BOSTON, Aug. 6, 2015—Nearly two decades after she was raped by a door-to-door salesman, a former Brighton resident yesterday told a sentencing judge that she is “a survivor rather than a victim.”

DERRICK SCOTT (D.O.B. 4/10/78), most recently of California and formerly of Georgia, faced sentencing yesterday after a Suffolk Superior Court jury on Monday found him guilty of rape and kidnapping charges.  Assistant District Attorney Amy Martin of the DA’s Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence Unit recommended a sentence of 10 to 12 years in prison followed by five years of probation.  Judge Mitchell Kaplan sentenced Scott to four to five years in prison.

Jurors deliberated for approximately one day before convicting Scott in the Oct. 19, 1996, assault.  Martin presented evidence and testimony to prove that the victim, a 21-year-old college student living in a Brighton apartment, allowed Scott inside when he knocked on her door while selling magazines door to door.  During a conversation, Scott introduced himself by his first name and told the victim that he was from Georgia.

The victim asked Scott to leave after he made repeated sexual advances toward her.  As she approached the door to show Scott out, he wrapped his arms around her neck and led her to a bedroom, where he raped her.

The victim was taken to Beth Israel Hospital and underwent an exam during which DNA evidence was collected.

In 2011, facing a deadline in the 15-year statute of limitations with no additional information on the attacker’s identity, Conley’s office indicted the unknown suspect as “John Doe,” identified by his DNA profile rather than his true name.  This practice was approved by the state’s Supreme Judicial Court in 2010 amid the Suffolk County prosecution of serial rapist JERRY DIXON (D.O.B. 4/19/73).

Investigators also submitted the assailant’s DNA profile to the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System, or CODIS, which contains samples from known offenders and unknown offenders whose DNA has been recovered from crime scenes.  On Oct. 25, 2013, that profile was found to be a match to Scott, who had been ordered to provide a DNA sample as the result of a felony OUI arrest in California.  He was arrested in Sacramento, California.

The victim, now living out of state, traveled to Boston to testify during the three-day trial.  At sentencing yesterday, Martin read an impact statement written by the victim.

“I can finally see some sense of closure for what happened to me although it has forever changed who I am.  I will carry these memories for the rest of my life but now, after almost 20 years of reliving those horrendous events over and over and over, I can look at myself as a survivor rather than a victim,” she wrote.

Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley lauded her courage.

“If not for this woman’s decision to disclose the assault, we would never have obtained her attacker’s DNA,” he said. “If not for her appearance before the grand jury, we could never have indicted the case. If not for her testimony at trial, recalling the worst day of her life to a room full of strangers, this defendant could not have been convicted. Every step of this process took courage on her part, and she deserves enormous credit.”

Sexual assault can happen to anyone. While the victims of any crime are asked to call 911 in an emergency, the survivors of sexual violence in Suffolk County can also call the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center’s 24-hour hotline at 800-841-8371. The Boston Area Rape Crisis Center provides medical advocacy, legal services, counseling, and other services to victims of rape and sexual assault.

Kerry Kolditz is the DA’s assigned victim-witness advocate.  Scott was represented by Kernahan Buck.

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All defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.