NYPD rape trial: Alleged victim woke face down on mattress
- 'Rape' victim: 'I woke to sound of velcro ripping'
- She describes dramatic moment she confronted her alleged attacker
- She tells court she was face down on mattress
- Two NYPD police officers accused of rape
A fashion executive allegedly raped by a police officer today described the dramatic moment she confronted him.
The 29-year-old told New York Supreme Court how she wore a wire and taped NYPD officer Kenneth Moreno apparently confessing to having sex with her.
She said: 'I couldn't believe that two police officers who had been called to help me instead had raped me and left me on my bed.'
Accused: NYPD officer Kenneth Moreno is alleged to have raped the woman after helping her home from a night out
Moreno is accused of attacking the woman while colleague Franklin Mata stood watch, after being called out to help her home from a night out.
Today the fashion executive took the stand for the first time, this afternoon revealing how she secretly recorded a conversation with Moreno after the attack on the advice of the District Attorney's office.
On trial: Officer Franklin Mata allegedly kept watch during the rape at the woman's New York flat
She said she wore a wire connected to her watch and confronted him outside the ninth precinct, where she asked him whether he used a condom.
The woman said Moreno was 'really low, hunched in, shifty-eyed and speaking very quietly' as he repeatedly said 'nothing happened'.
But in a tape played to the court, he eventually replied to her: 'Yes I did'.
She said: 'In that moment, when he finally admitted it to me, that was everything for me because I knew what he had done.'
Earlier this morning she told the court how on the night how on the night of the alleged attack she woke up face down on a mattress while someone was removing her tights and heard the sound of 'velcro ripping'.
She told the court she used to work for Gap in New York at the time of the alleged rape, but was soon to take up a corporate position with the chain in California.
The woman was celebrating her move by having a party with friends and went for pizza with some of them earlier, before taking a taxi from her house to the venue.
She was feeling 'really happy and excited' about her party and when she arrived she had a shot and vodka drink, but that was one of her only memories of the party.
'My last memory was being on the dancefloor with all of my friends,' she added.
'The next memory I have is waking up in the back seat of a cab in front of my apartment building and I'm passed out and vomiting over the side of the seat.'
She then remembered the 'sensation' of holding onto the rail in her apartment stairwell as police officers helped her upstairs. Then she vomited in her bathroom.
Evidence: The fashion executive accusing two NYPD policemen of rape has been shown walking steadily up to her door in previously-unseen CCTV footage in court
The woman said she next remembered 'waking up up in my bed face down in my mattress, my arms were spread out and my hands were palms down'.
'My legs were spread out behind me,' she added. 'They were slightly open.
'I woke up because someone was rolling my tights down my legs. I felt the rolling, I heard the rustling of clothing, and velcro ripping. Then I passed out.'
The woman told the court she knew somebody had had sexual intercourse with her on that night in December 2008.
She said: 'I know that because if you're a woman and you've had sex before you know what that feels like,' adding that the last time she had had sex was in August 2008.
'I was face down on my stomach with my hands out, and my legs were behind me. (It) lasted for a few seconds before I passed out again. I was so intoxicated I couldn't move or see or do anything.’
In court: NYPD cop Kenneth Moreno, left, is accused of raping the fashion executive while Franklin Mata, right, stood watch. They both deny all charges
She told the court the action had been from just one person and that she heard them leave the bedroom and then passed out.
‘The next memory is I woke up in the same position I had been in and there's sunlight coming into my room. I realise that I'm fully naked aside aside from my bra on.
'There's vomit on the pillow and the room is a mess. I immediately felt the shock of the rape and I go into the living room. My body just felt like somebody had sex with me.’
SHOCKING TAPED 'CONFESSION'
The woman today described to the court how she confronted Moreno with the allegations outside the ninth NYPD precinct.
She said the District Attorney's office gave her a pay as you go mobile phone to use to speak to Moreno.
In the first conversation, after the DA advised her to be 'very nice and sweet', she said she was calling to say 'thank you' for him helping her home.
Moreno suggested they should go for a cup of coffee to discuss it, but then said he would call back.
Later the DA's office told her it would be better to meet him face to face so she could be 'a little more confrontational', but should not use the word 'rape'.
She told the court: 'The idea was to get him to admit he had sex with me and whether or not he had used a condom.'
A taped recording of the meeting outside the precinct from a wire attached to her watch was played in court.
She said: 'Excuse me, you're the officer who helped me the other night. I was really f****d up. I just need to know do I need to be worried about having an STD? That's all need to know. Did you use a condom?'
Moreno said: 'Ma'am, nothing happened'
She again asked him whether he wore a condom, repeating the question for several minutes.
Again, she said: 'Did you use a condom?'
Moreno said: 'Yes I did.'
He then repeatedly said 'nothing happened', before saying: 'You don't have to worry about getting pregnant. I was having a full conversation with you.'
She also asked him why her boots had been taken off. He replied he had done so because she kept falling over.
She then described how she took a shower before she told a friend who lived in the same apartment building about the alleged attack.
‘I was in shock and I know that you're not supposed to do this, but I felt so dirty I took a shower. I started crying in the shower and I was scrubbing myself as I felt really dirty.
'I got out of the shower and ran upstairs to a friend's apartment. I said I had been raped and it was the cops. I was scared.
'When something bad happens to you, you think to call the cops, but because they did this, I didn't know what I was supposed to do.’
She said she was examined in hospital but did not report what had happened to the police because she was too scared and eventually went to a district attorney's office.
The woman went back to her apartment after the alleged incident with investigators, who found a red lighter she had never seen in her flat - although she does smoke.
She also said her passport had been moved from its usual position in her bedroom.
The woman was dressed in court in a grey jacket and blouse with dark trousers and beige heels. Proceedings were stopped twice after she broke down in tears.
'I think the contents of that tape is evidence that bodes very well for us,' defence lawyer Joseph Tacopina told the press outside court.
'This is an emotional case - it's a case that is larded with emotion. What I'm hoping is that the jury isn't overwhelmed by emotion.'
The court had earlier heard from her boss, who wept as she described how the 'attack' had profoundly changed her friend and colleague, leaving her 'devastated.'
The jury has also heard that the police officers called in a fake 911 so that they could return to her house in the East District of New York.
A suspicious emergency call was made at 2am in December 2008, the court heard.
The two officers allegedly phoned in a fake complaint about a sleeping homeless man near to the 'rape victim's' apartment to give themselves a reason to return to her home a second time. It is alleged they made four trips throughout the night.
Both the officers insist there was no sex between either of them and they were called to help the woman after she couldn't get out of the cab outside her flat.
Defence lawyers claim Moreno, who is a recovering alcoholic, was merely returning to counsel the woman about drinking and that he may have simply kissed her shoulder.
The trial continues.
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