NYPD cops charged in rape of drunken woman they escorted home
Updated
Wednesday, April 29th 2009, 12:35 AM
Smith for NewsOfficer Kenneth Moreno, a 17-year NYPD veteran, surrenders Tuesday on charges he raped a drunken woman he and his partner (below) escorted home to her apartment.
Smith for NewsOfficer Franklin Mata outside court on Tuesday. He acted as a lookout while Moreno committed the crime, prosecutors said.
Two city cops were arraigned Tuesday on charges of raping a blind-drunk Manhattan woman they escorted home to her East Village apartment.
Officer Kenneth Moreno, 41, a 17-year NYPD veteran, raped the woman in her E. 13th St. apartment while his partner, Franklin Mata, 27, acted as a lookout and misled NYPD radio dispatchers, prosecutors said.
As Mata waited in another room, Moreno, a married father of two, put on a condom and raped the woman who had collapsed on her bed, prosecutors said.
The woman's blood-alcohol level was between 0.20% and 0.33%, or more than 2-1/2 times the legal driving limit.
"[Mata] knew his partner was having sex with a semiconscious woman," Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau said.
The cops pleaded not guilty after surrendering at a lower Manhattan courthouse. They face up to 25 years in prison on rape charges, and were hit with burglary and official misconduct charges in the Dec. 7 incident.
Investigators say the woman was so intoxicated, she was unable to legally consent to sex.
Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said he rarely comments on cops accused of crimes, but called the charges a "shocking aberration" for the NYPD.
The cops denied the charges through their lawyers.
"Officer Moreno is eager to confront the evidence against him," said his lawyer, Stephen Worth.
Mata's lawyer, Edward Mandery, said his client "obviously denies the allegations." He doubted the woman's version.
"She was basically saying, 'I was so drunk I don't know what happened,'" Mandery said.
Each was freed on $175,000 bail.
Moreno and Mata were stripped of their guns and badges in December after the woman claimed she was raped by the cops in the early hours of the morning.
Surveillance video showed the cops helping the visibly drunken woman into her building at 1:10a.m.
They left her apartment about seven minutes later, but returned a second time for 17 minutes about 2.50 a.m. They quickly returned, and stayed inside for 34 minutes.
Mata lied about the cops' whereabouts, and claimed he misplaced his logbook of activities, authorities said.
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