From: NBC Connecticut

A New Haven man accused of more than a dozen sexual attacks on women up and down the East Coast over a 12-year span will be in court on May 4.

Police dubbed Aaron Thomas the “East Coast Rapist” and have linked him through DNA to attacks on 17 women in New Haven, Cranston, Rhode Island. Maryland and Virginia between 1997 and 2009.

Police arrested him on March 4 after he dropped a cigarette butt and authorities trailing him picked it up.

Thomas has also been charged with assault after a fight in prison last month with his cellmate at the Macdougall-Walker prison in Suffield.

His case was in court on Monday, where the files were consolidated and the case was continued.

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