Prosecutor: 2 cops 'New York City's worst'

The two NYPD cops accused of raping a drunken fashion executive after helping her home "disgraced their profession," a prosecutor said in closing arguments Tuesday in State Supreme Court in Manhattan.

"They are supposed to be New York City's finest," Assistant District Attorney Coleen Balbert told jurors as the seven-week trial neared its end. "But on Dec. 7, 2008, they were New York City's worst."

Officers Kenneth Moreno and Franklin Mata are charged with rape for allegedly having sex with the severely intoxicated woman, then 27, during three post-midnight visits to her East Village apartment after helping her in from a taxi.

The accuser says she was passing out and blacking out all night, but remembers a cop having intercourse with her while she was semiconscious. The officers testified that they returned to check on the woman and counsel her about alcoholism, and there was no sex.

But Balbert said their story was a ruse. "They had a pretty 27-year-old girl in that apartment who was drunk, alone and vulnerable. . . . This was about Ken Moreno wanting to have sex with a helpless woman."

The prosecutor also took aim at a comment by Moreno lawyer Joe Tacopina, in his closing, that his client -- a well-groomed, 17-year veteran of the NYPD who has worn suits in court -- didn't look like a rapist.

"What does a rapist look like?" she said. "Does he have to have 'rapist' tattooed on his forehead? People who commit rapes come from all walks of life. The defendants are not immune from it because they are New York City police officers."

The officers testified near the end of the trial that Moreno formed a personal bond with the woman during the evening, and Moreno said that on the last visit she stripped and tried to seduce him in a steamy bedroom scene.

In a subtle strategic shift, Balbert seemed to partly adopt that version in her closing -- rather than claiming that she was unconscious all night -- but said Moreno was "grooming" the woman for sex, and then had it while she was passed out.

"He probably didn't believe he was committing a sexual assault," she said. "It's a justification for what happened and what he did to her. In his mind, he probably believed there was some relationship with this drunk girl. But it was a disconnection he had."

She noted Tacopina's closing never raised Moreno's claim of attempted seduction. "The reason Mr. Tacopina didn't mention it was he knew that if he did, you guys wouldn't believe another word he said. . . . The only thing that was honest about Officer Moreno's testimony was his name."
The jury will begin deliberations Wednesday after the judge's instructions.