lewdness in Massachusetts carries a maximum of 2.5 years in the House of Correction or three years in state prison if indicted as a repeat offender, the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office told the DCNF.
A spokesman for the district attorney said their office regularly sought tough sentencing for Tomar in the past, but it isn’t always easy.
“Our prosecutors have often sought strong sentences for Tomar and the courts have sometimes agreed, sometimes not, since the crime does not involve actual violence against a person. But it is still traumatic for anyone subjected to it,” said James Borghesani, chief of communications for the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office.
Local law enforcement in the Boston area have been admonished by federal immigration authorities in the past for not cooperating with deportation officers. The City of Boston and the state of Massachusetts are both listed as “sanctuary” jurisdictions by the Center for Immigration Studies, citing a city ordinance and a court case, respectively, that restricts local authorities’ ability to honor ICE detainer requests.
Immigration enforcement advocates have long argued that these types of sanctuary laws make it harder for ICE to remove criminal aliens from the community.
The Boston Police Department declined a records request from the DCNF, citing a state law that forbids the sharing of documents relating to some sexual crimes. The Massachusetts Sex Offender Registry Board and the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office also declined records requests by the DCNF.
