The woman at the center of a rape trial involving two police officers broke down on the stand in Manhattan Supreme Court on Thursday.
In tears, she described an attack where she said police officer Kenneth Moreno raped her in her East Village apartment while she lay passed out after a night of heavy drinking. Another officer, Franklin Mata, is accused of serving as a lookout.
Dressed in black pants and a gray suit jacket, the woman described waking up in her apartment that morning in December — a crumpled white towel on her bed, boots she didn’t remember taking off wedged into strange places, and finding her passport flipped through and sitting on her dresser.
She showed the jury the maroon dress she wore, and an earring found in vomit on the bathroom floor.
She told the court she felt her tights being pulled off her legs and her memories of being raped. Her dramatic testimony was twice interrupted as she broke down in tears on the stand.
The defense argues that the woman was too drunk to know what happened and that there was physical contact, but no rape.
If convicted, the officers could face up to 25 years in prison.
Court details
According to court testimony, on the night of Dec. 7, 2008, the woman claiming rape left a Park Slope bar in a cab. Upon arriving at her apartment, the cabbie called 911 because she was too drunk to exit the car safely. Two police officers arrived and helped her upstairs. It is there that she says she was sexually assaulted.
