The two former police officers acquitted of raping an East Village woman are in court this morning. Kenneth Moreno and Franklin Mata were convicted of misdemeanor official misconduct in May and face up to two years in jail.
In December 2008, Moreno and Mata were called to help a drunk woman into her apartment building. The woman accused Moreno of raping her, and surveillance footage showed the two cops entering and leaving her building repeatedly after the initial call (for instance, Moreno faked a 911 call so he would be dispatched to the neighborhood again). Prosecutors charged the pair, citing a secretly taped conversation between the accuser and Moreno where Moreno, after many minutes of the accuser asking him, said he used a condom while having sex with her. However, the defense pointed to a lack of DNA evidence and the accuser's hazy memories of the evening.
The Daily News' sources say that the accuser will appear at the sentencing; she may not be able to speak during the sentencing, but it's possible she'll speak outside the courthouse.
The sentencing had been postponed in June, after defense attorneys argued that footage from a HBO documentary about the Manhattan DA's sex crimes unit that could affect the case. A source had told the NY Times there were "statements made by witnesses in the case, or by prosecutors or investigators talking about what witnesses said... then the defense might be able to claim that the district attorney should have turned it over before or during the trial.
Update (9/9/11): Gothamist has published a long-form feature about the Rape Cop case, written by one of the jurors. It takes you behind the scenes during their deliberations, and explains how they came to their controversial verdict. Buy it today as a PDF or on Kindle.
