Alleged attacker was a repeat offender

March 14, 1996: David C. Flavell is spotted by a security guard urinating in a mop bucket at a Salem, N.H., Kmart, then masturbating on children's clothing. He receives a suspended sentence.

April 10, 1996: At a Salem, N.H., Bradlees department store, Flavell is caught on camera masturbating into a shirt on display. He receives a suspended sentence.

June 24, 1996: Flavell masturbates in front of a New Hampshire supermarket.

July 9, 1996: Flavell masturbates in front of another store in New Hampshire. He serves two months for both offenses.

Dec. 13, 1996: Methuen police arrest Flavell in the afternoon for allegedly masturbating in the ladies clothing section of a Rich's department store, five yards from where a woman is shopping.

Dec. 13, 1996: Hours later, back on the street, Flavell beats up and attempts to rape a woman he chats up at a Methuen American Legion Post.

Nov. 6, 1997: Flavell is arraigned in Lawrence on multiple charges, including assault with intent to rape, and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon. The following April, he pleads guilty and is sentenced to two and a half years in jail. He is released Jan. 18, 2000.

Dec. 8, 2000: Flavell is arrested again after he allegedly is spotted masturbating at a Gap store in Taunton.

April 13, 2001: Flavell allegedly exposes himself outside a Brooks Pharmacy in Fairhaven.

Sept. 4, 2001: Flavell flashes a woman and her four children in the parking lot of a Canton Gap. That November, he gets a nine-month sentence for the Taunton, Fairhaven and Canton offenses.

October to November 2002: Flavell is hospitalized for psychiatric evaluation after he admits to calling unidentified "hotlines" from Franklin and Taunton, threatening to harm children.

March 19, 2003: Police in Salem, N.H., charge Flavell with disorderly conduct and making false public alarms after he tells them he followed a mother and her child into a store.

April 28, 2003: For violating probation on the Salem offense, Flavell is committed to the Bristol House of Correction for two years.

Sept. 15, 2004: Bristol District Attorney Paul Walsh Jr. petitions to have Flavell civilly committed as a sexually dangerous person.

Feb. 14, 2006: Judge Richard T. Moses denies the petition after five medical experts testify Flavell is not sexually dangerous. Two other experts, however, disagree. Prosecutors ask Moses to reconsider his decision, but he refuses.

December 2006: Braintree police charge Flavell with making obscene phone calls to the Connecticut Child Protection Services hotline. The case is later dismissed.

Aug. 31, 2007: Flavell is arraigned in Boston Municipal Court for allegedly making "lewd and disturbing" calls to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children from pay phones at Massachusetts General Hospital and the Esplanade. The following January, the charges are dismissed after a key witness backs out. But the case is later reopened, and Flavell is on pre-trial probation when he allegedly attacks a woman at Massachusetts General Hospital two years later.

Jan. 29, 2008: Carrying a backpack police suspect contained a ski mask, gloves and duct tape, Flavell allegedly follows a woman into the ladies room at the Braintree Borders after blocking the door with a bookcase and tries to crawl under her stall. He flees when she screams.

Feb. 20, 2008: A day after he is captured with the backpack in a Brockton doughnut shop, Flavell, who claims to be homeless, pleads not guilty in Quincy District Court to accosting a person of the opposite sex and disorderly conduct.

April 22, 2008: Flavell is sentenced to six months in jail.

Aug. 18, 2009: Norfolk County prosecutors petition the court to commit Flavell to the Bridgewater Treatment Center as a sexually dangerous person.

Sept. 15, 2009: Justice Janet L. Sanders denies the petition.

Oct. 22, 2009: Flavell is arrested after he allegedly attacks an MGH employee in mid-afternoon in a bathroom in the hospital's central lobby.

SOURCES: Police reports, Criminal History Systems Board records and Judge Moses' Feb. 14, 2006, memorandum of decision and order.

To see more of the Boston Herald or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to
http://www.bostonherald.com. Copyright (c) 2009, Boston Herald Distributed by
McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email
tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax
to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave.,
Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.

For full details on (KMRT) KMRT. (KMRT) has Short Term PowerRatings at TradingMarkets. Details on (KMRT) Short Term PowerRatings is available at This Link.