A former prosecutor in Suffolk and Essex counties who was convicted on a rape charge in late June was sentenced to five to 10 years in prison on Monday, according to officials.

Gary Zerola, 52, was found guilty of a 2021 rape case by a Suffolk Superior Court jury in June. Prosecutors said Zerola, in January 2021, went out drinking with a woman he was dating and the woman’s 21-year-old friend. Zerola and the woman helped her friend back to her Beacon Hill apartment after the friend became intoxicated.

The survivor of the assault wrote to the judge in a victim impact statement, saying she suffered recurring nightmares of the rape and lost “many nights of sleep” because of Zerola’s actions.

“Since he committed this crime, I have experienced an extreme sense of paranoia,” the victim wrote. “Every time I am in my apartment, my door is deadbolted, and I live in constant fear that someone will enter without my permission and hurt me again.”

The jury determined after the friend fell asleep, Zerola came back into the apartment and raped her in her sleep. The incident occurred while the former prosecutor was out on bail in a previous sexual assault case.

The Salem resident was found guilty on one count of rape but found not guilty to the greater charge of aggravated rape and burglary. Suffolk Superior Court Judge Mary Ames sentenced him.

“I want to commend the survivor in this case for her courage and resilience, for her willingness to come forward and testify at trial and speak her truth,” Suffolk District Attorney Kevin Hayden said following the sentencing. “That must have been extraordinarily difficult and most of us can only imagine how difficult that must be.”

Before the conviction, Zerola was most recently acquitted of raping a 23-year-old woman in 2016.

Zerola was an Essex County assistant district attorney for one year and an ADA in Suffolk County for two months in 2000.

He was named a “most-eligible bachelor” by People magazine in 2001, five years after his first alleged assault.