Closing argument in NYPD cops' rape case

The defense lawyer for one of the NYPD cops accused of raping a drunk woman told jurors Friday that she couldn't remember what happened and pieced it together under the influence of a $57-million lawsuit against the city.

"She's holding on to a belief that's not true, because that's what she wants to believe," said Joseph Tacopina, the lawyer for Kenneth Moreno, during an emotional four-hour summation.

Moreno, 43, and his partner, Franklin Mata, 29, are charged with rape, burglary and official misconduct for allegedly having sex with an unconscious 29-year-old during three post-midnight visits to her East Village apartment in 2008 after escorting her from a cab.

Both officers took the stand to deny sex, and said they were counseling the woman about alcohol. Moreno said that she tried to seduce him while Mata was dozing, but said he never mentioned it to his partner because he wasn't someone who would "kiss and tell."

"Ken is not a very sophisticated guy, maybe a bit of a simpleton," explained Tacopina, who scrupulously avoided discussing the claimed seduction itself. "He testified because he wanted you to hear the whole story."

Tacopina honed in on three critical weak spots in the prosecution case: the lack of scientific evidence of sex; evidence contradicting the claim that she was physically helpless; and questions about whether alcohol-induced blackouts made her memory -- the linchpin of the case -- unreliable.

Witnesses testified that a hospital rape kit turned up no corroboration, and that no inculpatory DNA evidence was found in the accuser's bed.

"That's a massive problem in this case," Tacopina said.

The cops are charged under a rape law provision that makes it a crime to have sex with someone who is physically incapable of consent. But Tacopina said the same video surveillance tape that showed the cops returning also showed that the woman could walk and talk when they first took her in.

"She was not unconscious," he said, shrugging off prosecution experts who testified about the combined effect of alcohol and Red Bull, a stimulant, wearing off. "You can start and finish with that video. Nothing can undo that video. Nothing."

The accuser testified that she had only glimpses of memory of the night because of blackouts, but one of them was of an officer taking off her tights and having sex as she passed out. Tacopina said she invented it out of anxiety about her loss of memory, and the lure of a lawsuit.

The trial resumes Monday, with summations from prosecutors and the lawyer for Mata.