Law Student Charged With Indecent Assault and Battery

A Harvard Law School student has been indicted on two counts of indecent assault and battery on a 24-year-old woman and will be arraigned in Middlesex Superior Court Wednesday.

Brandon J. Winston is charged with inappropriately touching the vaginal area and breast of the victim on Jan. 15, 2011, according to the indictment handed down by a grand jury in September.

When reached by phone on Tuesday, Winston declined to speak about the indictment.

He instead referred a request for comment to his attorney, Daniel K. Gelb, who wrote in an emailed statement, “Mr. Winston denies any wrongdoing and we do not wish to comment further at this time.”

Winston is scheduled to be arraigned in Woburn, Mass., on Wednesday morning. There, he will be read the charges against him and will enter a plea of guilty or not guilty to them.

Stephanie Guyotte, a spokesperson for the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office, confirmed that the two counts concerned a single victim. She also provided the age and gender of the victim.

Guyotte declined to comment on whether the victim was affiliated with Harvard.

The Harvard Web Directory lists Winston as a current student in the JD program at the Law School.

His listed email address indicates that he enrolled as a member of the Law School’s Class of 2012, but his current listing in the Harvard alumni directory indicates that he is set to graduate with the Class of 2013.

The charges against Winston could affect his standing at the Law School.

The Law School’s Handbook of Academic Policies states that a student may be placed on an involuntary leave of absence if he or she “has been arrested on allegations of serious criminal behavior or has been charged with such behavior by law enforcement authorities.”

—Staff writer Rebecca D. Robbins can be reached at rrobbins@college.harvard.edu.