The jury will begin to decide the fate of officer Kenneth Moreno and his partner, Franklin Mata.
On Tuesday, assistant district attorney Coleen Balbert told jurors in her closing statement that the evidence is there to convict.
Moreno is charged with raping the 27-year-old after he and Mata helped the woman out of a cab and into her East Village apartment in 2008. Mata allegedly served as a lookout."They had a pretty 27-year-old in that apartment who was drunk, alone and vulnerable," Balbert said. "And they didn't want anyone to know that."
Both officers are seen on surveillance video walking into her building four separate times.
Moreno claims the woman asked for help, so he returned to counsel her on alcohol abuse. But the prosecutor accused the officers of lying on the stand.
"This has nothing to do with checking on their accuser," Balbert said. "This is about officer Moreno wanting to have sex with the alleged victim."
Both officers deny any wrongdoing. Their attorneys said the woman's memory of that night is unreliable. There was, they said, no evidence of rape. They said there was no DNA or fingerprints from the officers in her bedroom.
The defense says the woman's lawsuit against the officers and the city should raise doubts.
"I didn't say she's a gold digger," defense attorney Edward Mandery said. "What I said is there's a lot of reasons in this case that would benefit her, 57 million of them, probably."
If convicted, each officer faces a maximum of 25 years in prison.
(Copyright ©2011 WABC-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.) Get more New York News »new york city, nypd, rape, new york news, jamie roth
No comments:
Post a Comment