Cop: Woman tried to seduce me; I refused

The NYPD officer accused of raping an intoxicated woman after escorting her from a cab to her apartment testified Monday that she was a lonely lady who tried to seduce him in a graphic, steamy bedroom scene, but that he refused to have sex.

Officer Kenneth Moreno said he had sung the drunk 29-year-old fashion designer a verse from the Bon Jovi anthem "Livin' on a Prayer" earlier in the evening to raise her spirits, and on his last visit at 5 a.m. she had sobered up and stripped down to a single piece of pink underwear.

"This was totally unexpected," said Moreno, following his partner to the stand at the start of the sixth week of trial in Manhattan Supreme Court. "I didn't see this coming. I said, 'There's another time for this! . . . We're not doing this.' "

The testimony, portraying the accuser as the one responsible for things getting out of hand, sharply contrasted with her claim that she spent the evening vomiting, blacking out and passing out after a day of partying to celebrate a promotion at The Gap.

She said an officer stripped and had intercourse with her while she lay on her bed in her East Village apartment, too drunk to move or resist. Moreno and his partner, Officer Franklin Mata, are both charged with rape, burglary and official misconduct in the Dec. 7, 2008, episode.

The two officers were seen on a surveillance camera returning three times between 1 and 5 a.m. after first dropping her off. Moreno, in a secretly recorded conversation, later said he used a condom but also denied they had sex. He is expected to testify about that recording Tuesday.

A 20-year NYPD veteran, Moreno, 43, described himself as an alcoholic who had overcome his drinking but was going through a rough stretch emotionally in 2008 and formed an immediate bond with his accuser.

She testified she was not a habitual drinker, but he testified he saw his mirror image.

"She started sobbing, crying a little bit, saying she had nobody," he said of their first seven-minute encounter as she tried to vomit into her toilet, using her first name throughout his testimony. "I knew what she was going through."

Moreno testified he agreed to check on her that night, and admitted he made one phony 911 call to get back to the neighborhood. They agreed to meet for breakfast, he asserted, but on the fourth visit -- as Mata dozed in the living room -- the accuser called Moreno into her bedroom, and they discussed her lack of a boyfriend.

He had accidentally spilled water on her in the bathroom while killing a cockroach, and he said she had stripped. When she tried to seduce him, he said he kissed her on the forehead, and was dragged into an embrace on her bed, but never took off his clothes, bulletproof vest or gun.

"She just wanted to be held," he testified, "and I held her."